$15/hour minimum wage

[ag]

This was, actually, one of the reasons I chose not to live in Australia and went to Mexico instead: at the wage they were offering a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor in North America) I wouldn't have been able to make ends meet. They've raised those academic wages since, but, given the cost of living in, say, Sydney, they are still pretty low (I guess, Melbourne would be doable). There are tradeoffs for everything.

At 15 dollars and hour, there would be no legal employment in the US for a huge chunk of the population. Australia has chosen to keep those people on the dole, but this doesn't fly in the US politically. So, a lot of people would be forced into, I guess, drug running and prostitution, since every other employment would have been legally prohibited for them.

[ag]

At 15 dollars and hour, there would be no legal employment in the US for a huge chunk of the population. Australia has chosen to keep those people on the dole, but this doesn't fly in the US politically.

Obviously a generous and comfortable dole is the other side of the coin to a high minimum wage in a 'capitalist' economy, and is even more economically beneficial.

And further entrenching the underclass, incapable of ever getting off the dole. Your lordship, really, hates the poor, unless the satisfy his sexual needs.