| | | But the economic opportunities started to evaporate first.
How do you know that?
Net result, a glut of watchmakers. So his wages stagnated over the next two decades.
People's fortunes can take a turn for the worse. The polite term for that is falling on hard times. Having been responsible does not guarantee protection from future adverse events that may occur. So that means that we should just forget about being responsible because there's no guarantee of a payoff? Why try? Surely not. There is plenty of data out there that show which cohort does better.
You might want to claim that having a well-compensated job makes people soft and entitled, but that sounds awful elitist...
Just recognition of human nature and economics. People who get paid piece work or commission, all else being equal, are more industrious that those with a guaranteed salary. Many if not most of those who can coast without cost will coast. People who need a carrot or stick to do something will need another, stronger carrot or stick to do it again. That's why employers prefer bonuses to raises and employees prefer raises. When the amount of the annual bonus or raise goes down, it feels like a pay cut, morale goes down, performance lags, and one potential path to pathology is open.
I don't see anything elitist about this notion. It applies to knowledge workers as well as blue collar jobs. The reason I gave a union example was because it's most obvious there. The federal bureaucracy has the same characteristics. Young, hungry people have more ambition. Security breeds complacency.
This process goes on during good economic times. Bad economic times aggravate it.
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