And that was kinda my point. The issue isn't just that these jobs won't pay the bills (with a bit to spare) but rather that they won't pay the bills, there are less generally-available jobs that do, and those often have hefty requirements well beyond what they should.

People are being pushed down in the job market and the "McJobs" are insufficient for most people to get by. There user you be more positions that did at one point pay better than flipping burgers and they didn't require you have a Masters', five years experience, and 50 grand of student debt courses.

There were also more retail positions for those that wanted something a bit different than serving up food from a drive-through window. They didn't pay that much more but it was still something, and people became very knowledgeable in those positions. Want to know what tool does job X, what paint to use for job Y, or where to find the latest movie/single/book from some lesser-known artist: there was a staff member that knew that, and they knew the regular customers too! There was a guy whose main job was to put your groceries in a bag and maybe bring it out to the car.

Now we have adults taking up dual serving jobs and a side hustle in order to make ends meet. That's not "end at 4pm and chill" that's "collapse at home and get a minimal amount of sleep before going at it again and again and again".

Corporations cut staff, don't increase pay, and make record profits. I'm not sad that somebody might be working a McJob because they want to want to, I'm sad because they're probably working several part-time because they HAVE to and still struggling to get by, with little to no down-time and no opportunities for change.

And when a bunch of people finally say "fuck it" and employers can't find even enough people to staff their bare-minimum shift schedule, they cry to the government who brings in a million people from other countries to exploit instead of having the corps actually be pressured to make those jobs less shitty.

You make an excellent point that not everyone is capable to do everything in the world with just some gumption and training. We are all different in ways that makes some skills and knowledge unattainable for practical use.

A lot of us have interests and hobbies beyond our abilities. It's also awesome that you are smart enough to know what you don't know (many people who actually suck lack the self awareness)

Your enthusiasm may one day inspire someone else to do great things in that field. Maybe it's a child's future or maybe it's a question you ask that sets off a thought process in an expert. Maybe it inspires you to think about a problem of your own a different way.

Challenging experts to explain what they do so the rest of us can understand and discuss only helps. If you met a particle physicist or astronomer in real life, they'd absolutely love talking with you and corner you at the party and have a great time. Their coworkers would be jealous. :)

Anything we learn isn't wasted.

Not everything we learn has to earn money.

A living wage should not require extreme skillsets or extreme ambition.

A living wage should not require so much time and energy that all there is to life is work.

Living in your parent's basement or with multiple roommates as your only option is not a living wage.

These should be choices people make because they want to, not requirements if they want to afford food and medicine. Or temporary need to do's (like breakups, moving to a new area, theft, etc)

I agree you should be paid a real living wage for whatever it is you do. If the job is worth having it done, it is worth paying a living wage to have it done. Even if it doesn't take a particle physicist to do it. :) Even if it is a low stress job for the person doing it.

I also agree Corporations should not own and rent out single family homes at all. There do need to be rental options for people, but it should be feasible to buy a place too. But that is a different rant.