It's already starting. Kvetching over the government stimulus money.

[Baitball Blogger]

UPDATE: IT'S ON THE NEWS. RESTAURANTS CLAIM ITS HARD TO GET PEOPLE TO COME OUT TO WORK, AND MANY BELIEVE IT'S BECAUSE OF THE STIMULUS CHECKS. So, here's a thought: raise their wages and make it worth it for them to come back to work. No one is going to expose their extended family, if they don't have to.

- - - - - - - -

Someone we know said that an Italian restaurant they like to patronize is run by just the owner. The owner said that he can't keep anyone on the job. "No one wants to work."

I said, "Do you think they just don't think the money they're making is worth the risk of getting Covid?"

And he says, "No, they're getting government money and they just want to stay home and play video games. They don't want to work."

And I say, "How odd. Wasn't one of those shooters, (I was wrong, he wasn't a shooter, he was the guy who killed the Capitol police with his car), despondent over losing a job? It doesn't sound like people are making enough money to stay afloat."

And he says, "Which shooter?"

And I say, "I know right? There have been so many."

- - - - -

personally, if these kids are living at home, I wouldn't be surprised if parents are encouraging them to stay home, rather than expose the family.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. That's a great point...

I would think most restaurant and retail workers who struggle from paycheck to paycheck don't live alone -- can't afford to. Thus the risk of contracting COVID at work isn't only to them but to everyone else they live with. Good point.

[Phoenix61]

2. So agree. Any parent who doesn't need the money

from their kids minimum wage job is going to keep them home. I think this has a lot to do with why our non-white communities have a higher incidence of covid. They can’t afford or anyone to stay home

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Maybe this guy is just a prick to work for?

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Exactly. If people are living off tips and the crowds are staying away from restaurants, it makes

sense that no one wants to come back to work. For what?

[crickets]

21. Bingo. It's too early to expect full time waitstaff to return to work. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

7. It was just on ABC NEWS! It's a real thing.

I understand why they don't want to come back to work. Most of these people live on tips. If the trend is still to stay away from crowded areas, they aren't going to make a living based on what the restaurant owner gives them.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

23. Some people are incredibly good at budgeting, right?

[Haggard Celine]

8. Maybe the guy needs to quit paying slave wages at his restaurant.

Those are the people who can't get help, the ones who screw over their workers, paying them the bare minimum and not letting them get enough hours to get benefits. A lot of his employees probably had two jobs because they couldn't make it on what he was paying, so the stimulus money is allowing them to only work their better job.

I've heard people around here bitching about not being able to keep employees and it's usually restaurants. They pay their waitstaff $2.13/hr., which goes down to nothing after taxes are taken out for their tips. I'm sure there isn't much money to be made waiting tables right now anyway, since so many people are avoiding restaurants. I tell these tight-fisted fuckers that if you pay them, they will come.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Are businesses going to complain about government money they have received?

Probably not. They only complain when regular people get much needed help.

[wryter2000]

11. How long does he think someone can live on $1400?

Young people aren’t vaccinated yet. I wouldn’t go back to work, either.

[stillcool]

12. the only money made in restaurants

is from tips. Nothing more depressing than going to work and coming home broker than you were when you got there. Kind of hard to get people to work for you, when they can't afford the gas to get them there.

[doc03]

13. The McDonald's I go to most mornings had 8 people quit the week the stimulus

passed. Another local one has closed their dinning area since because they can't find workers. I thought you couldn't get
unemployment if you quit but I was told that if you say you are afraid of getting COVID you qualify. I see help wanted signs on just about every restaurant and store around. You can't blame people making $8.80 on 28 hours a week for signing up for
unemployment if you can get more money. If the minimum wage was better and you could get 40 hours a week I don't think they
would have that problem.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. It is an interesting dilemma.

If it's the government's intent to keep people at home and away from public areas where they can get Covid, I would say it is being successful. No workers, no advertisement for large public gatherings. Tough love.

[doc03]

15. Back in the late 70s when I worked in the steel industry we had voluntary layoff.

With the voluntary layoff older employees could take off and the younger employees would keep working.
I took voluntary layoff for an entire year. We got paid unemployment, SUB (supplementary unemployment) from the
company and TRA (Trade Readjustment Allowance). I was getting far more than I would have received working.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. A much kinder time than today.

I think everything began turning when they began raiding the pension plans, or leaving them unprotected. Lots of reasons for white men to turn into angry white men.

[doc03]

18. I never knew why the defined pension plans went out until

recently. Thom Hartman says that it came from Ronald Reagan making pension plans an asset
instead of a liability. Before that if a company bought out another company when the pension plan was
a liability they had to continue the plan. But when it was made an asset a company could do a hostile take
over and take the pension plan assets. We (USWA) went on strike for a improved defined benefit plan the company
bought out another company and took the pension from their workers to fund ours. Then after that the company
didn't fund the plan and the PBGC took it over hence the taxpayers were stuck with it. Ronald Reagan was more
responsible for the problems we have today than anyone. He started taxing SS and unenjoyment benefits too.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. What a tremendous irony, isn't it?

Angry white men hail Ronald Reagan as their first great leader. And he's the one that pulled the rug from under them. No security nets, and now we're at each other's throats.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. Defined pensions have been gone for decades.

Not that most employees ever got one. And in recent years, a lot of companies have done things, like declare bankruptcy, to turn their pension obligation over to the PBGC, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Happened to my. My pension is less than a third of what it should be. Lucky me, I never actually counted on that pension as being an important part of my eventual retirement. It's the people who worked there for thirty years or more who honestly thought it would give them a decent retirement who have been totally screwed.

[doc03]

26. If not for Ronald Reagan that would not be the case. The PBGC has more obligations than

assets. Why with all the money the government has been handing out the last couple years they couldn't have
tossed a few million over to the PBGC. I get a small pension from the PBGC. I get another one from working in the
steel industry that every year drops in funding, it is just a matter of time before it is dumped on the taxpayers. I get another
that comes from the USWA that seems to be funded OK at this time but is only covered at 35% by the PBGC if it goes under.
Even though I get three checks they are not huge like some other the employees from some other industries are getting like in
in the auto industry for instance. Nobody addresses the problem of the PBGC under funding. We won these pensions through collective bargaining and the government let the companies default on their obligations and we have to worry if someday we will be left with no income.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

27. You've summed it up very nice.

I consider myself extremely fortunate that I always assumed I'd get about $100/month, as it was a job at the beginning of my working life, and I was there ten and a half years, just long enough to get vested in it. I'm actually getting a bit more than that, which is nice, but at least I'm not in retirement poverty because of the slashing of my pension.

This is why I understand that 401k plans are better, done right. For one thing, you don't lose everything just because you leave a job after only a couple of years. The other huge point is that even at the peak, fewer than 50% of people were in jobs covered by pensions, and I'm guessing that a noticeably lower percent ever collected one.

[MissMillie]

17. Must keep people desperate enough to work for slave wages!!! (/sarcasm) (n/t)

.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. "Worker shortage" is boss-speak for "I don't pay enough."

[Baked Potato]

25. Good discussion, they really, really hate direct help to the people.

It triggers their base regards for workers.