smooth

I don't know the exact reasons why--it's definately more comlex than "there are jobs, therefore people must be too lazy to work."

That stated, assuming for the sake of discussion that those people are too lazy to work, let's see what would happen if they did:

40 hours per week @ $8 dollars an hour = $320 dollars per week x 4 weeks = $1280 per month (before taxes).

Accepting this job eliminates elligability for subsidized housing and food stamps.

When I was making minimum wage my taxes were close to 30%. Even if I got it back I still had to pay it out of my paycheck. That would leave just under $1000 dollars per month. Do you have state taxes? Social security taken out? Are those labor openings closed to non-union workers?

I think we're safe to say that the worker will only pull $1000 dollars home after taxes, but if you don't agree with that figure stay with the $1200.

Can you feed a family on $10 a day (let's limit it to a husband, wife, and one kid; "able-bodied men" aren't elligable for food-stamps by the way)--that's $300 dollars a month (but only $3 a day per person--that's one dollar per meal per person per day).

Using the absolute top figure ($1200 w/o taxes) a family eating on a dollar a day is left with an absolute top of $900. If taxes are being pulled it's between $900 and $600 left to live on (my guess is that's the cost of rent, and we haven't even started on transp, clothes, utilities, day care, health care, likely court fines (taken out at the start of the check), etc.

I can't go much further without your help, I don't know how much an apartment is without looking in the same paper. They have to get to work--let us know gas prices and the price of a montly bus pass so we can run the numbers both ways--with and without a vehicle.

Let us know how much rentals are in the area you are talking about, please.