My grandmother died in a car accident in the early 70s. My mother still has her purse. In it, there is a receipt for her last rent payment (for a house, not an apartment) which was something ridiculously small, around $35. This was rural Tennessee.

I'll flip this around a bit and make a less exaggerated version:

Half the problem is that many politicians were born in like 1960 and still think that necessary spending only consists of rent and groceries.

The society we've built since then requires much more. Without a smartphone you can barely be a functioning member of society sometimes. Lots of places you have to own a car and pay for gas to get anywhere. The list goes on.

And what about social needs? There is no neighborhood bar to go and chill without spending money. There are fewer and fewer places where you can go and exist for free anymore. Capitalism and especially neoliberalism has robbed us of third places.

These politicians (or their voters) may remember a time when they could exist somewhat comfortably with a low wage. That's just become much harder, so if rent is like half of your income nowadays, that no longer means you have the other half just for leisure spending.

no it isn't. the problem is they don't give a shit. stop giving demons who demonstrate the demonic intents publicly the benefit of the doubt when there is no doubt. they hate you and want you to slave away for the benefit of their owners until you die of a preventable disease you couldn't afford to get treated for.

Age Limit yes.

Term Limit no.

The short version is term limits actually turbo boost corruption. The long version is something I'm willing to post tomorrow if anyone wants. Basically the party gets to decide the seat and those decisions will happen behind closed doors. Insurgent candidates are certainly possible but seriously outgunned and, crucially, term limited.

I think wages are going to continue being a problem as long as the people who choose our pay are the same people who choose the price of goods and services. Even if raising minimum wage is frequently shown to not raise costs, business owners should not be in a position to hold us all hostage by making those threats in the first place.

Term limits were a compromise for the olds.

We need to stop compromising with old people, and start hurting their feelings until they resign.

Age limits hurt boomer feelings, and that's a good thing.

Not true cause they are the landlord's.

Yeah and they grew up in a mansion in Argentina, or Cape Town, for "the climate"...

Take the average life expectancy for USA citizens, subtract 18 years, forbid voting and holding office. That’ll fix a lot of things.

No they are well aware of how the economy is and how much everything cost. It's just that raising the minimum wage would cut profits for businesses and they won't do that unless we force them to. (And not by voting lmao)

GenX here, guilty. Just started a job for $15/hr. 11-years ago I started an IT job at $16/hr., and that was pretty good, more than I'd ever been paid. Hard to get your head around inflation when your attitudes where concreted when decades younger.

maybe they should get killed

Only half? Haha ok