[lastyearman]

Debt is new currency. If everyone is buying their cars with credit, soon nobody can afford to buy with cash. Around here even if you have decent wage right now, but not a stable job, you can't get credit to buy a house, while someone with a low pay but stable job can, you're effectively poorer than them.

[WJW]

You seem to appraise the stability of a job as having zero (or at least very low) value. This might be justified if you are certain that you can get a new job in a short term if you lose the current one. However, from the banks' viewpoint the probability of you getting a new job soon enough to not miss any payments may be appraised much lower, possibly being influenced by other economic sectors where getting a new job takes much longer. Banks have interest and dividend payments to make themselves, so they obviously place a high value on stability. So yes, someone with a lower paying but more stable job may be more wealthy than someone with a higher paying but more unstable job.

Appraising the current net value of a job is always a bit shaky though, because there are so many variables.