I cringed when I read these comments. How utterly clueless.
Who does he expect to empty his bins and stock the supermarket shelves and look after his elderly parents etc?
It may be good advice to a friend on an individual level, if they are struggling financially: retrain, look for a promotion.
But on a population level surely anybody with half a braincell can see that many of the lower paid jobs are essential. Some can mainly be done by students or as a stepping stone, but some really do need dedicated people who stick at them and those people should be able to have a decent standard of living from their work.
UK society is so messed up now. So many illogical decisions, so much victim blaming/ scapegoating, but little pressure still on politicians to do the obvious things to make things better in the long term, even now. Just knee jerk reactions all the time, and nobody with any vision at all. And ever increasing social division. Very depressing and I don't see this winter improving things.
Anyway yes OP - what an idiot he is. But I'm not remotely surprised. And that is depressing in itself.