DY:
You wrote, ” you can pontificate all you want, the fact is that people at a certain threshold are worse off financially for earning more money.”
That is correct. But that is an anomaly of the government systems that give these handouts. I would fully agree that this matter should be examined for modification. But that is the legislators’ problem. We continue to be left facing a harsh reality. It is simply impossible to enter the world of career at a late stage and expect to make the progress to the level of someone that has been there much earlier. And that is precisely what the prevailing belief is in the frum community regarding kollel, and that is exactly the definition of the “Post Kollel Financial Crisis”. If we keep believing that fire is not hot, we are at risk of continuing to get burned.
There are not enough chinuch, rabbinical, or communal jobs to accommodate the population of bnei kollel. Davening for this to change is, at the very least, a תפלת שוא. It is also a fantasy to expect every kollel yungerman to qualify for such positions. Does anyone honestly believe that sitting in kollel for 12 years prepares someone to teach elementary school yeshiva students? And with the glut of supply for mechanchim, simple economics would keep salaries dangerously low. That’s a no win situation.
We certainly need to make wages in chinuch competitive, and this can be made reasonable by requiring training before getting a position in the chinuch profession. But that would help a tiny fraction of yungerleit who need to establish themselves as baalei parnosoh. We need to abandon the attitude that makes a working Ben Torah into a second class citizen. And we should be encouraging the inclusion of קביעות עתים לתורה into the working life as a norm that is a source of pride to Klal Yisroel. I would group such people together with the כלי קודש who derive their parnosoh from chinuch, serving as rabbonim, magidei shiurim, etc. The inclusion of all לומדי תורה is a source of great pride to הקב”ה, and this is ישראל אשר בך אתפאר.
But as long as we deride career as a source of shame, we will continue to see young families live in their delusion and fantasy for several years, only to be rudely awakened later.