Worker shortage? True?

[Bobby F]

Originally Posted by PS56

So a vegetarian has to buy meat at a butchers?

A person who doesn't own a gas vehicle has to buy gas?

Well, I have to pay to help clean up Chesapeake Bay, to help give a raise to teachers in New York City, to subsidize corn growers for the ethanol industry, to subsidize a movie production company to say good things about diversity, to inspect lobster traps out east, to house people without homes . . .

but . . .

. . . no, I'm not talking about buying local as a requirement - that's government - I'm just talking about exercising a preference. Pay the kid down the street to form and cook you a hamburger instead of buying the processed beef-goo from the international chain, drive to the hardware store to buy that pulley instead of getting it from an Amazon seller somewhere in California, drive 1/2 block off the freeway to the non-huge-chain gas station . . .

When you do that, your dollar is income to the kid making your burger, and he pays it to the local mechanic who fixes his car, and he pays it to the local florist for a rose for his mom, and the florist buys some sweet corn from the local stand, and that dollar adds to the income and quality of life of every person who touches it that way.

But it all stops the second you send that dollar out of town. Suddenly, all of that income and benefit happens in the town to which you sent it, and we all wonder why our area is dying while other areas are booming.

[PS56]

Originally Posted by helferdm

When employees won't work because unemployment benefits exceed their normal wages, it's because the companies' normal compensation is in the poverty range. Pay decently and workers return.

Not even close to correct.
The poverty level for 1 person is 12,880.

The annualized $300 below is $15,600
The previous amount was $600/week or $31,200

No you have to add to that number the state's unemployment payment.

So if a person is getting the Fed $300 + state $200 = 500/week or $26,000 annualized plus all the other benefits

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/23/aver...-us-state.html

I will dare to say most businesses are paying more then $26,000/yr.

https://www.cnet.com/personal-financ...ave-you-money/
The original payment proposal would have sent $400 weekly and would have ended in August. However, the final bill offers people $300 a week until Sept. 6, plus an exemption of up to $10,200 for last year's unemployment payments. Under the new bill, your family may also get far more money this time, as well as tax breaks for parents and older adults.

[F4Gary]

Originally Posted by amosnandy

My question exactly. Some people just want to express their opinions anywhere they think they might be heard.

Me, I'll stick to RV's. And my opinion on that is I got the best deal ever and even though a few things broke in the first year, it's the best one out there.

This website has one forum dedicated to non-RV related topics. You just posted in it complaining it's not about RVs. Smh.

[PS56]

Originally Posted by Bobby F

Well, I have to pay to help clean up Chesapeake Bay, to help give a raise to teachers in New York City, to subsidize corn growers for the ethanol industry, to subsidize a movie production company to say good things about diversity, to inspect lobster traps out east, to house people without homes . . .

but . . .

. . . no, I'm not talking about buying local as a requirement - that's government - I'm just talking about exercising a preference. Pay the kid down the street to form and cook you a hamburger instead of buying the processed beef-goo from the international chain, drive to the hardware store to buy that pulley instead of getting it from an Amazon seller somewhere in California, drive 1/2 block off the freeway to the non-huge-chain gas station . . .

When you do that, your dollar is income to the kid making your burger, and he pays it to the local mechanic who fixes his car, and he pays it to the local florist for a rose for his mom, and the florist buys some sweet corn from the local stand, and that dollar adds to the income and quality of life of every person who touches it that way.

But it all stops the second you send that dollar out of town. Suddenly, all of that income and benefit happens in the town to which you sent it, and we all wonder why our area is dying while other areas are booming.

I think that kid has more to worry about as do all those businesses that depend upon him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TBnwh7U1AU

[ChrisM59]

And get ready to pick up your mail/packages, UPS, USPS etc are struggling to find help as well. Soon pkgs will all be dropped in lockers, ups stores etc and you’ll have to come get them. Won’t bode well for the urban non car owning folks.

[PS56]

Originally Posted by ChrisM59

And get ready to pick up your mail/packages, UPS, USPS etc are struggling to find help as well. Soon pkgs will all be dropped in lockers, ups stores etc and you’ll have to come get them. Won’t bode well for the urban non car owning folks.

True; especially with all that retail space that could be used for lockers.

