Kevin, your naiveté is showing.

It's better to be working and "underpaid" than sitting around collecting tax payer's money because you feel you're "worth" more money. Sure, I'd love to be making more than I am and I feel like I deserve it, but that doesn't mean I'd quit my job because I feel "underpaid."

College grads can get on welfare too ya know...I know of 2 right now.

I haven't seen anyone suggest otherwise.

This was also discussed in that "men are marrying..." thread.

In many people's minds it is all or nothing.

It's like we can't discuss inequality without retorts that really go without saying.

I had heard about food stamps, too.

If you consider unemployment to be welfare, I know of a whole lot more than that. Guys with MBAs (ex husband for one), mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, PhDs in chemistry, network administrators, bankers. The ranks of the unemployed are most definitely not limited to the uneducated.

When will politicians learn that they can't say whatever's on their mind? You put yourself in public office, you lose the right to go off on these tangents.

This is a whole other topic, and it's not completely related to poverty, so I hesitate to even get into it. But there is definitely a such thing as being "underpaid." Saying that no one is "underpaid" is at the least an overbroad statement, and I think you know that.

Not really. We have a minimum wage. If someone's paid below that, they're underpaid. If they're paid more than that or at that, then they are paid what they agreed to be paid. If they're not being paid what they agreed to be paid, then they have a valid complaint for the Department of Labor. They may consider themselves underpaid, but that's a matter of opinion, not a matter of quantifiable fact.

And as far as being unemployed, I don't see how it isn't the worker's fault? Or that it should be up to the employed to subsidize the unemployed. Poor savings/spending habits, choosing to work in a doomed industry, etc. These are all personal choices or at the very least, they are gambles that turned out poorly. That's part of life in a non planned economy.

Heck.. my investment account was doing awesome until the market crash. Now it's mediocre. Those investment decisions were my choices as well. It's not my fault the market crashed. Maybe I should be receive government subsidy as well for my investment losses?

Which is a quite different thing from saying that there is no such thing as being underpaid.

A worker gets laid off or his company goes out of business, that worker looks high and low everyday for a job -- any job -- but can't find one because no one is hiring, and it's the worker's fault he's unemployed? Seriously?

I'm all for taking personal responsibility into account, but sometimes things can be son out of someone's control that personal responsibility doesn't enter into it.

And the "they chose to work in a doomed industry" argument is just plain specious. Feckless (I love the chance to use that word) even.

Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.

I thought being underpaid could be quantified by taking a median compenesation rate for someone in your position or a comprable one in your area. If you are below that, you are underpaid.

There are several companies here who have cut pay by 4-10%. When that happens, you are definitely underpaid. Unless you were overpaid before.. but who is overpaid besides pro athletes and actors????

If he was going that route, he should have just went the whole way with it and advocated a TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) program.

This guy reminds me of my ex-ex boss's giant douchebag of a son. Barf.

Bank CEOs? Insurance Company CEOs?