To be clear I'm not suggesting I approve/condone this behavior. I'm just observing what people do/say they do. There's other things (e.g. phoenix companies, etc

To be clear I'm not suggesting I approve/condone this behavior. I'm just observing what people do/say they do. There's other things (e.g. phoenix companies, etc) that can boost this further. To be clear I'm not a blue collar worker myself and enjoy none of these advantages which makes it more stark when most workers around you are. With AI around the corner, at least for tech workers, they have more job security as well. Some of the above is either not really taxable (friends doing favors), actually encouraged/legal (e.g business writeoffs), or really hard to prove especially if it is the odd job (cash). While I'm not based in the US, I imagine some/all of the above points equally apply to many countries. The point is not one of approval/disapproval. It is one of saying that the "official statistics" are not really that useful often when it comes to blue collar work as anecdotally most blue collar workers do at least some of the above.