some people have bad luck....
no denying that.....
and they can accept the help out there and pull themselves back up
and the ones that dont have the skills to get the "better" jobs.....
whose fault is that? what role did they play in the position they currently hold?
and more importantly, what are they doing to try and remedy that situation?
forgive my lack of sympathy for most of these people
i help those who actually try to help themselves
for instance.....saw a waitress really do well with a belligerent customer a few weeks back
wife and I watched the situation play out.....and this kid (she is 17) acted like a pro
she kept her cool, and after the idiot finally left i waved her over
she now works for me.....as a customer service rep.....
she has a lot of work ahead of her.....but i think and hope she is up to the task
will what i did change her life...i dunno....but it gives her a chance
I'm not really arguing with you about whose "fault" it all is. The problem is pretty systemic - there have always been good, bad, and mediocre workers and that's not ever going to change. And what bothers me when conversations go off on this tangent is it's really a way to change the focus from a macro trend, which is more and more income going to the top, and flat or falling wages and earnings for the vast majority to blaming it on individuals, so a micro look. If it's no one's fault but their own that society is allocating rising shares to the top 1%, globally, and that this isn't a change in the rules of the game, but a change in the worthiness of the bottom 80% to wages versus the top 1%, then we really CAN ignore all this and if someone whines, just say - it's your own damn fault. Sorry. And we can conclude that the modern day CEO is a productivity machine, far better than his cohorts in 1950, and deserves to be paid the modern day equivalent of royalty, with his heirs set up for life!
I don't believe that. The trends are macro, and even good workers are getting less pay and low raises in any particular job. When a plant closes and moves offshore and 500 people lose their jobs, there just do not exist equivalent jobs for the GOOD workers to move into. The jobs that do exist pay less. Sure, someone can rise above stocking shelves to management, but not everyone can and the person who DOES stock shelves is needed and either should or should not in a functioning system share in rising productivity and profits and be able to afford the basics on the income from that job. If not, then what do we do about that.
Saying, well that shelf person should work harder and if he did he'd make more money doesn't change that the next guy in his job cannot make it on that pay. If that job doesn't pay enough to afford healthcare then what do we do when that person or his kids get sick? The job won't go away, so blaming THAT guy for holding it isn't an answer.
Similarly, in that restaurant there are some probably ordinary waitresses. What do you think a reasonable expectation should be of them? If they're not extraordinary, they "deserve" financial insecurity and no healthcare insurance? If their kid gets sick, they have no one to blame but themselves for the bankruptcy, for doing an average job in an average vocation?