6 ms·

So a huge pandemic has been raging through the world for almost 2 years now, massively reconfiguring the world in so many ways. lockdowns, deaths, fear, governm

So a huge pandemic has been raging through the world for almost 2 years now, massively reconfiguring the world in so many ways. lockdowns, deaths, fear, government subsidies, cheap money, GME and unions, several global mindshift changes e.g of how crucial low wage jobs are or how short life is. But the bean counters are confused about why “labor supply” is low. hmmmm Or maybe they aren’t confused, they're worried. > More broadly, the participation rate has generally underperformed in economies with large increases in household liquidity. The most notable case in point is Chile, where the participation rate declined by 5pp as fiscal support and pension withdrawals flooded households with liquidity. “if people have money they might not work at jobs”. jobs that have systematically trained them over decades to expect a paycheck but nothing else, not loyalty or satisfaction or upward mobility or any semblance of agency. wow. fucking clueless.

diordiderot 5y ago
When media speaks about a good or bad 'economy' it means is capital being returned at near record rates, not can most people afford a subsistence existence without soul crushing levels of anxiety from fear of accidentally becoming destitute
- chii 5y ago
  > not can most people afford a subsistence existence without soul crushing levels of anxiety from fear of accidentally becoming destitute This is the human condition - through all the ages, most people would feel this way, and will continue to do so in the future. Until the day free energy and star trek level replicators exist, all wealth and all goods and services that people consume will need to be created by people. It's just the relative amounts that differ between the ages, but unfortunately, people don't compare themselves to people 100 years ago, they compare themselves to the jones.
presentation 5y ago
Is the labor shortages as bad elsewhere in the world? Plenty of places with great social safety nets, not just now but all the time. Treating the vast majority of people as wage slaves seems particularly American.
- adventured 5y ago
  > Treating the vast majority of people as wage slaves seems particularly American. The vast majority of people (75%?). Fascinating claim. I bet you can't support it. Americans earn higher wages at the median than: Canadians, Germans, Swedes, French, British, Spanish, Italians, Russians, Japanese, Chinese, South Koreans, and so on. Americans are also richer at the median than either the Germans or the Swedes (which should be impossible if you buy in to the propaganda). And that's despite the massive demographic shift at the median in the US over the past 40 years (comparing demographics to demographics, Americans are far richer than either of those two nations). So, why are Germany's workers so poor? Why are Sweden's workers so poor? Why have incomes stagnated so horribly over 20 years across most of Europe (as with their economic growth which has been mostly net flat since ~2007)? Treating people as wage slaves must be a particularly European thing.
  - sys_64738 5y ago
    Americans work longer hours per week and get less holidays. A typical European 37 hour work week and 3 additional weeks vacation adds up to about two months more work by US workers than Europeans. So it's not really that they're paid more in the USA, it's that US workers get less vacation and longer hours.
    - refurb 5y ago
      Nah, US workers are generally paid more even accounting for the 2-3 weeks vacation that skilled laborers get.
  - dv_dt 5y ago
    Americans also live shorter lifespans while going bankrupt for things like medical debt while enjoying less vacations and well, living than Europeans.
Proven 5y ago
I don't need to check any official sources to be pretty sure the number of able-bodied working age Americans who died from Covid is (statistically, not in humanitarian terms) negligible. Once word: socialism, for the rich and poor alike, promoted by the US government and the Fed. It's the same in the EU, the only difference is it's worse and it started before Covid-19. Funny but completely expected thing about it is gubmint stats refer to some of those non-working as "discouraged" whereas many are in fact encouraged to be unemployed. It's hard to be discouraged if you're hungry.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  >It's the same in the EU, the only difference is it's worse and it started before Covid-19. What? Do you have any sources for those EU claims?
- ModernMech 5y ago
  The impacts of these deaths are going to be far reaching though. For example, I had a friend in his 30s who died from Covid during the first wave. His last tweet was about how his manager at T-Mobile was a dick for making him come into work during a global pandemic. Even though he is but one death in a sea of almost a million, he alone serves as a cautionary tale to dozens and dozens of surviving friends, family, and acquaintances. His friends and family have a much different view now of the nature of work in the US. For many of them, this has fundamentally changed their relationship with work, and yeah, some of them quit their jobs and won’t be coming back. Big business are left scratching their heads wondering why. Here’s a hint: check the Twitter feed. There are hundreds of thousands of such cautionary tales out there now, impacting families across the nation. I don’t think we’ll be able to really understand the full impact of this for a long time to come.
taneq 5y ago
I remain perpetually bemused at how the same people who wax lyrical about the efficiency of the free market in determining prices of goods and commercial services via supply and demand will then turn around and bemoan the lack of willing workers at their autocratically decreed pay scales. Surely the market shall provide, and if it doesn't provide at your offered price, the answer is wonderfully clear? Pay. More.
- HKH2 5y ago
  If the government pays people to stay home, do you have a free market?
  - NikolaNovak 5y ago
    I think the notion that government is only supposed to subsidize and help and tax break and bail and help businesses, and not people, will need more thought out support to stand a chance of being taken seriously, than a snarky half sentence :)
  - hansel_der 5y ago
    no, because free markets are an illusion (information asymetry). also the ppl payed to stay at home are mostly not working-class.
    - HKH2 5y ago
      > no, because free markets are an illusion (information asymetry). That's not relevant. > also the ppl payed to stay at home are mostly not working-class. Citation?
      - hansel_der 5y ago
        > That's not relevant. it serves to disprove your misleading implication that free markets were destroyed by the goverment paying ppl to stay at home. > Citation? look around
  - 5y ago

