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It's not an attitude - I agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying. It's what I see when I look out of my window. That is to say, how I think the economy ac

It's not an attitude - I agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying. It's what I see when I look out of my window. That is to say, how I think the economy actually works. Basically no-one with a meaningful amount of capital takes low end jobs, because they don't have to. They can sit, read, wait, research, calmly consider, study, and find a way out. They have negotiating power (which is more than just telling a prospective boss a higher number - it's walking away, doing something else entirely, not even showing up to begin with). Poor people can't do that, which is why they take jobs that barely pay subsistence. They have no other choice and need to take the job that pays them _now_ with the skills they have _now_. Fundamentally this is why learning to spend less than you earn is probably the most important thing anyone can ever do. If you ever spend all of your money and have no access to credit, your freedom essentially disappears as you're forced to do almost anything someone with money tells you (legal or not).

sershe 8y ago
I think this is the other way around. With any reasonable safety net, eventually these people would need to take some jobs. And people with no rare/hard-to-acquire skills have to take jobs that do not require rare/hard-to-acquire skills... meaning most people can do them. High supply lowers the price, of labor in this case. Sure, desperation due to low wages forms sort of a vicious cycle that may helps drive wages even lower, but I don't think it's the main reason for the poverty. With one year no questions asked unemployment benefit, a laid-off delivery person would still be back on the market in a year for the same crappy job (and the same would apply to any skillset - e.g. if there were way more software developers than needed, the same would be true in tech industry)

sershe 8y ago

I think this is the other way around. With any reasonable safety net, eventually these people would need to take some jobs. And people with no rare/hard-to-acquire skills have to take jobs that do not require rare/hard-to-acquire skills... meaning most people can do them. High supply lowers the price, of labor in this case. Sure, desperation due to low wages forms sort of a vicious cycle that may helps drive wages even lower, but I don't think it's the main reason for the poverty. With one year no questions asked unemployment benefit, a laid-off delivery person would still be back on the market in a year for the same crappy job (and the same would apply to any skillset - e.g. if there were way more software developers than needed, the same would be true in tech industry)