[central_va]

You are not factoring in that as wages go up the need for public assistance goes down.

[Retvet]

Wrong, they adjust public assistance for the resulting inflation.

[meyer]

You are not factoring in that as wages go up the need for public assistance goes down.

Except that when wages are forced up, small outfits tend to close shop because they can't afford to raise prices any higher than the "big boys".

I see a handful of small restaurants and such closing their doors, while I see McDonalds replacing more people with kiosks and potentially, robots.