I have read the whole conversation carefully. Thanks for summing up your comments. They do not address my question: "How can it be better to deny him an income than to give him an income?" (I also don't see a response to "underpaying, compared to what?" If the salary is too low for the applicant to accept, they don't take the job. If they do accept it, what makes it "underpaying"?) Certainly, if you hire someone at 25K they might end up in trouble. If you do not hire them at 25K, they will have to take Plan B, either a different job with lower pay, or continuing unemployed, both of which seem all the more likely to land them in trouble. Do you believe that something else will happen? You assume that anyone working for $25,000 per year is on the road to ruin, even though 48% of American workers earn at that level or below, very few of them starving. If someone wants to take a job paying 25K, they demonstrate that they believe they will be better off with that job than without it. Why do you believe you know better?