It has already been proven that the concept of a "living wage" is a liberal fantasy.
I don't advocate government intervention, but a living income is actually possible. The reason why it hasn't happened is because it's being done through regulations (like minimum wage laws) rather than direct redistribution and because the income tax really isn't the best tool to redistribute wealth. OTOH, if wealthy Americans were property taxed too much, then they'd move out or they'd rebel against the government who stole from them.
Several things would have to be done to reduce the Gini coefficient of wealth:
There could be no regulations. The able bodied would get more if they worked although nonworking people with low IQ would still get something.
We'd have to have a pure non-nationalist (i.e., the U.S. wouldn't coin money although foreign coins with gold would be accepted by weight and content) gold standard.
There would be no income tax. There would have to be an IQ tax since there is a positive correlation between IQ and wealth. Money isn't the ultimate measure of wealth, rather brain and brawn are.
There could be maybe a small consumption tax but that's the only tax the people with an average or below average IQ would pay. Basically, they'd be paying that for enforcement of redistribution.
Poverty levels would have to be redefined for how much redistribution there could be. Poverty would probably have to be based on IQ. It definitely couldn't be based upon income. For example, people who work for the government generally aren't too smart. So instead of them getting paid $120k to break windows (pretty much the equivalent of what the Department of Education does) and murder people, they'd get 50 or so ounces of >.99 fine gold.
I don't advocate that, but the Democrats should do so if they want to look leftist and pro-"fairness" to more people. Alternatively, they should shut the fuck up because I dislike intellectual dishonesty (being moderate is being intellectually dishonest more often than not). I'd rather they'd do the latter.