> The flip side is that it's tricky to have an enjoyable life on no money. Not impossible, but difficult. Enjoyable/not enjoyable isn't a binary--it's a spectr

> The flip side is that it's tricky to have an enjoyable life on no money. Not impossible, but difficult. Enjoyable/not enjoyable isn't a binary--it's a spectrum. I think we can agree that both options (working a minimum-wage job and having almost no money, and having literally no money but having freedom) are pretty far toward the "not enjoyable" side of things. My point is that American capitalism has reduced wages so far that having no money is the more enjoyable option. > The ultimatum game tries to capture that: there are both benefits and disadvantages to rejecting the bargain. The simplified game basically says they're a wash, which isn't true but can be informative anyway. No, it is not informative, it's misleading. The part that they leave out--the value of the worker's time, efforts, etc.--is so important that without it, the ultimatum game is completely invalid. This cannot be overstated. The ultimatum game actually gives you wrong information. And the ultimatum game is actually extremely offensive. You're literally devaluing people's lives to zero. > So I don't think rejecting the offer is the only reasonable reaction. You have to figure out what kind of life you'd enjoy. There are ways to do it, but some options (like having children) are nearly closed off. I don't think you're understanding the situation. Working a minimum-wage in Tennessee doesn't open up any options of any importance to the average person. Your example of having children highlights the absurdity of your argument: $1200/mo is not enough money to have a child in a fiscally responsible way. If you do make the mistake of having a child when your options are not working or working a minimum-wage job, not working is clearly the better option: at least that way you can provide childcare instead of abandoning your child for 40+ hours/week. Keep in mind that if you have no other support system, you're literally homeless either way. With roommates, you might actually be able to afford a room for $1200/mo, but that leaves you no money for, you know, food, so you're probably going to be choosing food over housing.