http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm
Because I'm European I can't really know. What people with minimum wage can afford if she or he works 40 hours in week? Can she or he get some government welfare? What is situation with children? And I want some MODERATE people to answer this.
The short answer is; you can scrap by the skin on your teeth and have no hope for the future if you can not get beyond minimum wage or something close to it. You also better hope nothing goes wrong in your life. Check out the poverty stats for the US, they tell a story, not a complete one but a meaningful one.
The middle class in the US is also starting to feel some heat. A great deal of what is to come will hinge upon mortgage rates and all the poor saps in the middle class that signed on to no money down interest only adjustable rate loans. Health care is also becoming an issue for the middle class and a number of factors are working against today’s middle class having retirement goals that are similar to those of people not that long ago (which should be noted were far superior to those of people that came a generation or two before them).
Generally speaking Huckleberry, it would appear that the living standard for the average or below average folks in the US is heading downwards while the living standard for the wealthiest is going up sharply. It's has cultural, political and social causes, but it hasn't come to a point where people find it more important than what ever the big social issue of the day is, so the good folks of the US will remain distracted for a while longer. It's an 11th hour sort of country.