diordiderot 5y ago

When media speaks about a good or bad 'economy' it means is capital being returned at near record rates, not can most people afford a subsistence existence without soul crushing levels of anxiety from fear of accidentally becoming destitute

chii 5y ago
> not can most people afford a subsistence existence without soul crushing levels of anxiety from fear of accidentally becoming destitute This is the human condition - through all the ages, most people would feel this way, and will continue to do so in the future. Until the day free energy and star trek level replicators exist, all wealth and all goods and services that people consume will need to be created by people. It's just the relative amounts that differ between the ages, but unfortunately, people don't compare themselves to people 100 years ago, they compare themselves to the jones.

presentation 5y ago

Is the labor shortages as bad elsewhere in the world? Plenty of places with great social safety nets, not just now but all the time. Treating the vast majority of people as wage slaves seems particularly American.

adventured 5y ago
> Treating the vast majority of people as wage slaves seems particularly American. The vast majority of people (75%?). Fascinating claim. I bet you can't support it. Americans earn higher wages at the median than: Canadians, Germans, Swedes, French, British, Spanish, Italians, Russians, Japanese, Chinese, South Koreans, and so on. Americans are also richer at the median than either the Germans or the Swedes (which should be impossible if you buy in to the propaganda). And that's despite the massive demographic shift at the median in the US over the past 40 years (comparing demographics to demographics, Americans are far richer than either of those two nations). So, why are Germany's workers so poor? Why are Sweden's workers so poor? Why have incomes stagnated so horribly over 20 years across most of Europe (as with their economic growth which has been mostly net flat since ~2007)? Treating people as wage slaves must be a particularly European thing.
- sys_64738 5y ago
  Americans work longer hours per week and get less holidays. A typical European 37 hour work week and 3 additional weeks vacation adds up to about two months more work by US workers than Europeans. So it's not really that they're paid more in the USA, it's that US workers get less vacation and longer hours.
  - refurb 5y ago
    Nah, US workers are generally paid more even accounting for the 2-3 weeks vacation that skilled laborers get.
- dv_dt 5y ago
  Americans also live shorter lifespans while going bankrupt for things like medical debt while enjoying less vacations and well, living than Europeans.

Proven 5y ago

I don't need to check any official sources to be pretty sure the number of able-bodied working age Americans who died from Covid is (statistically, not in humanitarian terms) negligible. Once word: socialism, for the rich and poor alike, promoted by the US government and the Fed. It's the same in the EU, the only difference is it's worse and it started before Covid-19. Funny but completely expected thing about it is gubmint stats refer to some of those non-working as "discouraged" whereas many are in fact encouraged to be unemployed. It's hard to be discouraged if you're hungry.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
>It's the same in the EU, the only difference is it's worse and it started before Covid-19. What? Do you have any sources for those EU claims?
ModernMech 5y ago
The impacts of these deaths are going to be far reaching though. For example, I had a friend in his 30s who died from Covid during the first wave. His last tweet was about how his manager at T-Mobile was a dick for making him come into work during a global pandemic. Even though he is but one death in a sea of almost a million, he alone serves as a cautionary tale to dozens and dozens of surviving friends, family, and acquaintances. His friends and family have a much different view now of the nature of work in the US. For many of them, this has fundamentally changed their relationship with work, and yeah, some of them quit their jobs and won’t be coming back. Big business are left scratching their heads wondering why. Here’s a hint: check the Twitter feed. There are hundreds of thousands of such cautionary tales out there now, impacting families across the nation. I don’t think we’ll be able to really understand the full impact of this for a long time to come.

taneq 5y ago

I remain perpetually bemused at how the same people who wax lyrical about the efficiency of the free market in determining prices of goods and commercial services via supply and demand will then turn around and bemoan the lack of willing workers at their autocratically decreed pay scales. Surely the market shall provide, and if it doesn't provide at your offered price, the answer is wonderfully clear? Pay. More.

HKH2 5y ago
If the government pays people to stay home, do you have a free market?
- NikolaNovak 5y ago
  I think the notion that government is only supposed to subsidize and help and tax break and bail and help businesses, and not people, will need more thought out support to stand a chance of being taken seriously, than a snarky half sentence :)
- hansel_der 5y ago
  no, because free markets are an illusion (information asymetry). also the ppl payed to stay at home are mostly not working-class.
  - HKH2 5y ago
    > no, because free markets are an illusion (information asymetry). That's not relevant. > also the ppl payed to stay at home are mostly not working-class. Citation?
    - hansel_der 5y ago
      > That's not relevant. it serves to disprove your misleading implication that free markets were destroyed by the goverment paying ppl to stay at home. > Citation? look around
- 5y ago