THANKS FOR WORKING
A neighborhood acquaintance was laying the groundwork for a new restaurant last year when COVID-19 restrictions hit. He forged ahead, and after months of delays finally opened. But supply chain issues and staff shortages continue. He told me last week that willing workers are scarce. “I’m still trying to hire a dishwasher,” he said.
A couple of weeks ago I went grocery shopping. I had numerous items and was dismayed to find that only self-checkout was available. I mentioned the lack of a full-service option to a clerk. Another customer behind me chimed in with the same frustration. “We can’t get enough staff,” the clerk said. I realized we were lucky that sufficient workers were on hand to open the store at all, and I thanked him for being there.
In fact, for several months I’ve been sincerely thanking restaurant wait staff and store clerks for performing the basic task of showing up. It’s a nationwide problem. CNN reported last month that in July there were 10.9 million jobs available, a new record. “America’s tight labor market continues to face a staggering disconnect between the number of jobs available and the number of people out of work,” according to the report. If President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress succeed in passing the bulk of the “Build Back Better” agenda, things will get even worse.
One of the biggest incentives to work is earning enough to pay for the necessities of life and possibly something more, with the understanding that not everyone will have everything in equal measure. When the fruits of that labor are provided from the public trough in amounts far exceeding a basic social safety net, it’s only natural that fewer people will be motivated to work. Even with higher wages, it’s more difficult than ever to recruit people for unglamorous serviceindustry jobs.
How did we get here? It’s been decades in the making, but the tipping point came last year with our disastrous response to COVID-19. Too many elected officials unquestioningly followed recommendations to close all but “essential” businesses, ostensibly to control the spread of the virus. When government closes businesses and then assumes the role of financial savior, it turns out a lot of people don’t rush back to work even when they can.
How much did crushing our economy help to control the virus, keep hospitals from being overwhelmed or prevent deaths? We’ll never know for sure, but even media outlets of the mainstream variety are gingerly beginning to acknowledge that COVID-19 seems to do what it does regardless of our response, short of a vaccine. In a story analyzing COVID-19’s observable cycles, David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote
Monday that “social distancing is not as important as public discussion of the virus often imagines.” Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told Leonhardt, “We’ve ascribed far too much human authority over the virus.”
That conclusion will be hotly debated. But if social distancing was not particularly effective, then closing businesses was pointless, and much of the nearly $5.3 trillion spent so far to make everything right again was unnecessary, too. We wouldn’t even be contemplating trillions more to “build back better.” But the “shutdown and spend” plan was deployed, accelerating our further descent into socialism.
This is why I’ve started thanking people for performing that endangered relic of capitalism, working.
The upside of a shrunken workforce is greater clout for those who work.
While the unemployment rate has fallen, that measures only people actively looking for work. Workforce participation may never recover. NBC News reported in June the loss of as many as 3.5 million people from the pre-pandemic workforce, adding, “The last time labor force participation was this low was more than 40 years ago, in January 1977.” The rate remains low, and analysts are debating how much it is likely to improve.
The upside of a shrunken workforce is greater clout for those who work. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that restaurants across the country are making it clear that treating staff with respect is required. One restaurant owner posted on Facebook, “Any guest who demeans, or belittles the staff of this restaurant will not be welcome here any longer.” Another posted a message to customers “who don’t have ‘good vibes’ to ‘please find another place to spend your money.’”
Such a stance toward paying customers was unthinkable when job applicants were plentiful.
We’re living in an age when a “democratic socialist” — a creative phrase — named Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., assembles a $3.5 trillion budget bill chock-full of freebies, other democratic socialists such as Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-N.Y., navigate its congressional journey, all while the president of the United States pushes its enactment.
Welcome to America 2021. It’s enough to make an old-fashioned capitalist feel obsolete. But for now, thank you for working — while it’s still a thing.
Abernathy