to live fairly decent in america and on your own you need more than minimum wage
it depends on what you mean by fairly decent. i supported myself on minimum wage in san diego for years. i couldn't afford luxurious things, but i had my neccessities. i paid rent, ate, drove my car, hung out with friends.

there are some things that i think people feel like they are entitled to, but remember we are talking about MINIMUM wage here. The LEAST amount of money you can make. Yeah it's not a fabulous life but at least you can live! like i said before, if you don't want to be poor, you can get a better job or work towards getting one.

by the way i am not saying that it wouldn't be awesome if minimum wage were more, but people are saying "it can't be done" and people do it all the time, including myself. I make more now and I will never let myself settle for less again, but i feel like going through that period in my life has made me not take things for granted and be happy with less, and the extra stuff is a priveledge.