What’s funny sad about South Dakota is that it’s a welfare state. Wouldn’t really exist without fed money. Love the message of “we’ll accept charity but not offer it if we don’t have to”

I don’t quite understand your point, please elaborate.

Bet you there’s been at least one person who has done the math.

So at what point do you think folks in the western world will take inspiration from other places to not allow things to get to that juncture? Whether it be expansion of unions like Sweden to ensure power is returned to the people or we start having protests that escalate and start burning things down like France?

This article is pussyfooting the issue. Oil companies have reported record profits for 2-3 years in a row. The article claims “greedflation doesn’t have an exact science” while also quoting the same thing “… reap ‘excess profits’, setting prices higher than would be socially and economically beneficial”.

i can’t say I speak for others, but I was accepting of a year or two of companies “making up” for the hit they took during the height of the pandemic, but governments need to put them back into place and regulate their latest exploits. Enough has now been enough.

wherever governments are going to support the freedom for companies to make money at the cost of many thousands of people even being able to afford necessities. Either there needs to be a limit their profits to benefit all, or we need to restructure to tax those earnings to provide a UBI that provides all necessities.

I’ll keep beating the horse because even if there’s hardly any jobs that pay that low, the principle of “this is the minimum amount someone needs to earn to live reasonably” doesn’t keep up with the markets and the times, then it only widens the gap of what becomes poverty. Even as other comments have stated that the averages are skewed between the differences of income and cost of living in either rural or cities in these states, my statement isn’t any less valid. Even the existence of such thing as minimum wage was to try and prevent companies from exploiting workers and government is meant to act and protect the interests of its populace, yet here we are where the largest type of theft is wage theft. If the government was doing their job and keeping companies in check, we wouldn’t be reliving history of tent cities. If you got a good job and you’re comfortable, great! Proud of you! Though don’t join in others of the idea of “if people I think lesser than me can live as comfortable as I am, then that’s a problem.” We’re all human and need the same stuff, if anyone’s wants are going to get in the way of others needs, there’s the real problem.

Store associate. Though the ones you’ve mentioned only “vary wildly” because the scam that is tipping culture (no offense to those that have those jobs but all companies should pay fair wages and not impose on their customers/patrons) and gig work are short/niche/temporary work to fill a need or gaps in industries.

And federal minimum wage is $7.25 or 15,080 before taxes. Which is about 1/3rd of the lowest in this article (Mississippi at 45,906)