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Here's the full Orwell quote.

People are wrong when they think that an unemployed man only worries about losing his wages; on the contrary, an illiterate man, with the work habit in his bones, needs work even more than he needs money. An educated man can put up with enforced idleness, which is one of the worst evils of poverty. But a man like Paddy, with no means of filling up time, is as miserable out of work as a dog on the chain. That is why it is such nonsense to pretend that those who have 'come down in the world' are to be pitied above all others. The man who really merits pity is the man who has been down from the start, and faces poverty with a blank, resourceless mind

From Down and Out in Paris and London.

(Someone should have known better than to try to link to Google Books from a mass media piece.)



How this translates into the real world:

Here in Europe, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, a large amount of men were fired from their construction job.

I'm talking about incredibly tough and hardened men. The type doing this job for decades, getting up at 5AM each day, working in the bitter cold, never calling in sick, breaking their body and taking pride in it.

Just like that, society suddenly declared these men to be zeroes. They have to call to this unemployment agency, where they're treated as if beginners, and with distrust, as if they're leeches. They have to go to the red tap, none of which they understand.

Reportedly, many of these men broke down and cried on the phone. They probably hadn't cried in decades.

It just shows how absolutely devastating it is when such a man loses purpose. It breaks them. They take pride in their strength, their sacrifice to provide. They cannot be idle nor can they be in a dependent position. It's not them.


"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."

-FDR


The thing is - we’re at 4% unemployment. Which is probably about as low as a service based economy can get.


Presently in the U.S. about 60% of people have jobs; 55% of women and 65% of men. In Feb 1962, 56% had jobs but it was 36% of women and 78% of men

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EMRATIO

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12300002

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12300001


> an [uneducated] man… with no means of filling up time is miserable out of work

Screens have fixed this problem since Orwell wrote that in 1933.


[flagged]


How about saying why instead of assuming your 'Wow' point is so obvious everyone will agree?




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