You are drastically underpaid. I make twice that as a financial analyst in a Midwest “city” with very low living expenses.

Right, I totally get not wanting Gov to “give you everything” and maintain a robust charitable system that assists people, but I’m not entirely comfortable with leaving poor people at the mercy of private charity and not maintaining some kind of Gov safety net for people.

But one thing is clear, it’s not great to rely…

This is a neat trick in which you are neglecting to respond to anything I said.

So the response to the cafeteria worker is: “just go get a better paying job”, whereas in your case, you aren’t supposed to get a better paying job, you just need people you deem less important than you to be paid less so you can feel more secure in your salary.