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Pegging the minimum wage to inflation would checks notes only make the poor richer, and we can't have that

You careen right into being priced out of living with that argument. If you are pegged at a constant wage, that was theoretically enough when it was introduced, for more than a decade while the cost of living rises continuously, then you will be priced out of… living.

And that’s not ethical; fake number money should ultimately serve ensuring acceptable lives instead of keeping the cost of living from rising even farther past unlivable. It‘sa already unlivable - it doesn’t matter if it’s 10% over unlivable or 100%, it’s still an unlivable minimum wage.

Money is very evil for people with little of it. There’s a minimum you need to live. If you are under it, you may not live anymore. If you are just over it, you barely survive. If you make three times it, everything is fine. It gets worse from there (like ten times lets you buy a home and accrue equity while not bleeding money to renting housing, and your mortgage is lower than comparable rent to boot).

Not reflected in any long-term wage increase or min-wage-introduction economic observations and studies conducted in the last 40 years. This is one of those "it feels 'logical'" talking points that capital likes to tout but is in no way backed up by data or empirical evidence.