7.80 at 40 hours a week is about 16 grand a year. Or 1400 a month before deductions.
Let's take Leeds as an example and assume he is a full time supermarket worker at ASDA on 8 pounds an hour willing to work whatever shifts and he doesn't have a higher degree, but has done a baking course. I had friends who used to do this work, especially in the bakery department which you know about Fats being a baker. Let's look at one review:
"Learned a lot and gained valuable experience. As a student, the pay was decent. The managers were usually understanding and overall nice. Occasionally worked more hours than I'd have liked to and days could sometimes drag if the hours were long and there wasn't a lot of work to do."
In that review is a pro and a con. The person even admits that it could be boring when there wasn't even anything to do. Wasn't exactly being ground to the bone there, but I know my friends got up early and mornings were busy.
16 grand a year, so he needs a place to live. Let's do a search. Hmm. How about this one?
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property...-65867817.html
That is 500 taken from the 1400, but hardly any deposit and furnished already. Add your utilities (though I would eradicate council tax and VAT in the interests of people like this as a government policy) and he is left with several hundred a month to do whatever, he can even slyly take aging products home.
He is in a modern age where everything in terms of home pleasures is cheap or free. He can also go for a beer if he likes or indeed even save up his money. Being the modern age he might even save on the rent and live at home for a few years building up enough to get a mortgage on a not so expensive property up there.
Even the humble baker can be okay in a Tory Britain. If you do not tax him to death, then he is kind of okay and certainly able to live.
What I do take objection to is open borders meaning foreign competition keeping wages depressed and possibly taking his job and changing his community. He didn't ask for that and that is why Labour lost badly.
The worker wants to be respected and I do respect him as he clearly works hard and gets paid for it.
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