Laureen Elizabeth, You're right. If we want folks to come back and work in our restaurants or whatever then pay the market rate which for a bunch of reasons has gone up from where it was before. And the shift applies to all the restaurants in the neighborhood so no one business is suffering a competitive disadvantage. I wrote a related piece "The Slackers on Unemployment".

The minimum wage is something helpful but money directly into people's pockets is probably better -- and easier. Some sort of UBI to lessen the disparity of income and wealth that is so destructive. The UBI has political advantages too (asuming we can overcome the huge obstacle of spite) because it allows innovation, trade and immigration to move at full speed as they are actually the engines that give us prosperity (and pay for the UBI).

Many thanks.