Comments

1

There's perhaps another factor in businesses not finding employees. Wages haven't kept up with inflation for the entirety of my life, and a lot of people probably noticed how poor wages are after the massive layoffs of 2020. Maybe $7.25/hr isn't worth risking a pandemic for some.

2

workers are so Selfish
they Insist on a Safe workplace
when they're Entitled to nothing of the sort

Profiteering is what made America Great
and to question the Rich's desire to put
everyone back to work (not including
Them duh) is communistic at best.

if the Citizenry isn't here for Harvesting
by the Most Savvy among us then what's
the Point of these bloody United States anyway?

may as well let Anyone succeed
is that what God trurly Wants?
beginning to question Him...

4

Jamie Dimon now wants to see an "itemized list" before the government raises taxes on the rich to fund its huge infrastructure dreams ....

Yes please! As long as Jamie expects no less or more than he would require of the JP Morgan budgeting process, I don't see an issue here. Tossing money around with little or no plan does not work (unless your goal is to buy votes). Government is capable of doing great things if they could just be a little more efficient!

5

The job market doesn't suck when there is a huge need for employees and not enough people to fill the roles. This isn't unique to Seattle though. I've talked to business partners in other areas of the country and there are many businesses that are struggling to fill roles at the lower end of the wage scale even as they have offered increased hourly rates so its not just a pay thing.

On the reopening front. I don't understand the hesitancy to reopen and why the WHA is being belittled by Charles for suggesting Jun 15th. Even NY has set a reopening date. There isn't a shortage of vaccines. Anyone who wants to get a shot can at this point walk in and get one. How long are we supposed to keep society closed to accommodate those who won't act in their own best interests? The alternative is to keep this quasi phase 2/3 crap going indefinitely. It will never end. Set a date, those who want to get vaccinated can get vaccinated. Those who don't can roll the dice.

7

re: spud state gun misshap
if only EVERYone had guns
we'd be a much more Polite
bullet-ridden Society. who's in?

8

“Anthony Anton, the president of that [Hospitality] organization, to KIRO: ‘Let’s set a date: June 15th, it’s time to fully reopen. Let’s do it by June 15th.’ Is Anton speaking to the state or to the virus?”

well both. and The Virus is quite
PLEASED the Capitalists wish to
give it many happy (and Hospitable!)
Homes to grow up & perhaps Mutate in.

if only they were so
Gracious to our Homeless.

12

@10 100% agree with you. If there are people that want to get vaccinated and can't, help them with mobile clinics, transportation etc. If there are skeptics continue education. Those still seem to be the minority of the non vaxxers at this point with the majority either just not seeing the need (I'm healthy) or opposed (the tin hats). We can't wait on them forever. Set a date and let's get going.

13

Perhaps qualified immunity should be the threshold instead of herd immunity in planning reopenings.

13

@1 - it’s probably even simpler than that. People that work for small businesses can barely afford to live anywhere in the city. Why commute for an hour each way when you can just work in your own area and use those extra two hours a day to do literally anything else? Add in the pandemic stress and it’s a no-brainer. Seattle exists only for the tech workers now. The rest of us have little to keep us here.

15

@9 I've been on a lot of on-site projects. Hands down, the one with the highest ratio of people standing around with clipboards to people doing actual work was a large oil industry project. Not surprisingly, it went badly in the end. The next highest ratio was on another project for the same company, where we were trying to help them recover from a job that went spectacularly badly.

16

Have employers tried paying workers living wages and not treating them like expendable necessary evils?

If people would rather be on unemployment, that's not a problem with the unemployment system, that's a problem with the employment system.

17

@#2
Have you read anything by Koch spox Mike Rowe and his saftey Third" on this, while you're being sarcastic Rowe is quite serious.

18

@5 What part of "pricing driven by supply and demand" do you not understand?

If a 75-cent-per-hour raise didn't entice enough people to do the labor you want done, then you're going to have to try $1.50, then $3.00, then $6.00, etc. If you want a market economy, then you're going to have to quit whining and open your wallet when you're faced with a shortage.

When gas prices spike to $5/gal, people complain, to be sure, but you don't hear anyone moaning that there isn't enough $3/gal gas available. If your pals can't find enough low-wage workers, well then, they're going to have to suck it up and buy medium-wage workers instead. Let the market filter out the firms that can't adjust their strategies and balance sheets to meet labor cost fluctuations, and reward the nimble firms that can.

