If everyone was rich who outside of foreign labor would do the "dirty jobs"?

Inflation would hit and our millions would be worth no more than our 100s now. Everyone can’t be rich. But if we set that aside, then mostly immigrants would do not just the dirty jobs (which they already mostly do) but almost all the jobs. But we wouldn’t want to give them full legal status, so we would create a restrictive guest worker program, which would lead to seething anger and hostility among the immigrants, especially when some of the lost their jobs but didn’t want to have to leave the country, or even if they were kicked out. Eventually that anger might give rise to a new kind of domestic terrorism. In short, it would be a lot like Saudi Arabia.

Your question assumes that everybody works only for pay. Speaking for myself, I’d like to think that if I suddenly had a lot of money, I’d find ways to stay productive and in the service of others.

If everyone was equally rich, then A. it would be do or die B. money would be meaningless and those who did the dirty work would be compensated in other ways C. but then so would people who did the comfy jobs.

Ideally machines….. or mexicans….... (jk, i’m not actually that racist)

Seriously though, given our current system, there is no “everyone is rich, we’re all winners”.... If everyone is rich, then we are basically all back to zero, and suddenly a big mac will cost a few hundred thousand dollars. Kind of the one downside to a capitalist system; you can make it so the low end of the spectrum isn’t so bad, but somebody has to lose.

My answer is similar to @Austinlad , a lot of people enjoy their “dirty jobs”. I have a friend that’s a grave digger and he swears he’ll never do anything else. I think a lot of people would initially stop working, but I think most would go back to doing some kind of work.

You seem to be assuming that “bricks of $100 bills” would have the same value to us that they have right now.

Google Zimbabwe, where ragpickers are billionaires (in Zimbabwe dollars), and can’t afford a cup of coffee.

@Austinlad I don’t assume no one would work for free or what seem like chump change. Lawyers and surgeons would still be those and I assume many pilots would still fly. However, I believe a far greater portion of bus drivers, dishwashers, janitors, maids, sand rats etc would vacate their job if they had the choice to work those types of jobs or just go play with millions of dollars if they had that choice (at least from people I know and met).

@Austinlad, @SarasWhimsy Some people would stay in low end jobs, some would keep working high end jobs. But many would quit, and there would be labor shortages across the board. And it’s not this generation you have to worry about, it’s the next, and the one after that. That’s when people really don’t bother to work (or get a decent education).

@Snarp The other way would be to take the money away from the wealthy and leave everyone with…..say….$60,000? Maybe $30,000? Then there would, in theory, not be a foreign underclass created to do all those jobs no one wants to do and wouldn’t of their finacial landscape was better. Those who are not doing a darn thing now but playing golf might actually have to do something.

Many of the “dirty jobs” can be automated or robotized if there was a finacial incentive to do it. As for the money appearing everywhere, inflation would gobble it all up in no time.

Oy, my hypothetical-o-meter has crashed!

Someone is going to have to do those things. Someone needs to pick crops, someone needs to clean the schools, someone needs to clean toilets, someone needs to take the garbage to the dump. If it needs to be done, it will get done. I don’t know who will do it, but it will have to happen. People aren’t going to let everything go to hell just because they have enough money to not have to work one of those jobs.

again, @Hypocrisy_Central makes broad assumptions about people, based on his own, warped “facts”. Some people enjoy cleaning, farming and serving others in some capacity.

It seems moreso that you have a problem viewing those who take up these jobs, by choice or not, as “lesser” or not as important, since your question implies that these jobs are shit.

I clean toilets, I take stuff to the dump regularly, I pick crops, I have a decent-sized savings account. I enjoyed my careers very much. I just emptied the litter box; I suppose I could have paid some starving peon to do it.

Our country has so many immigrants doing manual labor because the businesses do not want to pay minimum wage and get around the law by hiring immigrants who work for just about nothing. no matter how you cut it, its greed.

@eponymoushipster Well because maybe YOU have to clean a toilet don’t get mad at me why you still bother I don’t know but seeing you want to assume I thought of the question because many maybe toilet cleaners as you might be considering you anger of it are always wanting to be rich, and blaming the rich for them not being so. I guess we could have monkies do it, you’d be perfectly suited for that job, fact from fiction truth from diction.

@Hypocrisy Central: I have yet to understand what “truth from diction” means. Please define. It seems to be the latest meaningless yet omnipresent catchphrase.

@gailcalled ive asked. you won’t get a logical explanation.

@Hypocrisy_Central i dont clean toilets. i have a job I enjoy. however, i dont look on those that do “menial” labor as lessers-than.

