So years ago people could work the front lines of factories and other jobs and not have to worry about moving up but could make ends meet. No they didn’t live lavishly but by all means could pay for housing, vehicles, survive independently.
We will always need janitors, fast food workers, grocery store stockers, warehouse workers, the list goes on…these jobs will not always be done by high schoolers and college kids. And if everyone “jUSt GOt a BetTEr jOB” there would be nobody left to do the grunt work.
I’m conservative enough to come to terms with the fact that the fast food worker shouldn’t be paid the same as the airline mechanic and that you have to be financially incentivized to perform more complicated labor and there has to be socioeconomic tiers in society.
However, liberal enough to say it’s a fundamental societal issue that people working full time performing necessary society tasks can’t make ends meet. There will be long term consequences from lack of homeownership and a reckoning that there is basically zero retirement cushion for millions in the decades to come.
So what do these people do? They consolidate, I see more and more households with 4+ working adults and generations of family/extended family living together just to survive. And the wage for a lot of these entry level “skilled” roles are just enough for that same baseline financial independence that regular non skilled roles provided 30 years ago.
Idk I think there will be major financial implications from this in the decades ahead. How does this problem get fixed without everyone “just getting a better job”