It can be 'good' in a very perverse sense, i.e. good enough to undermine and destroy other companies that DO choose to pay their employees enough to live.

This is unhelpful, but that's the way things work at the moment, and it's very well understood by aggregate investment capital.

So then you get a second sense: good enough to sustain huge amounts of investment capital from people who correctly perceive that it will destroy other companies that choose to pay their employees enough to live.

Still pretty unhelpful, if you're a human…

Amazon warehouse still pays better than those retail jobs it destroyed.

These fulfillment centers aren’t in Manhattan and San Francisco.

$19 is certainly enough to live (~$38k/year). This is way above poverty and one of the highest wages for unskilled labor.

A family of two making 38k a year each sounds like a very decent income.

At least it's way more than a postdoc immigrant can count on.

I was paid much less in university for TA and research work(in canada) and i was doing fine.

How was your university health insurance? Were you on your parents' plan?

I was on basic health insurance(paid by myself) and it was mandatory for immigrants. I never had to visit the doctors, so unsure of the details of coverage.

Could you have raised a child on that salary? In the long term? How would you have paid for college? Could you break the cycle of poverty in your family without saving for your child's college education?

This is called "moving the goalposts".

If i were married to a working partner, then i probably would be able to do all of these.