Who thinks this? I don't know any adult who is that naive.

> People are paid what the market will bear.

In many industries, the employer side of the market is vastly more powerful than the employee. The employer can just pass on an employee asking for too much money; an employee may be facing weeks without a job, which is difficult for most people to afford.

In those situations, the market can bear quite a bit more than it has to, which is the reason minimum-wage requirements don't kill most industries.

> For places like East TN this is not a horrible wage, and you can live on it.

That's true if the government is protecting the employee with a safety nets, like welfare and ACA, and laws, like COBRA. A better-paid employee could save more money and provide their own safety net, as many high earners do with rainy-day accounts, investments, passive income, etc.

Because Amazon employees aren't necessarily saving enough to afford to build their own safety nets, taxpayers are effectively subsidizing Amazon.

> As a comparison, an entry-level position in the military, E1, makes less even when you account for allowances.

I'm not sure this is apples-to-apples because military benefits are substantial, and the most major downside to military service (the risk of being sent into armed combat) is very difficult to put into monetary terms.