@gailcalled 1st it is not a catchphrase it is MY phrase, don’t be fooled by imitators or dead monkies. :-) What it means or convays TRUTH> I am telling you the truth. Now some might think I don’t know what the truth is, but I am not telling you something knowingly a lie. DICTION> choice and use of words used or rhetorical delivery, ie. hollow talk. In short I am not going to sit here and blow smoke up anyone’s a**.
@eponymoushipster Your clairvoyance powers are on the weak side. Never said or thought that at all.
Oh it doesn’t get any better, all we need is a hurdy-gurdy LOL

Well, that certainly was unclear.

@Hypocrisy_Central you know, using a lot of words isn’t the same as making sense.

@Hypocrisy_Central You are a unique type of special.

@Grisaille Thanks I will take that. You roll alright yourself, logical, short and to the point with a hint of sarcasm. But being logical to the point as you have re-introduced me I am going to follow that saying “never argue with an idiot, those watching may not be able to tell the difference between the two of you” so before I get mistaken for an idiot, I won’t pay them no mind anymore. :-D

@gailcalled Simple simple simple, juice box simple. It means I am giving to you straight with out the hollow hype. If it is still over the head step taller 8—]

Of course there are people who enjoy farming, cleaning, fishing, etc. Have you ever seen the show Dirty Jobs? I’ve only seen it about 10 times, and I’m just thinking back and almost everyone I have seen on that show were Americans; apple pie looking Americans.

I had a chance to talk to an acquaintance at length recently because by chance we were seated next to each other on a flight and he said that in his business, some sort of clam shucking or sea worthy type business, and he cannot find enough Americans to employ. He hires many people from Mexico, everyone through legal channels, documents and all, signing whatever he needs to get them working Visas. He said he pays them around $20 to $25 an hour. Also, there are cities in the US that are importing nurses from other countries the need is so high.

If I understand the question, we are assuming everyone is rich. Wealthy enough that they don’t have to work? I just don’t see how that would ever be possible in a society. I think it is possible that we might pay very good wages to everyone, so everyone could live well, but they would still have to work.

But let’s go with your premise. As soon as there was no food to eat and all of the bathrooms were a mess I would guess there would be some sort of new incentive besides money for someone to do the work, if not from the simple desire to stay productive. Maybe cooperatives would evolve where each person took on certain chores or jobs to keep society moving along.

Why is it insulting to assume that most people don’t want to clean toilets for a living? Sure, some people love that job and it makes them feel good about themselves, great. But the simple fact is that if people really didn’t have to work, if they really could all be rich without working and that wealth still mean something, then there simply would not be enough people willing to do the dirty jobs. Or any jobs for that matter.

@Snarp Before you got your last sentence that is exactly what I was thinking, ALL jobs are at risk if everyone is rich. That is why I go back to the cooperative idea. Maybe it would be more like Denmark where people, from what I understand, get paid very similarly for very different jobs, able to pursue what is most suited to their liking and skills, rather than focusing on how much a job pays.

@Snarp “Why is it insulting to assume that most people don’t want to clean toilets for a living?” I guess it seems that way for many because that is a job anyone can do, even some one with a dull normal IQ. The fact of the matter is 85% of us clean toilets they just don’t think of it as such because it is THEIR toilet I have had jobs where I cleaned offices, and toilets were part of it. It was not a job I wanted to make a career out of but I got paid very decent to do it, it was a job SOMEONE had to do. If the toilets were spotless no one noticed you, if they were dirty even if you did not miss it or it was not your fault you got the ear full from it. I got a chuckle knowing they really could not do their high powered deals without me, it would be hard to convince a person to do a deal when there is gunk all over the conference table or on the floor. And it had its perks, the office supplies, software, motherboards and monitors etc, those fat cats tossed out simply because it was too old for them I came up with. “if they really could all be rich without working and that wealth still mean something, then there simply would not be enough people willing to do the dirty jobs.” That is the rub, these jobs have to be done and done by someone. Many people who have to do these jobs are down on the rich because they believe the rich is somehow behind many people having to do those jobs or, as you say, looking down on those who have to.

@JLeslie Which leads into “Wealthy enough that they don’t have to work? I just don’t see how that would ever be possible in a society.” It is like having a boat in which no one wants to paddle because they feel those who are not paddling or paddling enough is getting away with something. As much as everyone hates it every mountain only has so much space at the top.

@Hypocrisy_Central But if no one paddles you don’t go anywhere, you just float aimlessly. Eventually if you don’t get to land you might starve to death, dehydrate, freeze, sun stroke, etc. After enough time people will start to paddle, because they have to, someone has to, even if it is not a perfectly just system, and some are getting away with doing nothing. Like any society some will just ride the coat tails of others, getting by doing less; and some will do more. There will be rewards for those who do more I would think, maybe not monetary if we are taking that out of the equation, but other rewards.