> you're paying for those regardless of whether you have the job or not.

...unless you're not paying for those because you literally don't have any money.

So yeah, food is a sunk cost, sure. But that sinking will kill you without a job.

>...unless you're not paying for those because you literally don't have any money.

That's not how accounting works. If you got a FAANG job that paid $300k/year, then proceeded to blow $60k on a tesla, your net pay for the job isn't $240k.

Right, but at that minimum wage job you're not going to blow that $60k on a Tesla. You're not even going to blow $10 to go look at a Tesla. You're going to blow $2k on a root canal because your food is crap and your medical coverage is worse.

Also, that $60k on a Tesla for the FAANG worker amounts to a small percent of the worker's disposable income. But that $2k amounts to over 100% of the minimum wage worker's disposable income.

> Right, but at that minimum wage job you're not going to blow that $60k on a Tesla. You're not even going to blow $10 to go look at a Tesla. You're going to blow $2k on a root canal because your food is crap and your medical coverage is worse.

Way to miss the point. Whether the item is a tesla or a can of beans is irrelevant. The point is that if previously you couldn't afford X, after getting a new job you could afford X, then you can't say that X is a cost/expense of getting the job.

What point are you trying to make? The federal minimum wage is not enough to cover people's expenses, whether those expenses come from holding the job or not is irrelevant as to whether such a situation is "sustainable." This feels like pedantry.

> The point is that if previously you couldn't afford X, after getting a new job you could afford X, then you can't say that X is a cost/expense of getting the job.

Sure I can if X is a basic necessity of life.

They're not "sunk costs", they're "basic necessities". They have to be paid for every month (or whatever period), so if a job doesn't provide enough money to pay for them, it is not paying a living wage.

You can't just say "they need those to live" as if that absolves you of explaining how to pay for the things they need to live.