I feel comfortable saying, without evidence, that LinkedIn is unlikely to be useful for workers living at the border of the minimum wage, or in general workers who would be likely to be affected directly by a change in the minimum wage.

I agree with you about the current iteration of LinkedIn. But that doesn't mean a different kind of product, focused on professional development, career management and networking couldn't be useful for folks.

I imagine that many people simply leverage Facebook, Twitter and other social networks for this today, in the absence of something for purpose-built.

This probably won't be a popular viewpoint, but I personally prefer the decentralized messy version of networking we mostly experience today vs. one big monolith that facilitates all relationships.

Typical Silicon Valley libertarianism - trying to solve critical policy issues with a new app instead of fixing the root cause.

I don't think you read the article at all. This has nothing to do about LinkedIn or networking. You have to be seriously deluded to think that LinkedIn or any other social media company, as well as general networking is the way to defeat our massive levels of income inequality. You're essentially telling bootless people to pull up their bootstraps by making friends with executives and managers. It's not that simple, and condensing the problem into what you're talking about is ignorant at best.

I did read the article, but I see how the LinkedIn comment is causing you to think of white collar executives.

The fact is that informal forms of networking are how people of all cultures and income levels have always advanced their mutual interests. One of the most effective ways to combat modern poverty is to provide people with mobile devices that enable them to better communicate and build relationships over time.

I'd ask you to consider what a more people-oriented piece of software might look like that would be accessible to as many people as possible and enable very specific use case, such as "I'm looking for a new job" or "I'm willing to be a mentor" that currently get lost in the noise of all-purpose social media.

Networking may help the individual get a better job (usually at the expense of someone else getting that job), but it doesn't fix anything about the larger problem, which is the failure of wages to keep up with the cost of living or respond to demand for labor.

I'm terrible at networking, and I feel it is the largest factor holding me back in my career. I have been coding off and on since I was 14, have a bachelors degree in IT, and have a year and a half of tech support experience, yet can't for the life of me get a job that pays over $25k.

Do you have any advice on how to get started networking? What do you feel most people bad at it lack?

Networking isn't a one way street or flow. Bob networks in hopes that others will look out for him and tell him about opportunities. But Bob never thinks about helping and sharing opportunities that others in his network might care about. Seek first to understand, then be understood. Seek first to serve, then be served. (And if your network isn't reciprocating opportunities, make sure you haven't networked with only self serving people.)