I am interested in the responses of all different sides of the political spectrum. TBH I'm not sure where I am with this and have no real answers.
As the economy exists there are jobs that only pay poverty wages. Therefore poverty exists even within the working class. This seems a totally separate issue from disabled people, homeless/jobless people. I am so far only able to come up with three possible conclusions. Not answers but just conclusions about the current state of affairs.
1 These poverty jobs are jobs that are not worth doing and people should shift to only jobs that pay enough.
2 These poverty jobs are jobs worth doing or are necessary and therefore need to be paid enough to not live in poverty.
3 A portion of our working class is simply required to be in poverty.
Is there a hidden 4th option I missed?
I'll take option 2.
My wonderful employer:
Disturbing New Report Shows Dire Conditions For Grocery Workers - In These Times
I'm in that camp, myself. I haven't been able to pay my rent in months and can barely afford other bills or food. Their starting wages where I live are quite embarrassing, $11/hour, when you can make more at Walmart, Target and even McDonald's. I'm on the verge of quitting and finding something, anything that pays more because I can't survive like this. I'm being worked half to death, too. I barely get enough sleep (which leads to me making mistakes, as I did last night as I was so exhausted), am stressed and angry much of the time and am in physical pain a lot as my position requires a lot of physical labor and frequent heavy lifting/pushing/pulling. I've been in so much pain at work that I've broken down in tears. Some of us are developing drinking problems from it. If we had one before, it's gotten worse due to it.
And they wonder why they can't retain workers and why people aren't applying. There's a really bad shortage of workers at my store, due to people quitting all the time and them not being able to replace them, so they expect the rest of us to pick up the slack by working in any department they send us to, even when it's not the department we were hired for. It's a very evil corporation and the CEO doesn't care at all about his slaves, even as the company rakes in billions in profit (it's the largest grocer in the US) and the CEO takes home tens of millions. The union doesn't do much, either, in my experience.
As for starter jobs, they don't really train people, either. If you have no experience at my job, you're just thrown out there and expected to learn as you go. Some people in my department weren't trained at all, because they couldn't spare anyone to do it. Management breaks labor and OSHA rules, too, by letting minors operate industrial equipment because there's no qualified adults around to do it.