system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Wouldn't removing many government programs be the way to increase wages?

I don't understand much about economics, but it seems that having government programs in place that supplement income you are providing artificial incentives for companies to pay low wages.  For example, many Walmart employees probably couldn't afford to work there without the extra income from other programs like Welfare, food stamps etc.  Government programs though remove income pressure that would otherwise make people get a new job.  Doesn't this allow Walmart to keep paying low wages when otherwise they'd have to be much more competitive?  

Now granted, before everyone says that Walmart employees can't find new jobs, let's set that aside for a moment and just focus on the question.
gpt
You can't focus on the question without also focusing on the fact that many employees at Walmart work there because it is their only option. That removes any incentive for Walmart to offer them more than the legal minimum. Why offer more if people will also work for less? Plenty of people want better paying jobs, government programs or not, but that doesn't mean those jobs will magically exist for them. Sometimes there just aren't any better paying jobs, or the ones that do exist are not available to them because they lack certain qualifications, physical abilities or cannot be combined with their other responsibilities.