> Retail jobs aren't meant to be bread-winner jobs. Any zero-skill job is going to pay whatever the local market minimum is.

Says who ? Why is your tech job supposed to be a bread winner job ?

Says the monetary value created from a tech job vs the monetary value created from a retail job.

I absolutely agree with your second paragraph.

For the rest, I'd recommend you spend a half year working in the service industry for half minimum wage plus tips before throwing around phrases like "zero-skill".

I waited tables for minimum wage plus tips prior to moving on to other things. I considered it a zero skill job. Literally no experience necessary, they'll hire anyone.

There are plenty of zero-skill jobs (or maybe we should say zero-value-skill), and they're going to pay zero-skill job wages. You're free to pretend that's not the case, reality proves otherwise.

> Retail jobs aren't meant to be bread-winner jobs.

And yet they are. Should people suffer degradation for it?

Unfortunately, most people spend the first 18 years of their life learning not-so-useful things, at least in the US. They might go on to college, spend lots of money, and waste several more years learning not-so-useful things.

Then they work retail jobs for little money. It's their own doing.

Every job is a bread-winner job. You think people labor out of the goodness of their heart? Everyone is trying to make a living.