Arkady....what's the graduation rate in our inner city schools?
Do you actually believe all of those dropouts are looking for jobs? Seriously???????
They had such great study habits, a deep and abiding desire to learn, to strive for "something better", to make something out of themselves....that's why they just said "**** it" and dropped out? And now they're bringing these excellent study habits into the working world, and show us how these study habits have translated into work habits, equally as excellent?
Wake up.
Judging by the extremely low rates of pay that employers are able to offer for low-skill work (rates well below the minimum wage from the late 1960s, after you adjust for inflation), and based on the massive number of applications most low-skill jobs get (an average of 16 applicants for each opening at McDonalds, for example), I'd say that, yes, most of them are looking for jobs. As I said, if we had a shortage of people willing to work, the law of supply and demand tells us that would drive up wages, as employers competed for the valuable under-supplied willing workers by offering higher and higher pay and better benefits. But since employers can pay a pittance with few if any benefits, and yet still manage to staff available positions, it suggests we're over-supplied with willing workers and under-supplied with available positions.
That's especially true near the bottom rung of the economic ladder, where wages have been falling. That suggests that there are lots and lots of low-skill workers desperate to get a job, and willing to undercut one another's bargaining power by taking any offer an employer makes, just to get their foot in the door. By comparison, wages have been soaring at the hig end, as the rich pull away from the rest of the country in pay.... so, if you're worried that somebody might be a bit lazy, it would be the high-end workers, who are apparently reluctant enough to work that they're willing to hold out for big pay increases, rather than fighting one another, tooth and nail, in a race to the bottom, trying to get a job.
And before you equate drop-out rates with laziness, keep in mind why many drop out. Take my great-grandfather, for an example. The man worked like a dog... but he was also a drop out. His father died and so he dropped out and took a couple jobs to help his mother keep food on the table.
