He must be a democrat since in the comment section he’s getting called a communist and such although i don’t think his proposed “shit list” is gonna happen because of legal issues
(bolding mine)
Aye; that’s about it.
We also sort of need to bring back manufacturing jobs, a totally service economy sucks, if all one can get is call centers, fast food, convenience stores and malls, nobody is really making much in the way of income, because all the service sector jobs tend to be on par paywise. I mean, trade is good, everybody needs plumbing, electrical and mechanical repairs in the residences or businesses, but there is such a grey reputation for trades [I worked my fingers to the bone for you to go to college and get a better job than I had …Well, dad - the era of really great white collar jobs doesn’t exist any longer. Thanks, fucking Wharton School of Business for fucking over the lower lever employees.]
They’d employ a few engineers and IT types and a bunch of robots. The days of hard hats and lunch pails are over.
Watch the elitism and stereotypes.
Or as former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (also a Democrat) put it (back before the current situation): “We don’t need more jobs. We have plenty: I know some folks that have three of them. What we need are better jobs.”
And? 30 factories with 5 lines is all of management, IT, engineering, quality assurance, mechanical maintenance, and clerical for 30 factories with 5 lines. Jobs are jobs. One also needs warehousemen, transport, dispatch. It all adds up, not everything can be computerized and roboticized.
True, but the point is that they are not finding enough people even for jobs they do have.
When the point of a business is to enrich the owners/shareholders and no one else, why would anyone not in one of those two categories want to participate in that endeavor?
I agree but I think the way it’s usually presented is that we’re going to be able to go back to the 50s and 60s and there will be plenty of good paying blue collar jobs that don’t require a college education and that won’t be happening.
Thing is, there have been a few stories about how companies actually aren’t hiring, even while claiming they’re desperate for help. There was a guy in the news a couple of weeks ago who applied to 60 jobs in a month, focusing on companies he’d seen in the media lamenting the worker shortage.
He got one interview, where he was told that contrary to the ad, the pay was $8.65 instead of $10/hr and it was part-time with no benefits instead of full-time with.
There have been similar stories cropping up since then. This sort of explains why wages aren’t going up - they aren’t really trying to hire more people.
They don’t want to do what is necessary to attract workers, they just want to whine and blame their political opponents for being unable to convince anyone to work for them anymore. As if this isn’t all part of the free market that they worship and love unconditionally. The wealthy ownership class depends on lots and lots of impoverished desperate people to take their awful jobs so they can keep collecting the vast majority of the value of their labor. We tried to raise the minimum wage after they were called essential during the lockdown and the wealthy ownership class said no. Now they can’t understand why these same people are telling them to stick it.
The companies that aren’t willing to improve conditions will eventually find themselves losing business to companies that ARE willing to do so and can therefore get fully staffed. So long as the government doesn’t intervene* to protect these businesses, they will adapt or die and be replaced by better businesses.
*and it very well might, because these companies would rather spend their money bribing - sorry, I mean lobbying - politicians than paying employees better.
This is one place where lobbying probably won’t help them. Sure, they might prevent an official increase in the minimum wage, but if others are offering more, they still won’t be able to hire anyone.
They can whine about how “I don’t legally have to pay you more!” all the way to the bankruptcy hearings.
I don’t doubt what you say, but there are definitely businesses that are trying to hire workers. Even before the pandemic, I would see signs on long-distance trucks advertising for drivers. And I can hardly doubt that Amazon is trying to hire a couple hundred thousand more warehouse workers.
But a big part of the reason they’re constantly hiring is that they are also constantly losing drivers, because of how poorly they treat drivers. Look into anyone who’s gotten into trucking in the last ten years, and they all have horror stories about abusive industry practices.
And that’s what the Governor is saying: It’s not just about the money, although that’s also a factor. Part of the problem is all the shit you have to take just to get their shitty wages. A whole lot of people have decided the money just isn’t worth it anymore. They’d love to have good, good-paying jobs, but those simply don’t exist in some industries. That either needs to change, or those industries are going to collapse.
It’s not that complicated:
We have a labor shortage that has gradually worsening as the population ages and fertility rates decline. It seems sudden due to the logistics of COVID, but it’s not.
Supply and demand: fewer workers for more jobs means that workers can demand a living wage, decent benefits, and better treatment by management. But getting those things, as important as they are, won’t magically increase the pool of prospective employees.
I disagree with the governor: we DO need to talk about the labor shortage. Offering better wages, etc., though those improvements will come about as competition for workers continues, but it won’t magically create workers. In the meantime, we’d better be talking about how we can get more workers into this country. “Taking our jobs” doesn’t carry much weight when there are jobs going a-begging.
My company is hiring. We make robots.
And I guess that is a clue as to what to look for - what’s the company doing to get more people? As someoen that works at an Amazon warehouse, I know they’re offering a $3000 signing bonus, and many sites are offering double-time pay for overtime, rather than the standard time-and-a-half. It’s working. I’m even seeing people that left years ago return. They’ve also increased starting pay in some markets, as have Target and Walmart. (All that said, we’re coming up on the holidays - Amazon typically dumps a lot of people once that’s done).
But it seems that a lot of companies are just talking about being short, but not actually doing anything to get the people they need.
And that’s why I pivoted to working in automation. Because I listened to The Simpsons:
The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots.