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This sort of “glass half-full” analysis is often coming from white collar workers. The actual problem is that blue collar workers aren’t getting paid enough to
by wayoutthere 5y ago
This sort of “glass half-full” analysis is often coming from white collar workers.
The actual problem is that blue collar workers aren’t getting paid enough to risk getting Covid. So as much as you might want to go out and re-create a feeling of “normal”, that doesn’t work if people aren’t showing up to work because they’re sick.
The lockdowns let us blame the government, but individuals are making decisions about their own health and service levels suffer as a result. And in many cases, the risk of getting sick and permanently disabled (yes omicron still has long-term side effects) is not worth $10/hr. We still effectively have lockdowns with many stores and restaurants closed, they’re just driven by low customer traffic or worker call-outs.
Never mind that a lot of people’s buying habits have changed to purchasing more online and via delivery — it’s convenient enough I don’t think we’re ever going back. Same with remote work; city centers are never going to open back up the way they used to be if the wealthy parts of their workforce are working from home. Remote work is here to stay. It is the norm already and companies trying to force workers back are having extreme turnover issues.
Unless you’re planning to compel workers back to their jobs at the end of a gun, we’re probably not going back to the version normal we had in 2019 ever again. We’ll eventually hit another island of stability, but given the political situation and immediacy of climate change effects, we will probably be jumping from crisis to crisis for the rest of our lives. Get used to it.
- Levitz 5y ago>Unless you’re planning to compel workers back to their jobs at the end of a gun, we’re probably not going back to the version normal we had in 2019 ever again. Maybe another version of OWS is coming, hopefully one that actually results in change and doesn't get co-opted by stupid identity politics this time around.
- wayoutthere 5y agoThe next OWS will be armed. The left is seeing the way the right operates and is understanding that non-violent confrontation doesn’t work. For better or worse, the way the laws in America are written, violence is the way we deal with problems. When someone who desires an outcome can use violent means to get you there, the second amendment ensures you have violent means to resist them.
- commandlinefan 5y ago> people aren’t showing up to work because they’re sick But people have been getting sick as long as there have been people, and civilization was somehow able to deal with it until two years ago.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoYes, the flu, we deal with it, it raises our mortality rates and costs billions of dollars a year, but we deal. COVID just raises our mortality rate more and costs even more money to keep in check. Society isn’t going to collapse, but of course, it can’t ignore the problem, either. This is the first widespread pandemic in most of our lifetimes, but definitely not the first one. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 was much worse and disruptive than this.
- rolha-capoeira 5y ago"Sick" is not a binary state
- cableshaft 5y agoCivilization is still able to deal. Maybe not to your satisfaction, but it's still able to deal. We could go back to what they did in 1347, during the Bubonic plague, and cover our bodies in a robe from head to toe and wear beaked masks stuffed with herbs, spices and straws to filter the air, and examine people using only a cane to keep their distance, like doctors did back then. https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/whats-viral/what-did-bubonic-plague-doctors-wear-to-protect-themselves-in-1347.html https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/whats-viral...
- ta988 5y agoJust that it was sporadic not large amount of the workforce at once and for long stretches.
- wnoise 5y agoNot as many and not as coordinated.
- wayoutthere 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- soco 5y agoMaybe for a few people software already ate the world, but for online delivery we need storage workers and all systems involved in delivery - post and ships and trucks - working as well. Plus production sites and factories and materials extraction and should I go on? Nothing of these can be done remotely.
- Mikeb85 5y agoBlue collar workers aren't people. /s if it's not apparent
- wayoutthere 5y agoI completely agree, but blue collar workers aren’t eating out at fancy restaurants downtown after work. There was an entire segment of a bunch of industries dedicated to serving the needs of white collar workers in city centers, and that’s all just gone and not coming back. Yeah, a lot of it has moved to delivery apps. Which represents a fundamental realignment of large segments of our economy. I personally believe this was always going to happen anyway, but the pandemic forced it so quickly a lot of people haven’t realized we’re never going back.