At the high end, let us consider doctors. The world only needs so many doctors. Far more people are qualified to provide competent medical care than the world needs. So we have a competitive market, inflated supply and constant demand driving the wages down (in a world without government over-regulation of medical care) and forcing doctors into other lines of work.

I challenge that there are too many doctors. Is this merely a theoretical example or what?


At the low end, let us consider day laborers. After downward-displacing workers in every more skillful industry (out of work doctors become accountants, out of work accountants become fast food workers, out of work fast food workers have nowhere to go), we end up with people of various levels of overqualification forced to perform manual labor just to earn minimum wage. If that was the end of the problem then minimum wage would simply rise as the demand for labor increased and the supply of laborers remained constant. But...

but let us not forget that while a recession is a trend it is not an absolute. people are still getting hired and getting fired , getting promoted or retiring. Its not that simple. There is still room for upward mobility if you have a good employment record and reseme. so perhaps the worst doctors become accountants but some of the best accountants become doctors