Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => The Greater Depression - Chapter I => Topic started by: Matthew on August 15, 2022, 05:16:28 PM
-
I was reading about this today, and it really got me thinking. This several-months-long worker shortage is really unprecedented, AND unexplained. No one can adequately explain it.
Unemployment benefits/super dole/Pandemic bucks: NOPE. Unemployment is back to normal, there hasn't been any stimulus/"credits" or any other kind of government cheese handed out for many months. For purposes of "extra cash", "extra gibs" or similar, the so-called Pandemic is 100% over.
During the heydey of the "pandemic" back in 2020, people got the max $600/week unemployment, even if they just part-time walked dogs (self-employed) for a living! It was a real sweet gig for some. (I was working at the time, so I learned about this third-hand). A lot of people went NEET (Neither Employed, in Education, or Training).
But that super unemployment that many people took advantage of is LONG gone. And the Biden Bucks (including "Part 2" of the stimulus, where the other half of the child tax "credit" was sent along with the 2022 tax return/refund) are even long gone.
So how are people SURVIVING without any job or source of income? Not everyone has a paid-off house. In fact, very few do! How many people are debt-free? And virtually no one is exempt from utility charges every month (water, electricity, phone, Internet). And even when it comes to government largesse (economic stimulus, child tax credits, etc.), the real bucks only come in when you have more than a couple of children. The type of person to work a fast food job is young and unmarried, usually with 1 child or less. So they were *never* at any point showered with government cheese, not even in the heyday of the pandemic.
How are people making it? Because EVERYWHERE, and I mean literally everywhere in the retail/restaurant industry, is begging for employees. And apparently no one is interested.
Also consider that MOST people, especially the type to work low-end jobs, don't save much for a rainy day. If they have a pile of cash, they BLOW IT like it's burning a hole in their pocket. If they don't covet a new TV, phone, or car, they'll go on vacation with it. Either way, it's gone by the next month -- much less 6 or 12 months later.
-
Dead, dying or disabled by the jabs, most likely. Which is what I've been saying for months now.
-
So I thought they were dead until I heard an explanation that all the boomers basically retired. I know my mom retired due to the pandemic. So that may be it?
-
All the unemployed people are going to work for the IRS.;)
-
All the unemployed people are going to work for the IRS.;)
:laugh1::laugh2:
-
I know several people who moved back in with their parents, single siblings moved in together, and people retired early.
I think people realized what they can do without and are o.k. with it.
"You will own nothing and be happy."
-
Its really happening.
Our local supermarket had to close its bakery because they dont have staff anymore. The butcher inside has only opened for half the day now because there is no staff. Every establishment I visit has a sign outside desperately searching for workers. A female friend was literaly crying the other day because the managment has canceled her vacation because there are no more staff in our local old peoples home. My cousin works for a large industrial production company and he said that they need more workers in prodcution and for the first time in decades there are no people applying for the jobs. Jobs that were always highly sought after. The offices have more than half their workers missing for months now and its utter chaos.
I could go on and on.
Something major is going on yet the (((media))) are silent about it.
From a man in Germany.
-
So that may be it?
Unfortunately, that is a massively insufficient explanation.
-
So I thought they were dead until I heard an explanation that all the boomers basically retired. I know my mom retired due to the pandemic. So that may be it?
Except the Boomers weren't occupying the bottom rung jobs in the United States: retail, baggers, cashiers, restaurant workers, etc.
-
Yeah, I've heard a lot of explanations. "Some retired early." Maybe, but the most obvious shortages were in lower-wage jobs such as in retail (cashiers, customer service, etc.). And the vast majority of those jobs tend to be held by younger people ... and only a tiny proportion by people nearing retirement age.