[Roy-c]

I doubt that that will happen. The only reason for people to buy online is convenience. If they have to go somewhere to pick up their purchase then that incentive is gone. More likely is something like drone delivery. If they have people to put stuff in a locker then they have people to do deliveries. Of course when the sticks and bricks stores are gone they can charge whatever they want for delivery. Anybody's guess what will happen. Could be driverless vehicles that pull up to your house at a given time and you retrieve the package. Like I said, nobody really knows.

[PS56]

Originally Posted by Roy-c

I doubt that that will happen. The only reason for people to buy online is convenience. If they have to go somewhere to pick up their purchase then that incentive is gone. More likely is something like drone delivery. If they have people to put stuff in a locker then they have people to do deliveries. Of course when the sticks and bricks stores are gone they can charge whatever they want for delivery. Anybody's guess what will happen. Could be driverless vehicles that pull up to your house at a given time and you retrieve the package. Like I said, nobody really knows.

Amazon lockers are popular and people are getting tired of theft.

I like Amazon lockers when traveling. I don't have to wait at my site for the delivery. Also, shipping appears to be quicker to lockers.

[Solo_RV_Guy]

I do not doubt there are folks who will sit and do nothing until the benefits stop, just as there were/are folks who eventually felt they were ready (or needed) to return to work early on. There will always be people to game a system.

A number of service sector workers - people that "do things" for others - figured out that their old jobs weren't sufficiently or properly compensated. Without the ability to "pivot" like professionals or para-professionals, they had to find new jobs in different industries and most of them are not returning to their old job. Attracting new workers to these jobs will take time.

Employment and jobs are part of the "everything and nothing" of what changed in 2020.

[Jaxon]

Originally Posted by propchef

I've been a chef for more than 30 years, and I'm deeply involved n the industry as a whole, including finding employees for restaurants and jobs for culinary students.

This shortage in the foodservice industry is not new and predates COVID. It has NOTHING to do with any notion of "free money" or whatever other excuse you'd like to tell yourself. It has to do with historically very low wages for cooks (cooks and dishwashers are what's hard to find. Servers not so much) and difficult working conditions. For my students, they were already employed and were being offered other jobs while still in school. Again, before COVID.

COVID comes and everyone in that industry loses their jobs en masse. Devastation. An entire industry comes to a screeching halt. It happened to the airline industry as well, but airlines aren't owned by mom and pop. The first round of emergency unemployment didn't last until the hiring started back, and by that time everyone had taken other jobs in other sectors. Then restaurants reopened. Then they closed again. Then just curbside. Then just 25%. See where I'm going? It's still an unstable industry trying to reopen and find its way. Many of my friends lost their family businesses and source of income. Many more are barely hanging on and hoping they won't fold.

Would you want to work in an industry like that, when wages are still very low? No job security, no benefits.

Unemployment is temporary and doesn't begin to replace a career.

Quit stereotyping people and instead try to show some empathy. Be generous with your tipping and avoid chain restaurants at all costs. Don't complain when prices double (they will).

.

Well said and absolutely right on! We have one McDonalds in our small town that is closed temporarily because the employees, five of them, tested positive for COVID so, the health department closed the store temporarily.

Nothing to do with “being on the dole” nor being lazy.

Jeeze people, how callous of us... try living on the wages paid at a fast food outlet!
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[Useitagain]

I do not blame the fast food workers in this case for taking whatever they can get. They have been under paid for decades. If you want them back to work pay them more. The CEO's of that industry make tens of millions of dollars but the workers do not get jack.

The second question is why do you buy from McDonalds? Fast food is garbage.

[Lt Dan]

Second Warning

This thread had devolved into a political discussion/argument. Please keep politics out of the thread and above all BE NICE!

Thank you to those posting on topic and within the rules.

[tetranz]

Don't forget that there is a very real thing called the poverty trap. It's easy for those of us more fortunate to look from a distance and say to someone or at least think it "You're poor, there's a job you could do, take it and stop complaining".

It's often more complicated than that. To take the job, that person might need transport, better clothes, child care etc. They might well be better off not working but that's not because any welfare they might receive is overly generous. It's a brutal cycle which I can only imagine how hard it is to break out of.

Part of this is the fact that being poor can be quite expensive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...or-in-america/

[Maytonr]

Most seem to think people should work for poverty wages or starve! When people have to pay more for their child care than they make unemployment looks very attractive! Let's work toward a living wage for all. No one should work forty hours a week and live in poverty.