A crucial distinction: almost anybody can do better, not almost everybody. The "go to school at night, hustle more, get a better job!" rallying cry basically j

A crucial distinction: almost anybody can do better, not almost everybody. The "go to school at night, hustle more, get a better job!" rallying cry basically just pits the poor against each other. That can work for an individual, but in an economy structured on X% low-wage work it can't work for everyone. All it does is raise the minimum standard to get the same mediocre work (see: high school and college degrees). Yeah, any one unemployed person could probably find a job, but that doesn't mean 25% unemployment in Spain is a laziness issue. Similarly, an economy with 10% of workers earning poverty wages can't be changed by telling those people to all get better jobs.