Minimum wage workers cannot afford rent in any U.S. state

The imprecision in the title here is insane. This is is a fully formed sentence which makes an unambiguous claim which is obviously not true, the implicit assumption apparently being that all readers in all cases will be able to properly read between the lines to reparse the title into not being a lie.

Minimum wage workers cannot afford some qualified subjective standard rent in any US state.

I don't understand how people don't have a major problem with a large news source making blatantly untrue claims.

It really should be.

Single people on the minimum wage would do very well. Maybe save?

What is wrong with that?

I agree, yet I also find the situation ironic. The attitudes that keep wages low seem to be the same attitudes that are driving housing prices up while rejecting (or at least inhibiting) the idea of social assistance.

Exactly. Minimum wage jobs should be jobs that require little skill. They should be easy to train people for, and employers should expect a high turn over rate as their employees find better jobs.

Unfortunately, that is not how things work in the real world. Many people simply have been unable to find better paying jobs. And the old way of working your way through college doesn't work. Both because college is so expensive, and because it no longer guarantees a high paying career.

Plus there are people who have just had life screw up everything for them. Whether because they made bad choices or just suffered the consequences of someone elses bad choices.

So what can we change? I'd argue that raising the minimum wage will do little to help. I remember someone, who overall supported that idea, reporting that their research showed the long term effect would be negligible since the cost of goods would just go up until the buying power of the minimum wage was back where it started.

I also think the focus on the minimum wage is because it is a simple idea and politicians can use it to gain votes.

I think the real solution is going to be complicated, and take decades. It would include strengthening peoples support structures.

As in when you need help, you have a family or group of friends who help you. I think current American culture encourages broken families and the idea that your friends should go to the government first. Not to you.

Also, as a Christian, I firmly believe the Church in America should be a LOT more active in this area. We do good work a lot of the time, but we can do a lot better.

Then there's education and choosing a career. Currently everyone goes to college. End result is that a degree doesn't mean anything any more, and people who choose to forgo college can be looked down upon. A cultural change that addresses that is need. (See MikeRoweWorks for some ideas.)

And we need a restructuring of our current welfare systems. I remember seeing data showing that the government spends something like $60,000 a year on each recipient. Then I see the private non-profits that get people into life long careers on budgets much smaller than that. What's that definition of insanity? ;)

Anyway, just a few thoughts. I don't believe I have all the answers, just that it is a very complicated problem, and we shouldn't let politicians and activists buy our votes with overly simplified ideas like "raise the minimum wage."

When prices are capped, it's not like supply increases, so in practice you end up with waiting lists that can be several months to years long.

I knew people who moved from Stockholm to Berlin and kept on paying their rent in Stockholm, just so they don't lose their apartment. That's how hard it is to get one.

Berlin also had a rent cap, so instead of competing on price, you had to compete on intangibles like: letters of recommendation from previous landlords, proof of income and good conduct, having a high-profile job, nationality, etc.

Since supply is low, demand is sky-high and prices are capped, you had 30-40 people applying for the same apartment. Add the fact that once a landlord takes you in, there is almost no way that they can kick you out and you will end up with a very complicated and long vetting process that doesn't exactly favor the working class folks.

Also, you can end up with other costly requirements like: the landlord will only choose a tenant who buys all the furniture in the house. That's one example of an unregulated cost increase that is not affected by the rent cap.