Let’s approach the subject of poverty and unemployment from a different perspective:
If everyone lived the same poor, miserable life, regardless of employment status or job type, why would anyone get up and go to work? What impetus would there be to excel at their job, or to improve their product or business?
How would they provide for their family?
What if health care were not provided to everyone for free?
Consider this example: During working years, by living very frugally, “below their means,” most of a person’s earnings can be put into savings; over time, advancing skills and position increases the savings rate. As a result, upon retirement they are in a position to buy a house (or etc.) and live, still frugally but comfortably and debt-free, on an income that is not far above poverty level. And, they can even delay activating their “social safety net,” except for health care (yes, this is my story, and I live in the U.S.; currently in a very poor, rural area). Adequate savings provide for occasional expenditures like solar panels or an electric riding mower to further reduce my carbon footprint — the flexibility to address AGW concerns today that were not part of the picture when buying the house. (Actually, that’s not quite true; I knew I wanted to add solar panels and swap my ICE car for an EV [there are no buses or trains out here in the boonies]… “someday.” I had to wait for the technology to improve, become more widely adopted, and the price lowered.) I am now in a position of contributing to my adopted, needy community, rather than being a drag on it. That’s what the potential of personal financial independence can do.
I’m all for the “Star Trek” society where everyone is equal, lives comfortably and there is no hunger… but “equal” has to be at a higher level than living in squalor, or there will always be discontent, slow progress, and poor health among the masses.
“To boldly go.”
https://twitter.com/ratemyskyperoom/status/127375495119446835245 sec: Jonathan Frakes on Gene Roddenberry’s view of the future.