I agree with that, but what about those who worked their factory jobs from the late 70s to 2008 when the bottom fell out of the economy. They weren't quite at retirement age, lost their pensions, and were stuck at or around age 50 with no more than the skills they learned in the factory and their high school diploma from 1979 (when very few people, let alone poor rural folks, went to college or trade school). When they went to find work, they were told they were too old and too unskilled. What work they could find paid half of what they'd worked 25+ years to obtain (and didn't include overtime, benefits, or even consistent full-time schedules). Many of them found that they could draw more on unemployment than they cpuld driving 60 miles (round trip) a day to the nearest factory that would have them at their age and skill level.
I can vouch for at least a hundred factory workers that this happened to in my county and surrounding rural counties. These are the people I empathize with, not so much those who feel entitled and choose to not learn a trade or to obtain an education (although it is ridiculously expensive to get one now).
Does that make more sense? I'm not defending laziness, I'm defending those who busted their asses, only to have the rug pulled out from under them in the later parts of their career, sticking them in limbo. Surely we all know someone who experienced this at the start of the recent recession?
