This is such a huge systemic problem in the United States. Most of us Americans don’t realize that other developed countries don’t work this way, that living wages are by and large expected outside our borders.

When a young friend of mine got a job as a barista in the UK while he was a student, I was kind of shocked by his wage, which I thought was crazy high.

It was even more than the $15 an hour labor activists are calling for in the United States. My friend wasn’t shocked, though. He said, “it’s not really that much money. It’s just enough to live on.”

And there’s the rub. I was shocked he was being paid enough to live on.

Hmmmmmmm…

That’s how bad things are right now.