321–330 of 531 posts
When these articles are about the US they never mention the brutal policies of ICE (Immigration Control and Enforcement) which discourage seasonal workers from Mexico, who are already hesitant due to the pandemic. I mean, if you're going to deport Mexicans who served honorably in the military it's a big FU to Mexicans. I wouldn't come here either.
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If the pay is good, demand is high and all you need is to go on a two month course, I'd bet a lot of unemployed people would be eager to do that. The "shortage" is indeed because of Brexit, but paying a thousand dollars an hour will most certainly magically summon workers en mass in a few months.
Unless people see through it as a short term gimmick in an unstable industry.
It is strange that the top known factors for this are not even mentioned in this or other similar news stories. First, closing of schools caused large numbers of women to leave the workforce in order to care for children. Until schools are fully open and day care is available those women will probably not be going back to work. Second, all markets are cultivated things. Employers in the most troubled sectors have rec…
> All of this stuff about workers disappearing and people reconsidering their lives is pretty much a sideshow of projected narrative that is detached from what is really going on. Well said. We’ve been bombarded with news articles and thought pieces about how COVID has forever changed the workforce, how people are refusing to work jobs they don’t like, how people are quitting en masse because their employers won’t al…
On the other hand, traffic during rush hour seems to have returned to as bad as it ever was.
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In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers. You just don't want to meet the market price of the workers with that skill set. You could imagine a widget factory whose economics rely on paying employees X, it doesn't mean there's a "shortage" of workers, but the workers demand a wage that makes your work unprofitable. The fact is a lot of people are paid not to work through generous covid-rel…
> In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers You can't meet the demand by producing more workers per hour in some plant though If you need X doctors and only have X/2, no matter how much you pay them, they won't be enough.
In the 1970s the USA had a crippling shortage of nurses and doctors which was filled by relaxing skills based immigration laws and importing trained medical talent from the Phillipines en masse.
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> Humans haven’t literally evolved that much in 200 years. You’re being generous. I would say we haven’t evolved in thousands of years. I mean sure, the tech is better but we’re the same self absorbed, careless bipeds we’ve always been.
Both you and the parent seem to assume that 'evolution' means 'improvement' Humanity has clearly evolved, even in the last 200 years. Doesn't mean we are getting better
There is a decent pay and conditions shortage.
There are still 3.45 million without work that want it and 1 million short of work. Yet only 0.8 million vacancies.
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Right. Why would I seek a job if the unemployment benefits pay me nearly as much to do nothing?
It might be important to distiguish doing "nothing" from not being on the job market. It's possible to contribute to society by making art, writing, cooking, spending time with family, caring for others, etc. as well as self-actualizing via exercise, reading, meditation, and so on.
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> Humans haven’t literally evolved that much in 200 years. You’re being generous. I would say we haven’t evolved in thousands of years. I mean sure, the tech is better but we’re the same self absorbed, careless bipeds we’ve always been.
I still believe our social evolution is possible. We have to talk about those things and take a break on economics. We’ve seen the value of modern technology. There’s no need to continue to obsessively speculate about the advantages they provide to daily life. Having beers with a grey haired VC yesterday, I couldn’t help but think this guy really just wants to feel relevant. These guys are the real energy vampire; IM…
Great insight. Now apply it to everyone you know. We ALL want to feel relevant and we all want to feel like what we are doing matters.
Everyone does and this is, in a twisted way, one way we are trying to achieve immortality. You do stuff, you make an impact, you leave your mark.
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> Humans haven’t literally evolved that much in 200 years. You’re being generous. I would say we haven’t evolved in thousands of years. I mean sure, the tech is better but we’re the same self absorbed, careless bipeds we’ve always been.
> I would say we haven’t evolved in thousands of years. We’ve become slightly more lactose-tolerant!
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It might be important to distiguish doing "nothing" from not being on the job market. It's possible to contribute to society by making art, writing, cooking, spending time with family, caring for others, etc. as well as self-actualizing via exercise, reading, meditation, and so on.
Meditation is very much doing nothing.