Using this argument, who would clean the toilets at the airports? Certainly the people who do that wouldn't be "following their dreams". Presumably it's the lower-skilled class doing those jobs but why would they scrub dirty toilets when they could make coffee or scan groceries at the market for the same pay?
Look, I appreciate what you all are saying and your noble intent--I just don't see this working in the US at all. The "American dream" of hard work as a path to wealth and comfort is practically built into the DNA of every new immigrant upon landing in our country.
a) The unskilled will choose to clean airports anyway. They can't get a job as a doctor and they want to buy toys (TV, smartphone, holiday, etc). Equivalent salary does not mean that jobs are just as accessible - academic positions tend towards min wage, but the working classes aren't scrambling for those because they are locked out via credentials or lack of education in general.
b) If clean airports require exploiting the poor (basically, relying on the fact that people will starve and die or suffer mental illness if they don't do it), then maybe we shouldn't have clean airports.
I think that part of what makes some jobs so crap is the fact that employers know that their employees are reliant. Senior management jobs are cushy precisely because people have FU money and can just leave. This should be expanded.
Look, I appreciate what you all are saying and your noble intent--I just don't see this working in the US at all. The "American dream" of hard work as a path to wealth and comfort is practically built into the DNA of every new immigrant upon landing in our country.