Eh, as an American I'd say we're largely a nation of job-hoppers and job seekers. People my age in particular don't often stay at the same job for more than 3 years. It's all about getting ahead, gaining a new skill set, then moving on to something (slightly) better. I think it's just the American way to start out by working a minimum wage job, and then do what you can to gun for a better-paying position if you're in an industry that isn't a total dead end. Then, after that, most Americans will seek an even better paying position, with another company. Of course, no conversation about the U.S. labor market would be relevant without some discussion of our unemployment numbers. 'Cause ever since the crash in '08, the labor market has suffered substantially. Same for other countries... not saying it's just us. Also, the constant advances in technology continue to diminish the role of the human worker. I was in Paris last year, and saw that there were touchscreens to order food in the McDonalds' - it wasn't but a couple months later, in my small Maryland town, that I noticed that we now have them here in the U.S. It's going to be interesting to watch the continued disruption of service-sector employment and industries where human workers are being replaced by AI. Confident that a basic income is going to be established in America within the next decade. That's judging by the (real) unemployment rate, due to AI and the country not having quite gotten back on its feet (nobody's buying much of anything these days, so companies suffer). Underemployment is obviously still rampant; really "good" jobs (over $50k a year salary) scarce - irregardless of one's education. The market here has just become a lot leaner and meaner. We haven't made a full recovery yet in America, and probably never will. Time to face the music and institute the policies that every other industrialized nation already has.
While I with a lot of what you say, I really can't see the US giving a base wage to people anytime in the near future. It's not in the public dialogue at all.
And the US leans farther right than a lot of other industrialized nations. People, even a lot of the people who would benefit from a base wage, would absolutely flip out at the idea. There would be riots. This is especially true in the more staunchly conservative rural regions, many of which are in a constant state of decline with no hope of recovery. Many of the people there are proud, distrustful of outsiders like the government, and thus will stand firmly against help. Unless something very monumentos occurs culturally, it won't change.
There is a sense in American culture of "Don't accept handouts, just work harder and your lot in life will improve." Does this pan out in reality? No. But it's there.
They say the economy's booming, but it only is for a very few. You see politicians boasting on TV about how much better the economy is. While we're better off than we were in '08, it's still bad. Heck, '08 isn't even near the beginning of the decline of some of these areas. Back when the US economy was good, some of these areas were already beginning to fall apart decades ago.
Plus, there is no room in America's budget for a base wage. The country cannot afford it. We're headed for serious debt related problems as it is and currently have an administration that wants to waste a tremendous amount of money doing things like building a border wall.
Raising the minimum wage is long overdue though. It hasn't increased at a consistent rate with inflation for about 50 years, which is ridiculous.
Also, increased AI personally just freaks me out. I don't think it's good for AI to take too many jobs or people won't be working. And I don't think anything good can come out of masses of people with no work and endless time on their hands. It'll also probably increase the appeal of participating in things like the drug trade.
