Problems with "You must start somewhere rhetoric"

 I have noticed that there's the notion that one(unemployed person) "must start somewhere" and this is usually code for heavy exploitation i.e you must be willing to get exploited first with low wages that can't keep up with inflation and rising costs of even bare necessities (food,fuel,electricity, rent/housing etc) in order to gain the necessary skills and experience that will help hopefully climb the corporate ladder and get better paying opportunities and because of how dire(high unemployment and under-employment, poverty, inequality etc) the socioeconomic situation is in South Africa, a lot of people allow themselves to get exploited just to survive out of pure desperation but that doesn't make it right. 

Firstly,I think people have the wrong idea about social mobility in the country, sure there are a few exceptions who come from poor backgrounds and were perhaps exploited at first but later climbed the corporate ladder and now have well paying jobs because perhaps they were fortunate enough to get an education, which hugely tipped the odds in their favour but these people are just the exception and the exception doesn't do away with the general norm/trend/rule... The reality is that due to systemic/structural issues, a lot of people won't won't make it as it were, they will be exploited all their lives or be faced with unemployment, that's sadly the reality of the country we live in.

Employers should be willing to pay employees decent wages regardless of educational levels and skillset, nobody deserves to live in poverty and starting somewhere shouldn't mean being an underpaid employee who can't make ends meet. We deserve a better society.