How low should the Average American Income be?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

54. That isn't a remotely meaningful question - the average wage has nothing to do with poverty.

You don't even specify if you mean the mean or the median.

If you mean the mean, then letting the very rich get richer will push it extremely high, and it will tell you very little about the incomes of the poor.

If you mean the median, in will tell you literally nothing about the incomes of the lowest 49%.

A better, but still stupid, question is "What should American incomes at low centiles be?". The answer is, of course, "As high as possible", and that will vary over time.

The right question is "What set of policies will produce the highest standard of living at low centiles?". In general terms the answer appears to be a capitalist economy with highly progressive taxation and strong social spending.

More specific questions, like "will as $12.00 or a $15.00 minimum wage give you a higher standard of living at the low centiles?" are harder, though.