$5 an hour is enough, and you can even buy your own health and disability insurance.
You must be kidding or you have not priced insurance. 5.00 hr is 800.00 a month. Not even close to cover a living with complete insurance.
Nonsense. Insurance for the typical minimum wage earner (young and healthy) is under $100/month. That leaves $250 to share the rent, $100 for food, and $350 more for all the rest.
Plus, he can get another job.
Where do you live? Sharing one room in a modest townhouse = $500, plus utilities, $200. Are you seriously suggesting that a single person who is not obese can get by on $25 a week for food? When milk is $4 a gallon and hamburger is $4 a pound? I don't think so. Show me a good health insurance policy for a single person that costs $100 a month. Of course, if you do go to the doctor the health insurance copay will be $15-45. Dental care, transportation, clothing--you are crazy if you think a person could live with any dignity on that amount.
I do know people in my area who are living humbly on $20K a year. Where I live, $14000 is legally considered the poverty level, and it truly is. You could not even have your own bedroom on that sum much less an apartment.