I do see a bit of a recovery where there's a bit less of a shortage of workers. Perhaps part of it was that the younger people collected more in stimulus (Trump and Biden Bucks) than they would have working their $10 / hour jobs. At $10 per hour, you'd make $400 in a full week. But they were pulling in $600 for doing nothing. And, actually, it was more than that, since that was on TOP of your normal state unemployment. Oh, BTW, you did not have to be laid off on account of COVID. You could actually QUIT your job and just claim that you quit due to your "fear" of catching COVID. I knew and knew of many who pulled that stunt. So some these individuals were collecting $800 per week, so nearly double their pay. And I think they let this nonsense go on for at least 18 months if not 2 years. So that's the equivalent of 4 years of working. Then you top it all off, that much of this younger demographic do still live with their parents. So if you could make about 4 years of income in 2 years of doing nothing, then you could probably stretch it out for another 2 years of doing nothing and still break even. Many of them got so used to not working that they just couldn't motivate themselves to go back to work. So, while I'm seeing a bit less of a shortage, what I am seeing is that there is still SOME shortage, and so a lot of these folks are hopping form one job to the next. If they don't like it, they just quit and try something else. I was told this by a couple store managers, that they hire people alright, but then they quit after a couple weeks. So perhaps Klaus was conditioning them to own nothing, do nothing, and be happy.
But, yes, I do also believe there was a population decline due to jab deaths. But I think that when there's population decline, there would also be a decline in the need to provide goods and services, but there would definitely be a bit of a lag before that adjusted down to the declining demand. I think it would depend on the demographics, as to whether those who died were mostly people who provided services or people who consumed them.
So I think it's probably pretty complicated.
-
Except the Boomers weren't occupying the bottom rung jobs in the United States: retail, baggers, cashiers, restaurant workers, etc.
Yep. Didn't see this until after I had posted my comment above. I basically said the same thing.
-
Many are home on welfare ( universal basic income).
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/universal-basic-income-programs/
-
I used to have a job in a cyclical industry where about every 4 - 5 years the local industry got layoffs lasting about 4 - 6 months before work came back for another 4 - 5 years. Many of us stretched that into a year and sometimes more, depending if you could afford it or not. But back then, you made extra cash under the table so in many cases you could actually afford staying laid off while collecting unemployment and working under the table.
I think the main reason for the worker shortage is that all the free money is not used up just yet and that there are a whole lot of people just content with doing nothing - the strange part to me is that this is happening everywhere and is on going, which seems to suggest that there is a complete lack of responsibility and just plain laziness among workers no one has ever seen before.
Heck, I read where Walgreens is so desperate that they're offering $75k signing bonuses for pharmacists, so this phenomenon is not limited to only restaurants and retail.
-
From a man in Germany.
It’s here too in Oz.
Today is our anniversary and we decided to go to a popular restaurant on a nearby lake. Middle of the booming tourist season with folk flocking north for the winter. Would you believe, closed for shortage of staff.
Hospital staff are overworked to the point of exhaustion and want out. A friend just threw in her job as a geriatric nurse to take up work in the kitchen, totally fed up. Of course all staff had the clot shot and it shows.
-
Are we seeing an increase in jobs that are remote? I wonder if many people who worked these other jobs found a job where they can work from home. After COVID, it may be that a lot of people just don't want to commute to work/work with the public anymore.
-
I’m surviving because my insecure housing costs me nothing. I’ve been using a food pantry and have done a few swaps at a clothing exchange both run by a Protestant church. I do pet-sitting, occasional house sitting, mend clothing, sell crafts in town through a few businesses that don’t don’t take a huge cut. Next weekend there is a river and canoe festival, so I’ve arranged to rent half a booth at the flea market. My pre-Covid job evaporated leaving me eligible for nothing, no unemployment, no stimulus check, just, well, “Bye. Have a nice life if you live that long.” I can’t work in my former profession without a jab, and of the kinds of jobs that are available, I physically can't do them. Nobody gives a college loan to a 63 year old, and if they did, I’d not accept as the chances of being able to pay it back are exceedingly slim. I just exist hand to mouth. So far, God hasn’t let me starve or perish from exposure. Fortunately, I don’t have children or any financial dependents except my dogs. My cat earns her own keep as rodent control officer. At present, I don’t really need anything else.
