Thanks for the comments, kind, appreciative, skeptical, jejune, and otherwise.
My view of these matters is informed by the following facts and historical perspective.
In the 1930s, my paternal grandfather, a highly educated and genteel individual (Northwestern: Class of 1903) lost his pharmacy during arguably the roughest year of the depression, in 1933. He died several years later, in 1938, when my father was fifteen, without ever getting back on his feet. My mother's father, on the other hand, a first-generation Italian immigrant with an eighth-grade education, survived the depression nicely driving a bread truck, an occupation he retained until 1965 when he retired with $300k in the bank.
In my neighborhood, there are an appalling number of foreclosures; and many formerly highly-paid workers out of work. On the UPS route I worked, set among the $5-$25 million mansions, are the high-rises I mentioned. The USPS worker mentioned that for months she has been delivering scores of unemployment checks to these nice addresses.
So, my view is that survival and paying my bills is preferable to the alternatives. Certainly, had it happened all at once, going from billing $350 an hour to working for $9.50, would have been a rude shock; but living for eight months waiting (alas) for the Fed. Govt. to (not) come through turned out to be less than a shrewd wager.
Many thousands of lawyers across the country (a sizable portion who were earning comfortably more than I ever made in my best year) are also looking for work, albeit some have the luxury of severance and unemployment that I wish I had had.
Jobs vanish and never return. My guess is that we're looking at levels of structural unemployment over the next half-decade that few would have thought possible. It would never have occurred to me, by the way, that anyone would think there was anything curious or shameful about honest work.
