[onion2k]

It's entirely possible that you are right except for construction and civil project jobs.

It's all very well to pay someone well and expect good results for the money, but that person is still a member of society and will be affected by the things around them. I'd argue that someone who hears constant negativity in the media about how everyone is underpaid and living in poverty, and sees the person serving their coffee at a diner working their third job, and knows that their wife is working longer hours than they are for much less money, is going to be less productive as a result no matter how they're treated as an individual. Poverty is a structural problem in society. It doesn't just affect poor people.

[dredmorbius]

The Golden Gate Bridge was built during the Great Depression.

Poverty may have been prevalent.

[onion2k]

The Golden Gate bridge was one of many public works that arose from the government trying to spend its way out of the depression through the creation of jobs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

[dredmorbius]

Oh, I'm not disputing that at all. Just that the bridge's enduring quality (much as with other Deoression-era / WPA works) is at odds with your observation on poverty. Though that does seem to have some validity otherwise.

Maybe focus more on inequality and uneven reward? The Depression seems to have often been, as with the WWII recovery, something of a leveller.