Political Memes

Would you rather have a base income with the associated purchasing power of 30k+ minimum wage (e.g. all those 15/hr minimum states) or would you rather live in a country where the middle class wage is 12k or less.

Keep in mind:

• Airfare is the same everywhere. Saving $300 in the US for a flight is practically trivial even at minimum wage compared to earning $1000/mo pretax or less.

• Electronics cost the same everywhere.

• Everything imported costs more than the US in those shithole countries because the volume of imports is way less. A $10 container of hair gel in the US costs $30+ in latin american countries.

• Foreign style food is almost exclusively global american brands and/or incredibly expensive - eating domestically grown and produced foods are typical.

• Air conditioners are not affordable

• Electricity is commonly not stable, if it exists

• Things like public sewer systems are not guaranteed. Septic is common in a lot of places. Even non-well water can be hard to find in many places.

• There are no things like food pantries in third world countries. In the greater Boston area, food pantries are everywhere and will not turn away a hungry family.

There's so many benefits to living here that we overlook completely. We look at social media and wish we were all millionaires. There are people out there making a couple thousand dollars a year and eating "cheap" local food but otherwise living in abject poverty who would do absolutely anything to jump our border to work illegally for less than minimum wage without ever collecting social security benefits or unemployment. That's why they do.