Actually, this is exactly what democracy or more correctly , a republic (representative democracy) using capitalism, looks like. Achievers have more. --and are paying the bill for the underachievers.
I like how they borrowed the old English font from the Times and the Post to make it seem like a legit news source. The thing w/web tabloids is that you don't have the other crazy shit surrounding them (as is the case in a newstand or cashier checkout) to let you know it's just crazy shit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times
Instead of a "living wage" it should be called a "no job wage", "robot replacement wage" or "restaurant killer wage". Why wouldn't a republican in a debate use something similar to the above language? Liberals continually create new terms and redefine words such as "common sense gun laws" or "fair share". Repubs need to do the same thing. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/20/mcdo...eers-replacement-of-cashiers-with-kiosks.html McDonald's hits all-time high as Wall Street cheers replacement of cashiers with kiosks Cowen says McDonald's will upgrade 2,500 restaurants to its "Experience of the Future" technology by year-end, which includes digital ordering kiosks.
They are also experimenting with machines that cook burgers to order with the exact toppings wanted by the customer, and automatic french fry machines. Soon you will just need a shift supervisor to watch the machines.
The one part you forget in your description is that the purpose of capitalists is to pay the minimum amount of money while maximizing their personal gain. If they are allowed to (and way back they were) employers would pay mere pennies and make employees work 16 hour days. The employers did not really care if the employees could not afford the textiles or furniture build in their factories. Employers would always search for a way to pay even a lower wage such as hiring young children and women instead of men. The minimum wage was put in place to protect the majority of the population against abusive employers. The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation - from a pure monetary inflation perspective the time for $15 per hour is overdue. The other issue is that employers do not innovative when they can merely pay low wages. Increasing the minimum wage forces employers to make changes in equipment (driving manufacturing sales), increasing business productivity, dropping low-skill employees (creating the need for higher-paid skilled employees), and enhancing competitiveness instead of remaining stagnant and thirty years in the past.