Is low unemployment good if you are not making enough to live on?

Question

1. Is being employed worth it if you cannot make enough to live on? 

2. Does shipping well paying jobs overseas really help the economy? Does it really make your life better than it was 4 years ago?

3. The misinformation campaign by Wall Street, is anyone really buying it.  (I can think of one person.)

I am asking for a native of the Carolinas

Here is an article from the Brookings Institute, excellent read. 

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/01/08/low-unemployment-isnt-worth-much-if-the-jobs-barely-pay/?fbclid=IwAR3adADFayG-jWsxhcwVf_bKWwh25oMIw_lyWa3Nia2Q1hAidaYXoLWKm20

Answer 1

Looks good for the government assuming you believe stats. I've been struggling for years even when I was employed due to bad financial decisions mainly. It's amazing how much you can cut back and economise, when you have to.

Answer 2

Employment figures are fudged. Right now in the UK families with at least one working are among our poorest and most vulnerable. 

Like the U.S. we are a gig economy, it means one person employed for 12 hours a week gets taken off the unemployment figures but are still struggling.

Looks good for the government though. 

I've been slammed by my own people for this but hey ho here we go.

The British worker is arrogant and lazy in a lot of cases, I've heard tradesmen complain about foreign workers undercutting them then find out they had just priced themselves out of the job.

There is something so different about the British that they feel the world owes them. Possibly a hangover from Imperial times possibly a hangover from socialist days. 

Now I could be argued with on the basis that England just totally rejected socialism and that would be correct but it brings me back to the Brit and the foreign worker. That's why they gave the most right wing party a huge majority.

And that's why the right wing are rising.

Noone is taking the employers to task re employing illegals for a fraction of the wages.

Noone is taking large corporations to task or Banks.

For some reason I cannot comprehend our country and yours think the poor are out to get them, it's all their fault and they must be crushed.

When I'm feeling better I'm taking to the streets with this, I'll find a group who is fighting for the poor and join it 

Answer 3

Hey, it’s all awesome if you’re a Trump-humping conservative pig... 

And it’s a waste of time to use facts when you’re debating a Trump supporter. Facts don’t matter to them. 

Comments

JPT all good relevant points.  I was just seeing if our favorite one could read. 

BTW hows the health?  When I penned my missive yesterday I thought of you and others at the mercy of the Insurance companies.

Answer 4

Right wingnut economic theory believes that if unemployment is low, then employers will have to start paying more to attract workers, and wages will go up.  It doesn't work that way anymore, if it ever did.  The capitalist bible say that to maximize profits, you have to keep expenses low.  Workers are expenses.  At no point does it say that the owners/management should share any of the wealth with those who toil to make it.  So they don't.

Things are made in foreign counties with cheap labor and priced as though they were made with quality labor here.  One of my favorite examples from many years ago, was Nike.  They made shoes in Vietnam for about $3 per pair.  They sold them in the US for over $100 per pair.  The only people who benefited from this scheme was nike management.  

It never occurs to these nitwits that if you don't pay people enough to live, they cannot buy your products.  

Some countries do it better.  It is impossible to find a toaster in the US made in the US.  But in germany, you can find toasters made in Germany.  

Answer 5

Be grateful to have a job!

Any kind of money from working is a Top Gun!

I see people walking the streets begging for money to by DRUGS!

A few of those are non-violent, and if they ask me for  $1.00 to buy a beer, I gladly give them that GREEN BACK.

They are NOT the ones who are killing...sexually abusing children...and deliberately making the car drivers have a wreck, so they can sue in court, making mega-bucks!

Here in TN ..we ALL know where the money is going...

DOWNTOWN!   COUNTRY MUSIC 

Answer 6

Low unemployment is a starting place. It provides insurance and that is life saving by its very nature. One can move through the ranks and double their salary and then some. Retail doesn’t require a 4 yr degree. Some fast food restaurants are offering 100-160K a year to Mgm’t. The thing is not to stay on the bottom rung.

I have offered numerous hourly employees overtime or an ability to move into management not everyone wants to move up.

Comments

That is assuming the employer offers benefits and full-time hours and that there is room to move up in positions. It isn't uncommon for employers in retail or the restaurant business to not only not provide any benefits but to also not provide full-time hours or in my experience, label you a part-time or flex employee and then still work you full-time to get around paying benefits. Heck I'm working at a law firm and they've decided to cut costs by no longer providing insurance through the firm and instead giving a stipend so I can acquire my own.