19

217 -- NEVER misunderestimate
the cynicism of Capitalists during
a Pandemic. harvest the Masses?

yesiree.

20

@17

21

Look and laugh was just what I needed today.

22

June 15 openeing really gives anyone a chance to get vaccinated, that havent already. If, after vaccinating oneself, you are still concerned about contracting covid there are still many things you can do like not going to church, sports, concerts; continued mask usage, hand washing. Why hold the entire population and the economy hostage for a few people that refuse to act in there own self interest. If you dont want to get vaccinated because you think it will sterilize you or inoculate you with a microchip you deserve to catch it.

23

@14 AMEN! All crybabies GTFO. There are a whole lot of places to go that will better fit your needs.

24

People do not want to go back to work for so many reasons - low pay, being treated shitty, fear of getting and/or dying of COVID-19 in a country where people refuse to do the most basic of things to stop the spread (wear a mask, get vaccinated, give a shit). This country is not going to learn one goddamn thing from this shit show.

And we're going to live with a fucked up census count for the next 10 years because Trump and his minions destroyed any chance of an actual count WHILE AT THE SAME TIME MURDERING AS MANY AMERICANS AS POSSIBLE. It's definitely going to be interesting to see how states like Florida are going to go Republican when they've killed off tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of their residents, put voter suppression laws in place (that will affect them, despite what they believe, because old white people LOVE VOTING BY MAIL), and have a totally inaccurate count of how many people live in their state so their federal funding will be totally fucked. Same with Arizona. Same with Texas.

What we need is way more accountability. Not only do we need more revenue, that revenue has to be put back where it is needed most. Oversight.

What the fuck does the Pentagon spend more than $1 million a minute on? Seriously.

Congress and the Trump administration agreed to spend $746 billion on wars and the military for the fiscal year running through September 2020. That is nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars. More than $2 billion every day. More than $1 million every minute.

https://www.fcnl.org/issues/us-wars-militarism/pentagon-spending

The Trump Administration destroyed the oversight of the $500 BILLION in the first "stimulus" bill passed during the pandemic. Where the fuck did all of that money go? (Directly into the pockets of the already obscenely wealthy)

The federal government paid out who knows how much in "stimulus" payments to dead people and even to people in foreign countries (who sat there wondering why the fuck they were receiving a check from the United States' federal government).

Republicans have gutted all oversight of everything and have been robbing the country blind. The government can be quite efficient. Social Security and Medicare the most successful government programs and have been since their creation. The fraud happens by providers (FFS Rick Scott pulled off the largest, most obscene Medicare fraud scam in history and Floridians STILL ELECTED THE MOTHERFUCKER. MORE THAN ONCE!)

Yesterday in Oregon I read that a 74 year old man collected $458,000 in social security payments sent to his dead aunt (he was in charge of overseeing her finances) because no one fucking noticed that she died!!! He's been charged and will 10 years in prison and is supposed to pay it all back plus $250,000. NOT A FUCKING CENT OF THAT MONEY WILL EVER BE SEEN!

How much money was the state of WA defrauded out of in unemployment claims and identity theft during the pandemic? Why do so many states have unemployment systems in place that have not been updated since the 1960s?

OVERSIGHT is required. No one in this country can be trusted to do the right thing, especially not the people in power, who can so easily ensure that the government is run so badly it can be robbed blind.

The Republicans don't want smaller government, they want absolute authority over it so THEY can take and take and take and take and take and take and never have to answer to anyone. Why have any social programs at all when all of that money could be flowing directly into their pockets and making them all richer and richer and richer? Why do you think they want to destroy the USPS? It doesn't provide them with a revenue stream.

The only thing this country cares about is money. Fuck all life. Fuck the planet. It's money, money, money. And if you don't have it you are irrelevant. And if you aren't a cog in the machine of making it for others, you are irrelevant.

To quote another: if scientists were watching monkeys and a select few monkeys hoarded all of the food and let all of the other monkeys die, the scientists would want to know what was wrong with those monkeys!

Human beings are supposedly the smartest animals on earth and yet we consistently and relentlessly prove that in a world and universe where we could literally do anything, we choose greed, death, and destruction above all else.

25

@18 what are you talking about? My whole point is that there are more factors involved her than pure wages. Employers are raising wages but there still isn't enough workers in some industries. Some of this is driven by health concerns, others because of family obligations since schools are not still fully back. I think you missed the point entirely.

