America - The Official Thread
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Danoff
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Just people Russian to conclusions.
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- ryzno
In other news, the Colonial pipeline hacking has finally hit GA. Everyone and their mama is trying to find gas.
Thankfully I moved way away from Atlanta. We have gas at the one and only station near us. Had a truck dropping a load this morning, came home from work an hour ago and they still have gas, still under $3, thanks Kemp for the temporary gas tax order.
Thankfully I moved way away from Atlanta. We have gas at the one and only station near us. Had a truck dropping a load this morning, came home from work an hour ago and they still have gas, still under $3, thanks Kemp for the temporary gas tax order.
- 437
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I'm seeing a lot from my American mates regarding businesses putting up these "Nobody wants to work anymore" signs, any thoughts on all of this? Some fantastic meme content is coming out of it anyway!
Keef
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My theory is that a lot of people were displaced from work but are refusing to take new jobs that aren't appropriate for their skill level or set, etc. For example, as a pilot I'm not going to take a job at a machine shop lol. Plenty of them need workers. Could I do the job? Yes. I've done it before? Am I ever going to do it again? Yeah sure, give me $100k and I'll guarantee a year until I leave for my actual career again.
Speaking of which, another theory is that people have finally discovered their self worth after having time off to think about it. I've got several friends with houses and cars who are always bitching about their bills, I can't go out tonight because I need to save money, etc etc. Like dude, you've been working at that place for 8 years, what do you mean you don't make enough? Why are you still there? Why do they make you work all these hours but you're still complaining about not making enough? So I've been discussing with them a lot about how much their job and bosses actually value them - in front of their bosses a couple times - but I'm not sure it's having much effect. We've been reading these stories about how the CEOs keep making more and more money while the rest of us down here are struggling. I think a lot of people are done with being worked like dogs.
So now you see these Republicans (almost exclusively) yapping about how "nobody wants to work" but that's not the truth. Nobody wants to work for scraps. Nobody wants to work 60 hour weeks. Nobody wants to work instead of see their family. Nobody wants to work and earn no vacation time. See what I mean? Nobody wants to work to get by while the CEO rakes in millions. Nobody wants to work the crappy Republican idea of work, which is one where you trade your entire life and in return get the "satisfaction" of doing things every day but accomplishing nothing. My dad literally died on the shop floor working overtime on a Saturday. You bet your ass my idea of "work" is different than his.
Dotini
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With the economy partially shut down due to Covid, and the government shoveling tax-free money to anybody and everybody, naturally many people are staying home, and learning to work from home. Amazon has made mom-and-pop stores obsolete as well as traditional big box outlets. There is neither reason nor incentive for people to work at labor intensive jobs or jobs requiring interfacing with the public. This is a new paradigm, baby. And it's closer to Utopia. The nation is currently crossing several Rubicons, and IMHO there is zero chance of going back.
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Joey D
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Some of it has to do with wages. If you can't get people to come back and work for you, you're probably not offering competitive wages. If you're getting bad employees or underskilled employees, you're probably not offering competitive wages either. Getting good, reliable, skilled people in a business is easy, you just have to pay them since that's the reason a majority of us get up and go to work every day.
I think I mentioned it in this thread maybe, but here in Salt Lake, we have a major Amazon distribution center that's currently understaffed. Amazon should be the last place that has issues with hiring people at a competitive wage since it's not like they're going to go bankrupt by offering people $17 an hour as opposed to $12 or whatever they start at. Hell, the McDonald's around the corner from my house has a sign that says they start people at $11 an hour and that job is almost certainly less demanding than an Amazon warehouse worker.
Danoff
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Jobs don't pay what people "deserve", they pay what the job earns. Economics.
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Danoff
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What do you mean? You mean because jobs are going unfilled? That's not actually a counter-example. I'll wait to find out if that's what you meant before explaining why.
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I’m not an economics expert (or really know much about it at all lol), but if a job pays an employee what they earn for the company, and this is not enough to live on, and as a result these employees are now quitting, then wouldn’t that mean that it’s becoming an unsustainable economic model?
Danoff
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It could mean a few things, but yes, ultimately, if the job pays what the employee earns and people won't do it, then it is an unsustainable job and should be eliminated.
There are a lot of directions to take this, from rising prices, immigration policy, adjusting expectations about what it means to "live", and re-evaluating employee contributions. The ultimate end to your question is what I posted above, if you don't earn enough to sustain your job (and nobody else will) the job goes away, and should.
