# Poll: Are we owed a job and/or income? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170 "2008-11-11T07:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170/61 "2008-11-14T22:30:48Z")
“Society” does not owe me anything. But I do not owe “society” anything either. I make an assessment on an ongoing ad hoc basis. If today it makes sense to play by the rules, I play by the rules. If tomorrow it makes sense to kill barbecue and eat the rich, well, I’ve got a pretty decent barbecue sauce recipe. It is in everyone’s best interests that all folks are given opportunity to work, to participate, and to obtain the fruits of labor. Excluded people and marginalized people will tend to be asocial or antisocial. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170/62 "2008-11-14T23:15:26Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > For those of you saying that since modern society doesn’t let you live off the land, it owes you a job, what would you be owed if you were allowed to live off the land? Nothing, but then you take your survival completely in your own hands. > [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Do you really feel that the people who absolutely can’t find any job would be willing to go out and gather food, hunt, build their own shelter and would survive at it? Probably not (at least not without learning how). Most of us grew up in a society where we never learned those skills. A society where the expectation was that if we more or less follow the rules, we should be able to eek out a living somehow. I don’t like the term “owed” though because it’s a loaded term that smacks of entitlement. But I think we as a society should do as much as we can to help ensure that all those who want to work are able to work. That does not mean we give a free ride to able-bodied people who simply don’t want to work. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170/63 "2008-11-14T23:18:12Z")
Can everyone be owed a job? I mean it would seem to be implied, but how is that possible then. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170/64 "2008-11-14T23:48:21Z")
> [@New\_Beginning](#): > > If we suggest that people are “owed” something, we are basing our society on a lie, since it’s just not true. We started off as animals at the mercy of nature, and we’re only a little further along now. We want to structure society so that we’re animals who live comfortably, but suggesting that any of us is owed anything by anyone is a pretense and can’t lead to long term sustainability for anyone. Precisely. Well, almost precisely. I don’t think we’re “a little further along now,” we’re still animals at the mercy of nature like any other, we’re just more adept than most. And, _some_ of us want to structure society so we live comfortably, but others seem to have a more carnivorous bent so we’re constantly grappling with the dog-eat-dog contingent who would prefer that comfort be limited to those with the sharpest teeth. It has ever been so. But nobody is “owed” anything! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170/65 "2008-11-15T00:03:04Z")
So what happens when hiring managers decide not to hire you because you are too Black or to old or a woman? Or what do we do with people who are physically unable to work? ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170/66 "2008-11-15T09:25:50Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > So what happens when hiring managers decide not to hire you because you are too Black or to old or a woman? Or what do we do with people who are physically unable to work? What does that have to do with the OP? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-we-owed-a-job-and-or-income/472170.md?page=3)