I remember Australian soldiers in Vietnam. They were paid less than half as much as we were. Among other things, they were incredulous that American teenagers typically had their own cars.
Today, Australia’s minimum wage is TWICE as much as ours and their economy is doing fine. The same is true of France, the UK, and a host of other “first world” countries whose citizens were actually poor by American standards in the not-too-distant past.
The world has left us behind, and few here even seem to suspect it. How can this be? “The unions” have somehow not destroyed their economies or wrecked their prosperity, as we are constantly assured they will here if given the chance.