A lot more people than you would think. I used to work at a factory that produced premium ice cream. I would regularly pull in 45-50 hours a week for $9 something minimum wage. Initially I was brought on to do a job that started at $16 an hour. If I hadn't had that $180 in assistance every month then I would have had to choose between eating and paying rent. I couldn't even afford internet back then. The majority of that workforce comprised of temps that were being paid roughly $3-5 less an hour then those who were hired on. Even some people who were hired on and made that higher wage still qualified. And this is far from an isolated incident. The temporary worker force of the US is roughly 17,000,000 people, 73% of which work full time jobs in that position. This number has risen by 5% in the last couple of years, as more places find it cheaper to use these lower paid workers and then recycle them when they come to be hired, or simply never hire them at all. I worked with someone who spent 5 years at a factory as a temp. No health insurance, disability packages or anything. These are hard working people trying to get their foot in the door and being fucked by the system.
The whole thing is that this new change to the system offers no assistance in actually obtaining any sort of employment. No sort of mentor to help brush up that resume or suggest opportunities that the person may not have considered. Depending on where you live and what sort of employment is available in your area, there may be few if any jobs that an individual is suited for. It's simply a punishment with no intent to correct the behavior.
The whole thing is that this new change to the system offers no assistance in actually obtaining any sort of employment. No sort of mentor to help brush up that resume or suggest opportunities that the person may not have considered.
The government is not your parent.
there may be few if any jobs that an individual is suited for.
My company's minimum wage for manual labor is $15 an hour. There are thousands just like it. We are hiring. If there are no jobs in your area and you have no dependents then you can move.
No it's not, but considering the amount of failed parents out there, were seeing a lot of adults with no preperation or know how to further succeed. Hell, how does an older man who's job of 30 years shuts down? The job market is vastly different from what he once knew.
There are jobs out there, I've seen the turn over rate at some of them too. Due to poor conditions or management. But that's not always even the case.
Moving is expensive when you have no income and little in savings.
I agree that is a problem and it is not one that can solved solely by the worker you describe.
It seems like the tightening job market we are seeing now has offered some relief. I believe we need to further tighten the wage market with stricter immigration controls and tariffs to reduce jobs shipped out of the country.
Ever since NAFTA we have seen a steady flow of good paying jobs move out of the country and it is a sad state. Not everyone is going to be an engineer. We still need good paying factory and industrial jobs to make America work.
Precisely, the job market has been changing at a dramatic pace. Many variables have been changing and stock holders still demand ever increasing profits every year. Also with unemployment starting to encroach on 3%, available jobs are becoming more scarce. Disallowing people to move around or upward, as there's no open positions to do that. If the workers at the bottom are putting in 40ish hours a week, then they should be able to make a living off that sort of work. Not a life of oppulance, but not living hand to mouth and only one missed paycheck away from eviction.
Kind of got off topic from the start of this thread.
How many of those people are there? Are they applying themselves are working to get promoted or moved into better jobs? There are a lot of variables. If we make people comfortable in their poverty they will not be driven to better their situation.
I feel like the rest of your statements are non sequitur. Those issues might be problems but they don't relate to people being able to feed themselves without picking my pocket.