Right now a lot of us are working a lot and living paycheque to paycheque. It's such a fragile balancing act that we have to occasionally step out of for a brief moment, risking everything for a bit of entertainment. It's at the point where going out to eat at all is too expensive, and you have to financially recover for a while before you can do it again.
So… what if this balancing act was pushed just a bit over the edge? Where no matter how long you worked, no matter how much you could save, you can only afford to survive by buying the cheapest of the cheap, no variety in meals, cutting out literally anything that wasn't necessary, and still living paycheque to paycheque with no wiggle room?
If everyone could not afford to participate in the economy, then what? How would companies react? How would things change?
It's an interesting thought experiment… I'm curious to see everyone's thoughts.