The Real Poverty Trap..Paul Krugman..wow

[JDPriestly]

20. HR firms in my experience usually handle middle- to high-level management jobs.

The people filling low-income jobs are dispensable. They usually don't get moving expenses. They just have to find another low-income job.

It's the poor, those employees looked upon as dispensable or replaceable by another often poorly trained person whose social mobility is severely limited in the US.

One of the reasons for the lack of social mobility among the poor is the cost of retraining and education for working people. We have community colleges in cities, but they charge for books, maybe even tuition and going to school takes time. A single mother who is working and has two or three children aged under 10 is not going to be able to take advantage of education or training oppotunities she needs to move up in the world unless she gets more than food stamps and welfare for her family.

When the children are grown, some mothers can find a school and attend maybe part-time. But it is very difficult then because by then the mother is in a poverty trap. It's hard to climb out of it once you are in your late 30s. The same principle applies to men though it is usually the women who are primarily responsible for the care of their children.

And then the Republicans wonder why women have abortions. It's really no mystery.