Both of your issues are wrong and frankly disturbing. You seem to be saying that some people deserve to live in poverty, even though they work full time jobs. You're also parroting my "free market" myth. The only think that unregulated capitalism does is transfer wealth to the wealthy and from everyone else.
So, since neither of your points is valid to any sort of society that decent people would want to live in, what else have you got?
No one *deserves* to be poor. I, like some others here, once worked three jobs to make ends meet. I don't have to do that now, but it's not because I *deserve* better, it's because I just happen to have a particular skill set that is a bit rare and is in demand right now. At one time, my industry was so slumped that the number of workers in the industry dropped by nearly 50% in two years. I managed to keep a job in my field, but I had been willing to put up with a lot of hard times and years without salary increases. Many of my friends eventually found jobs in other fields, making much less money.
The company I work for just raised one particular job, our construction superintendents, rates by $4 per hour. It was to keep them from leaving for competitors. Our rate sheet (the rates we pay for all the different jobs) had a 28% increase in 2006. Our average employee got a 28% increase LAST YEAR. The AutoCad techs got a $5 per hour raise last year. I do not know if they *deserve* the raise - some of the employees work much harder than others, but everyone got the raise, because the industry is so terribly short of skilled workers that in order to keep doing our business, we have to compete for the workers through salaries. Code welders now make $35 per hour, and most work a minimum of 70 hours per week. With overtime that is almost $3000 per week, plus they charge the company a rate to use their own welding rigs. If they are traveling out of town, we pay them per diem. We either supply them a truck or they charge the company a rate to use their own truck. In fact, one of the reasons we raised the construction superintendent's wages was because the welders, who they supervise, were making more money than they were.
The welding schools have waiting lists, and new graduates, who have no experience, have job offers before they even graduate. In 2-4 years, there will be a surplus of welders, and the wages will drop, or the welders who aren't as experienced or good will have a hard time finding work.
Of course this is anecdotal, but it's my own experience in the past 20 years of trying to find certain job skills that are needed. Unless you are independently wealthy or have some sort of celebrity position (acting, for example), your job is based on a market demand and the number of people who are available and willing to do it for that rate. It is not right that people can't afford the necessities of life. The market tends to level *over time* but that doesn't mean that it works for individuals very well.
)
