In places where the minimum wage has gone up, some employees are asking for reduced hours just so they can keep their state benefits. They will be the first ones to lose their jobs, and they obviously have no drive to get off their dependence from the government. So now they drain our social programs even more.
I went to college, worked a crap job to pay the bills. After graduating I got a internship that paid $12, worked my way up to get hired on as a contractor at $18, then finally got hired on full time with a decent salary. At 27 I bought my house, 8 months later got laid off in a labor force reduction. Once again took temp jobs to pay the bills, rented out a bedroom in my house to help with the mortgage and eventually got hired on at my current company. It has been a crazy 3 years, but it made me realize that life isn't easy. Being unemployed sucked, but I got through it.
I have no remorse of people who just give up and stop trying. If you are trying to live on minimum wage, you have made some pretty crappy decisions in your life. It really isn't that hard to find a job that pays more than that if you have any kind of work ethic or skills.