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Minimum wage was never meant to buy a house. It was for teenagers learning a work ethic. If you want to raise a family, learn a trade and get your hands dirty.The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009. It was never sold as a salary for a mortgage, a minivan, and two kids. It was the first paycheck for people with no skills. Teenagers mostly. First job. First review. Then you move up or you move on.A living wage is what you earn after you can do something other people will pay for. Welding. Plumbing. Electrical. Diesel. A first-year electrician apprentice can start near $19 an hour. An entry plumber is often in the high teens. Those jobs start well above the floor because they require a skill. That is the ladder. You climb it.Democrats talk like the starting rung is supposed to look like the middle of the climb. That is how you break the ladder. You tell a 17-year-old the first job should buy a house. Then you wonder why he never learns a trade.Work ethic is the point of the first job. Show up. Do the work. Get better. The review comes. The raise comes if you earned it. That is how millions of people left the fast food counter and built a life.The Constitution does not assign Congress the job of setting your family budget. Limited government means the market pays for skill. Government setting a "living" wage on an entry job is a political slogan. It is not how a young person gets out of the first job.Learn a trade. Get your hands dirty. That is still the way up especially in the age of AI. Should minimum wage be the first rung on a ladder meant for those with no skills or a living wage?