4 reasons why people choose not to work and live in poverty?
September 23rd, 2009 | Published in Economics idea
To fight poverty effectively, we need to understand why people choose not to work despite the consequences. There are 4 main reasons I can think of why people choose not to work.
1. Unable to do useful work.
Some people are so sick or have disabilities that make it impossible for them to be productive. If you can’t get out of bed, you are going to have trouble doing anything that someone else will be willing to pay for.
People who are very sick or incapacitated shouldn’t have to work. A compassionate society would happily tend to the needs of these people.
2. Available jobs pay too little.
While living in poverty is unpleasant, it is possible to scrounge up enough to get by. There are charities that provide food and shelter to poor people. You can try your hand at begging. For working to make sense, the pay needs to be high enough to significantly raise your income.
I don’t think it is realistic to expect people to work full time jobs that do not pay enough to keep them above the poverty line.
3. Work requirements are too onerous.
Some people are fragile for one reason or another. They could have a chronic illness that limits how much they can work. They may have a mental illness that makes working in some structured environments difficult. These people can do useful work if the conditions are right.
What these people need is flexibility. Every effort should be made to create opportunities for fragile people to work. Working helps connect people to their community and give them a sense of purpose.
4. Can’t find a job.
Finally, if finding work is difficult, people who would be happy to work might choose not to because they can’t deal with the job search process. In tough economic times, finding a job can be much harder than working.
Somehow the process of matching people to jobs needs to be made more humane. It’s hard not to take rejection by an employer personally. It’s hard to cope with the reality that it can take months or even years to find a job. I think one of the main jobs for economists is to find a better way to match people to jobs.
My belief is that laziness is NOT a reason why people choose not to work. I think we label people who don’t work as lazy when the reasons they don’t work fall into one of the categories discussed above.
