Ocasio-Cortez calls for a living wage

The concept of a "living wage" sounds nice but is impossible.  Here's Ocasio-Cortez on the subject:

“What we fighting against- what we fighting against is a logic that says it is ok to pay someone less than they need to live, and we are here to say no more.”

The obvious problem with this reasoning is that saying that McDonalds has to pay someone whose sole job skill is being able to say "do you want fries with that" enough to support his 6 person family is demanding that McDonalds becomes a charity.

There is no way that a McDonalds counter person can generate enough revenue to offset paying them a "living wage".  Hence to do so McDonalds has to subsidize that workers salary.

But companies exist to make money and creating a negative cash flow by paying workers more than they're worth makes that nearly impossible.

The reality is that to achieve certain lifestyles, including being married, one has to have certain skills.  

In America today people who are willing to work hard and who haven't dropped out of school or done drugs can find jobs that pay a "living wage".  The problem is that Ocasio-Cortez demands that all jobs pay a living wage and that people who are lazy and/or lack any useful skills be paid more than they're worth.

It's simply a slight watering down of her idea that people who can work but who don't want to should be given a nice lifestyle by taking money from hard working lower middle class Black families.

If someone is handicapped we all agree that society as a whole, either through private charities or the government, has a responsibility to ensure that they can get by.

But in a free country we don't have an obligation to ensure that people who are lazy or drug addicts get the same rewards as people who are willing to work.