#jobs #work #wages #salaries #CostOfWork #CostOfLiving
Lazy. Freeloader.
Don’t you just hate those people?
Throughout history, it’s been presumed that people who need aid to live, be it from government or charity, are lazy freeloaders.
They are able-bodied, but refuse to work. So, we should stop giving them aid and make them more self-sufficient.
But, with today’s high prices, relatively low wages and salaries, not all those who seek help are lazy freeloaders.
They just can’t meet their life needs on what they are earning.
Besides high prices and low salaries, many others also have to fight the ever-changing business environment. They can’t do anything about downsizing, businesses going belly-up or technological factors that remove, or reduce the human element from business tasks.
You even have people facing the cost of going to work vs. the benefits. If one does not get from a job enough to cover the cost of getting there and other work necessities – never mind whether the job meets all other life needs – it’s cheaper for them to stay home.
They are not lazy freeloaders. They want to work, but they want their job to cover all their expenses – and then some.
Not all jobs can do that. To wit: try to make a living with a $7.50 per hour minimum wage job. Therefore, not only are people staying home, there are worker shortages in the business world.
Add to these factors the cost of child care for working parents and you complicate the work-life matrix further.
Someone – or some entity – has to step in to bridge these gaps, if the goal is to get everyone who is able into the work force.
No amount of force, hardship or other external requirements is going to solve this problem.
It requires a society as a whole to create solutions, be it from employers, government or a combination of those factors.
It also requires business patrons to realize that businesses have to pay their workers living wages, therefore the goods and services will cost more.
There’s also the desire among the well-heeled elites to create a permanent underclass to keep wages low. Some immigrants gladly are part of that underclass, because where they are coming from is much worse. Yet, some in power don’t want immigrants to come here.
The problem will not be solved by applying sticks and stones to force people to work. It requires a comprehensive approach. Labor unions, in previous decades, helped provide elements for that overall approach.
Hardscrabble policies do not create hardscrabble people. Creative policies can help people through hardscrabble times.
So, the next time you see someone asking for financial help, do not presume he or she is a lazy freeloader. More likely, he or she is not.
He or she is just trying to survive in a world unkind to them.
Peter