I think that the solution lies in the way people think. The education is the most important factor that can influence the economy. The best way to teach somebody something (or to educate them) is to show them a personal example. So, we have:

1) Many people that are not producing much
2) People that work and earn a lot, but fail at giving an example. They do not give examples because they fear the competition that may rise.

So, we’re stuck.

The second group of people is the first that has to start the change by giving good examples. Maybe they have to be forced by circumstances, but eventually they will have to realize what must be done.

Too bad that educating that many people takes a lot of time, this is not a short term solution.

It’s true that a lot of people are going to be working later to get the job done in difficult situations at the moment, and that some are negotiating low pay deals or even pay freezes with their employers. Workplace by workplace where it’s needed that’s a discussion that has to be had with openness on both sides.

We need to be careful about how we react as a society though. Racing to the bottom is never a good idea, and framing the situation in those terms is unhelpful. The supposed trickle down benefit from pound-an-hour working never happened, and when the minimum wage had to be legislated in, the employer-hyped job losses never happened either – quite the reverse.

An employer who takes you up on an offer of working for half the rate they themselves offered isn’t likely to be one of the most ethical in other ways they treat their staff, or one that will give you a job in which you can become one of ‘the ones with confidence’.

Anyways, It’s good that you’re personally productive and confident enough that you have no job security problems in telling your clients to ’stay away’ from the payday loans you offer.

Sorry to rib you on this point, but given our blog pops up in money related searches, we get a number of people leaving comments here solely to get a little Google juice for the unconventional financial service websites they run. It can be annoying to sift through when they’re not really trying to contribute anything to the discussion. Thanks for being game at least and coming back on this one.

I encourage the people without jobs to apply for a new job and request half the money a current employee gets and work twice as much. Soon enough they will be the ones with confidence. The employer will earn more money and he will be able to hire more people.

I think that in this economy the distance between the really productive people and the rest gets bigger and bigger. If you are in the second group I urge you to wake up to reality, and work really hard until you get in the first one.

And about loans, I don’t want to advertise or argue about APR. I encourage people to stay away from them, as far as possible.

Employed people may overestimate their likelihood of finding a job if they don’t know how hard it can be (particularly if they read those bits of the media that think only workshy scroungers are jobless).

Unemployed people will also know that the longer you are unemployed the harder it is to get employers to consider you seriously.

In a recession there will be people on the dole who would otherwise find it relatively easy to get a job in more normal times. And of course it will be even harder for those who find it difficult at the best of times.