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A guy I work with and a group of his friends here in Alabama are supposed to be going to a wedding this weekend in metro Atlanta. I asked him this morning if his plans had changed. He said they've all agreed they're still going so hopefully they can go and get back here.
As for me, I filled up my hybrid a little over a week ago and still have slightly over 3/4 tank left so I'm in good shape for a few weeks.
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Awww. I was really enjoying watching morons filling plastic bags full of fuel. 
Keef
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So I was thinking about this the other day and I hope it doesn't get buried because I might be onto something.
I was thinking about Jesus. Christianity. I was thinking about how some guy, some dude wandering his way home from Woodstock accidentally got himself in trouble, stumbled into a famous rock band, got tied to a pike, and spawned a religious movement that quickly enveloped the Roman Empire and ultimately hundreds of millions of people around the globe for over two thousand years. Two thousand years! Some door to door salesman with a beard and a message. How is that even possible?
Then I got to thinking about the phenomenon we're seeing with Trump. Within just a few years, some guy with marginal influence, a loud mouth, and a not very nice personality has managed to turn an entire political party and potentially millions of people into what are basically his religious followers. They believe anything he says and take it for gospel. This is their truth. They're effectively religious extremists, just as any Christian who thinks the earth is only a few thousand years old or believes a man could possibly part a sea or that Jesus comes back from the dead, etc. Trump might not be the lord and savior, but he is president apparently, both statements being equally false to any of us who aren't idiots. Trump might not guide each and every one of us to salvation but he will guide America. Like Jesus and the homies, Trump already has books written about him and will likely have more...maybe one day he'll have his own compilation album.
Once again we've got a salesman on our hands who is selling a message of hope. It's wrong of course, it's a pack of lies, he's not the president, he won't save these people or the country, but they believe it. Trump is their new Jesus. And I'm rather concerned that this really is blossoming into a real extremist movement, a real cult, a real religion effectively. I'm worried that it's not just a bunch of people being dumb, it is actually a bunch of people developing a completely new reality for themselves and they will not stop until the retake their holy land of America. I don't know what else to compare Trump's rise to other than the spontaneous and massive rise of Christianity out of nothing. I'm not sure if the medical field considers religious extremism a mental illness but it's about time they looked into it because we might have a problem on our hands.
I was thinking about Jesus. Christianity. I was thinking about how some guy, some dude wandering his way home from Woodstock accidentally got himself in trouble, stumbled into a famous rock band, got tied to a pike, and spawned a religious movement that quickly enveloped the Roman Empire and ultimately hundreds of millions of people around the globe for over two thousand years. Two thousand years! Some door to door salesman with a beard and a message. How is that even possible?
Then I got to thinking about the phenomenon we're seeing with Trump. Within just a few years, some guy with marginal influence, a loud mouth, and a not very nice personality has managed to turn an entire political party and potentially millions of people into what are basically his religious followers. They believe anything he says and take it for gospel. This is their truth. They're effectively religious extremists, just as any Christian who thinks the earth is only a few thousand years old or believes a man could possibly part a sea or that Jesus comes back from the dead, etc. Trump might not be the lord and savior, but he is president apparently, both statements being equally false to any of us who aren't idiots. Trump might not guide each and every one of us to salvation but he will guide America. Like Jesus and the homies, Trump already has books written about him and will likely have more...maybe one day he'll have his own compilation album.
Once again we've got a salesman on our hands who is selling a message of hope. It's wrong of course, it's a pack of lies, he's not the president, he won't save these people or the country, but they believe it. Trump is their new Jesus. And I'm rather concerned that this really is blossoming into a real extremist movement, a real cult, a real religion effectively. I'm worried that it's not just a bunch of people being dumb, it is actually a bunch of people developing a completely new reality for themselves and they will not stop until the retake their holy land of America. I don't know what else to compare Trump's rise to other than the spontaneous and massive rise of Christianity out of nothing. I'm not sure if the medical field considers religious extremism a mental illness but it's about time they looked into it because we might have a problem on our hands.
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Dotini
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We do. But it goes beyond Trump to numerous paradigms being busted all at the same time. At times in history, traditional structures crumble and the old gives way to the new on a broad scale. Fixed institutions and even lifeways can liquify and re form in new molds. IMO, we are at a moment of potentially revolutionary changes across the board.