FWIW though there is a ceiling on what a job's worth. You say keep increasing the wage but honestly no one is going to pay for a $30 McDonald's burger so a business owner does need to balance the costs of the business with potential revenues.

26

@25,
"FWIW though there is a ceiling on what a job's worth."

True enough. CEOs, shareholders, and other top executives need to have their incomes and bonuses capped far lower than what they're currently at.

27

@25: Ah, I thought you were being reasonable, but then you threw out the $30 hamburger canard. Damn.

28

@26 you can argue that (and I would agree with you for what its worth) but I don't think it solves your true gripe. Executive salaries/bonuses are part of the company cost structure and adhere to the same rules as the employees. In most cases if you look at the actual salary, its fairly modest. Bezos for instance has a base salary of $81K and total comp of $1.6M due to security that is provided to him. Satya Natella at Microsoft has a base salary of $2.5M. Where the obscene money comes from are the equity awards that then appreciate as the company valuation does. The fact that these individuals make so much money is a signal that their companies hold too much control in their given industry thus their high valuation. The government has it in their purview to act on that as they did during the last gilded age they just choose not to.

29

@26: shareholders?

Shareholder Uncle Joe in Petticoat Junction is retired.

30

@28,
"The government has it in their purview to act on that as they did during the last gilded age they just choose not to."

That, and they're bribed not to.

31

lol, maybe. I'd like to think that's not entirely true but maybe I'm naive. Despite the deck being stacked I hope you can still enjoy the weekend.

32

@25: Ah yes, the mythical $30 dollar burger. Please link to an instant of people being charged $30 dollars for a burger at a McDonald’s in any country in which their employees are actually paid enough to live. Start with Germany, cuz a quick google says a Big Mac costs $4.88 and on average they pay their employees $12.16 an hour for a cashiers position. That’s $1.89 difference from the average wage of a McDonald’s employee in Washington state, and yet! A German burger, by some miracle does not, has not, and barring Weimar Republic levels of inflation, will not, cost $30.
Would you like to roll again?

35

I literally posted earlier this week about how I'm seeing help wanted signs in all Seattle neighborhoods, and how business needs to go back to their university textbooks on economics if they want to use the supply and demand curve.

Either change your hiring process (which is probably influenced by artificial software barriers like counting periods of unemployment or minor criminal violations or credit rating as being important, when they aren't) or raise your wage.

The supply demand curve doesn't care about your excuses for inaction. It clears when you meet the wage and benefits expectation to get the supply of labor.

36

@32 you do that's just a made up example right? Nitpick it all you want but the point remains there is an upper bound on whatever the company is producing that a customer will pay. Pick your own example if you don't like the burger model but whatever it is the value being paid for that labor needs to return more in revenue or you'll go out of business. You can't change the fundamental laws of economics. That is why I roll my eyes when I hear businesses that can't pay a "living wage" have a flawed business model. These things don't exist in a vacuum. Alternatively if you want to prove me wrong there are plenty of spaces open for lease in downtown right now. Pick one, pay your employees $85k per year or whatever the "living wage" is downtown nowadays and prove me wrong. I will gladly eat humble pie if you can make that work.

38

here's a cachy little ditty from the Taj
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ToTDjrupjk&ab_channel=MetryRoad

and here's a second, impossibly better
Queen Bee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjTEkhXgu_4&ab_channel=BloodySundaySessions

39

the second reminds me of a brilliantly/impeccably-produced highly Addicting foursome and their name is not coming back to me presently -- they looked Amishish and it was a folky ultra-compelling tune/video -- it was like really good Drugs and I had to force myself to quit, while I still could.

the second Taj is
fucking AWESOME

40

typed in the description, above (mol) and it popped up First thing

'in hell I'll be in good company'
best not to Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9FzVhw8_bY&ab_channel=TheDeadSouth

41

Sunday aft. Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YHpznWxQ&ab_channel=JAZZ%26BLUES

42

@32 Lissa

Hourly rate (according to Lissa)
Germany $12.16
USA $10.27

Hourly rate is 84.45% in US compared to Germany.

Big Mac (according to Lissa)
Germany $4.88
USA $3.99 (Google)

Price is 81.76% in US compared to Germany.

So for one hour of work an employee in Germany would buy 2.49 Big Macs (assuming they like it...)
However for one of hour of work an employee in USA would buy 2.57 Big Macs

This means that the real buying power +3.14% higher in US versus Germany.

Ah yes, statistics is a an unforgiving bitch...especially when it goes against our own biases


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