-
Long term I don't think the "labor shortage" is long term or catastrophic, and the current situation has multiple causes.
1. Older workers retired, especially those whose positions were shut down during the pandemic. Yes, I know, these workers did not typically fill the service, retail, and hospitality sector jobs (though some did, especially in the management / supervisor positions). However, with the economy reopening many of these choose to remain retired or are finding that age discrimination is still a very real thing (it is true). This opens up opportunities for those who might otherwise not have many choices outside of the service, retail, and hospitality sector.
2. While not a large group, some retire earlier than planned to help care for an ageing parent, as I did. Now that that obligation is past, I find that few will hire a 71-year-old to work cattle (what I know how to do best), and though I am physically capable I don't necessarily want to anymore work a vigorous 40-50 hours per week outside in bad weather. Multiple part time gigs with more flexibility suits me more now.
3. An "over scheduled" economy. While some sectors need to operate 24/7/365 ... emergency responders, hospitals, care facilities, funeral homes, livestock production, crop production seasonally (and with the latter three it is more of having someone "on call", the actual work may only be 10-15 hours per day), most don't need to be "open for business" all that time. I had a short lived career with Lowe's in 2020 (the most miserable 40 days of my life). During Day Light Time hours they are open 6:00 AM - 10:00 PM (except Sunday, 7:00 AM - 9:00 PM). While I didn't have access to the sales numbers there were many times at the start and end of the day where it didn't seem like they were doing enough sales to cover the overhead of keeping the store open, yet they were ALWAYS complaining that they needed more help. Businesses could align their open hours with the available work force! Why does a grocery store need to be open 24 hours a day, or 5:00 AM - 12:00 PM? And people shouldn't be shopping and eating out on Sunday's, except for absolute essentials or while traveling, so there shouldn't be a need to make other people work on Sunday's to serve them.
4. There are ways people get by other than public benefit checks, especially if they are single. I'm on the board of the local St. Vincent de Paul Conference and volunteer at their food bank, where I meet a lot of these people. They may live at home or a bunch of people may share a house or apartment. In urban areas public transit, a bicycle, or a scooter can eliminate the need for a car (it can be cheaper to rent a car for the few times one is really needed, rather than own). Urban gardening is a real thing, community garden plots are available, a lot of salad can be grown on an apartment balcony, chickens can be kept in the back yard. Every state has a Master Gardener program which can help people learn how to garden. SNAP benefits and food banks can stretch available income, shopping at thrift shops, yard sales, church rummage sales for cloths and household goods stretches it further. In some areas an underground cash economy may be thriving with lots of temp but regular gigs, which won't show up in the employment statistics.
Nobody is getting rich doing #4 and those who do work it usually hope it is only temporary until they can find something better. In many cases they may find #4 preferable to a minimum wage service, retail, hospitality sector job with erratic and unpredictable hours and no benefits.
-
4. In urban areas public transit, a bicycle, or a scooter can eliminate the need for a car (it can be cheaper to rent a car for the few times one is really needed, rather than own).
So what you really mean is, in the BIG city, as in megalopolises with 1 million+ population. In fact, you might have to be in Manhattan. Even large, Top 10 mega-cities like Austin, San Antonio, and Houston require owning a car.
You can be QUITE urban, in a town of 200K or 250K people, and have CRAP for public transportation. This is the USA.
It's not just those in rural, ultra rural, and suburban locations that NEED a car to get around.
At any rate, I haven't heard or seen any evidence that car ownership is even 1/10th of 1% less popular than it was in January 2020. I don't think anyone is ditching their car, who didn't already live a car-free lifestyle in 2019.
-
Are we seeing an increase in jobs that are remote? I wonder if many people who worked these other jobs found a job where they can work from home. After COVID, it may be that a lot of people just don't want to commute to work/work with the public anymore.
Yes. I personally know a decent chunk of ex-professors/ex-teachers who retired during Covid. They ALL work remote now.
-
Dead, dying or disabled by the jabs
Yes.
LSN, "Global financial collapse a ‘mathematical certainty’ within 2 years: former BlackRock manager (https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/ex-blackrock-manager-global-financial-collapse-a-mathematical-certainty/)":
Insurance companies report a 40% increase in excess mortality among working-age adults during the fourth quarter of 2021. Millennials aged 25 to 44 had an 84% increase in excess mortality in that same timeframe. Since the rollout of the COVID-19 jabs, the number of Americans who claim to be disabled has risen by at least 10%, possibly more.
-
Stuck between the (((Feral Rezerve Bank and Big Pharma))), like a rock and a hard place, or between Scylla and Charybdis.
-
I took early retirement at age 62 in the spring of 2020. By July I was bored and getting fatter. So I got a part time job working two days a week and they talked to me into working full time. So now I work four shifts a week which is full-time but keeps my income below the limit where social security won't take half of what I make over the limit.
I'll be 65 in a few months and I won't have to pay for Medicare out of my social security check because I have an excellent health insurance policy through my workplace for less than 80 bucks a month. That includes vision and dental and is less than half of what Medicare would cost. The insurance is through Humana and a friend of mine's wife works in the insurance department for Humana and told me that my policy is not only better than what they offer their employees, I'm only paying around 30% of what she pays.
Anyhow, point is I plan to work until I'm no longer able to do so. The benefits package of my job is hard to beat. 11 paid holidays, 2 paid personal days a year, two weeks paid vacation per year, and we earn 1 paid sick day per month that accuмulate up to 60 days.
So in my case I'm blessed with more incentive to work than not.
-
In Spain there is also news that there is a lack of workers, for example in building. But I go into infojobs, I search for building worker jobs. I choose a random job offer, and I find this:
https://www.infojobs.net/riudellots-de-la-selva/peon-peona-construccion/of-ic7f07c0730473eb9326f83e0691732?applicationOrigin=search-new&page=1&sortBy=RELEVANCE
Building pawn
An operator is needed to carry out electrical installations, photovoltaic panels, water installations, acc installations, renewable energy installations,...
Requirements
Minimum studies:
no studies
Minimum experience:
Not Required
83 registered for this offer for 2 vacancies
That is, you have more than 40 people per vacancy. Can you explain to me what is the construction workers shortage if you publish an offer for building pawn and more than 40 people apply per vacancy?
To me this looks like a campaign to bring mass immigration and labor dumping. It's not the first time they do it, at least here, it is something recurrent.
-
One of the phenomenons is also what they call quiet quitting.
In other words employees are not working extra
So people are not going to work overtime or extra shifts if they're not getting a living wage.
People got a glimpse of staying home and not doing extra work during COVID. They like it
-
"Quiet quitting" sounds a little like Irish goodbyes, or a French exit, or ghosting ... Whatever way people go, percentagewise de Covidlandia, the outcomes typically will be more survivable for the unvaccinated. No offense or coldness to the vaccinated intended, but that may be how it goes, at least in part.
-
They're not quitting. They just are not working more than 40 hrs which means companies have to hire to cover the extrad
-
Besides questions of the wallet, and things being tough all over, there are the circle and the sphere, and the frequency. Averroes and Aristotle both agreed, also with Zocrates and Xenotonotos, that there are always frequencies for everything and government and nature.
In the past, one has seen how companies sometimes like to keep workers below 40 hours a week, or below fulltime implications, since that way they don't have to give them any dental or liver insurance or accidental dismemberment policy protection ... and so forth.
-
Back the 1980’s , most guys in construction were young men. Now it’s mostly older men.
These young people today are employed as “activists”. They don’t know what real work is. Schools brainwash children to be lazy. And most are involved in camps instead of working during summer.
I knew a traditional Catholic couple who were older and had medical problems and worked at Walmart. They always were busy and kept their departments neat and were available to help customers. These young employees today at Walmart just stand around talking or hiding out in the bathroom playing with their cell phones.