To which problem are you referring? The housing shortage or the high cost of housing?
What defies the basic laws of economics is not paying a person enough to live.
I think you meant to say "defines", correct? Your assertion is false. What you consider "enough to live" is based on totally subjective criteria. The cost of living is determined by supply and demand. If the supply is low and the demand high, then the costs will be high. If the demand is low and the supply is high, then the costs will be low. Inflation factors into this equation as well. Everytime government prints more money the purchasing power of the dollar declines because there is more money competing for the same number of products.
Why should the gov't(the taxpayers) pick up the difference between crap wages and what it costs for food, housing, and medical care?
Why don't we let thieves rob convenience stores to make up the difference between their crap wages and what it costs them to live?
Make employers pay a floor wage that is livable...
What you consider livable may not be what others consider livable. Somebody may decide that you really don't need cable TV, or that you only need one car. Who would you prefer make these decisions, you or your neighbors?
Letting wage differentials get out of control. Minwage should have been going up all along and taking the lower wages with it. Gov't didn't attend to business and had to step in with subsidies for the allegedly capitalist employers. parsy.