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-acqu

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)