Robert Reich: Don’t believe corporate America’s 'labor shortage' BS

[pecksniff]

He was Secretary of Labor once, so he knows some things about this subject.

For the first time in years, American workers have enough bargaining leverage to demand better working conditions and higher wages – and are refusing to work until they get them.

* * *

In order to lure workers back, employers are now raising wages and offering other incentives. Average earnings rose 19 cents an hour in September and are up more than $1 an hour over the last year. But clearly, that's not enough to get workers back.

Corporate America is trying to frame this as a "labor shortage."

But what's really happening is more accurately described as a living-wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a health care shortage.

Unless these shortages are rectified, this unofficial general strike will continue.

I say it's about time.

 

[butters]

market forces at work

they could have avoided this by embracing a decent minimum wage, a liveable wage, but nooooooooooooo, they wanted to get away with $7.25 per hour. the places that have upped their wage rates to $15-$20 are suddenly finding the workers they couldn't before when they expected their workers to be exposed to surly, non-masking, non-vaccinated customers for long hours at shitty wages. funny how that works out.

that'd be macDs... entry level $11-15 p.h, managers $20

 

[RobDownSouth]

He was Secretary of Labor once, so he knows some things about this subject.

I like how he offhandedly referred to the current labor situation as an "unofficial general strike".

Things have been "status quo" since the Bush Recession, and the corporate "you need to be glad you have a job at the wage we are willing to pay you" ethos has become a bit frayed.

The other guy's botched response to the pandemic resulted in both a lockdown and a Great Introspection. A great many people in the bottom quintile of earners have simply decided "this job ain't worth it".

The nutters will be by here shortly shouting slogans about "government unemployment money to blame" and various other bumper sticker analyses being bandied about within the conservative echo chamber....none of which have garnered any real traction as of yet as Poutrage Du Jour.

 

[CornusKousa]

The other guy's botched response to the pandemic resulted in both a lockdown and a Great Introspection. A great many people in the bottom quintile of earners have simply decided "this job ain't worth it".

Yea, it's 45's fault that (D)'s tried to assassinate the economy.

 

[pecksniff]

The nutters will be by here shortly shouting slogans about "government unemployment money to blame" and various other bumper sticker analyses being bandied about within the conservative echo chamber....none of which have garnered any real traction as of yet as Poutrage Du Jour.

From the same article:

Republicans have been claiming for months that people aren't getting back to work because of federal unemployment benefits. Rubbish.

The number of people working or looking for work dropped in September – after the extra benefits ran out on Labor Day.

The reluctance of people to work doesn't have anything to do with unemployment benefits. It has everything to do with workers being fed up.

Some have retired early. Others have found ways to make ends meet other than a job they hate. Many just don't want to return to backbreaking or mind-numbing low-wage jobs.

 

[Wrong Element]

If only there existed some free market mechanism to match up people who want jobs with available job openings ...

 

[pecksniff]

If only there existed some free market mechanism to match up people who want jobs with available job openings ...

That mechanism only really works when unions are involved.

 

[CornusKousa]

From the same article:

So then get rid of the welfare..... should be NO problem right??

 

[CornusKousa]

That mechanism only really works when unions are involved.

Unions only work if the labor market (see immigration) is controlled.

 

[adrina]

It's not a labor shortage. It's a shortage of slave labor essentially. Being paid a pittance, abused by the public and betrayed by their employers tends to make people look for new jobs.

For an interesting bit, see Joey Holz.

https://www.businessinsider.com/worker-applied-to-60-jobs-got-one-interview-labor-shortage-2021-10

 

[pecksniff]

Being paid a pittance, abused by the public and betrayed by their employers . . .

Dammit, somebody has to do those things!

 

[JohnnySavage]

The people that used to work, but now aren't working... How are they paying their bills?

 

[WillJ8787]

He was Secretary of Labor once, so he knows some things about this subject.

Yes, it is about time. Market forces at work.

And, folks are realizing they are worth it, they have power in this system. 80,000 truckers have not returned....who knows what they are doing and trucking is one of the most underpaid jobs in the country. They have been abused for far to long.

If you need work, trucking is one of many jobs that is wide open.

 

[adrina]

The people that used to work, but now aren't working... How are they paying their bills?

Gig work, freelance, savings, family.

 

[Rightguide]

The best advice is not to believe Robert Reich. He is a socialist and a failed Labor Secretary long ago exposed as such by the Hoover Institution:

https://www.hoover.org/research/economic-fantasies-robert-reich

 

[RobDownSouth]

The best advice is not to believe Robert Reich. He is a socialist and a failed Labor Secretary long ago exposed as such by the Hoover Institution:

https://www.hoover.org/research/economic-fantasies-robert-reich

Oh look, the "Epistemic Closure" fairy has whacked RightGuide once again.

It's "shoot teh messenger" time again, y'all!


Notice how the naysayers seem to be those already on the government dole.

 

[Rightguide]

Oh look, the "Epistemic Closure" fairy has whacked RightGuide once again.

It's "shoot teh messenger" time again, y'all!


Notice how the naysayers seem to be those already on the government dole.

Who's on the government dole?

 

[butters]

The people that used to work, but now aren't working... How are they paying their bills?

what adrina says, but also cutting back on any non-essential spending...and even on some essential spending like those house repairs being put off and reducing use of gas/electricity. People might reduce personal and house/car insurance, forego health insurance, not visit their doctors or dentists where they normally would...make do. And, yes, there are those people who do all this already because of their finances even while they worked, but this reaches even further: a lot of people taking early retirement because that little job they were eking out their time on just wasn't worth the risk for the pay anymore...and those who'd be paying sometimes as much as 70% of their small income for childcare deciding it worked out better for them to stay home (especially if they have a partner that makes this possible)...they can save on transport costs, too; others remortgaging their homes or trying to downsize to something cheaper... it all adds up.

and then there's maxing out credit cards and only paying off minimal payments just to pay off essentials.

reductions in purchasing the non-e's, like additional (especially fashion) clothing, household goods, maybe certain brands of foodstuffs or cleaning materials, tobacco, alcohol, consumer goods such as sofas, fridges, flooring, plus all the stuff i've mentioned above=reduced consumer demand which hurts the economy, hurts their local stores, hurts those trying to stay in business.

 

[pecksniff]

Yes, it is about time. Market forces at work.

And, folks are realizing they are worth it, they have power in this system. 80,000 truckers have not returned....who knows what they are doing and trucking is one of the most underpaid jobs in the country. They have been abused for far to long.

If you need work, trucking is one of many jobs that is wide open.

For now. Within 10 years, everything shipped overland will be shipped by self-driving trucks.

 

[pecksniff]

The best advice is not to believe Robert Reich. He is a socialist and a failed Labor Secretary long ago exposed as such by the Hoover Institution:

https://www.hoover.org/research/economic-fantasies-robert-reich

Founded by Herbert Hoover -- talk about failures . . .

 

[adrina]

https://i.imgur.com/qbAJnjl.jpg

 

[Rightguide]

Founded by Herbert Hoover -- talk about failures . . .

Typical guilt by historical association. Cheap shot.

 

[pecksniff]

Typical guilt by historical association. Cheap shot.

It's appropriate if you're going to cite the Hoover Institution, of all things, as some kind of credible authority. What's next, the Heritage Foundation?

Reich has some damned solid credentials. He is not a "failed" anything.

Robert Bernard Reich (/raɪʃ/;[2] born June 24, 1946) is an American economist, professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator.[3] He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as well as serving as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 under President Bill Clinton.[4][5] He was a member of President Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board.[6]

Reich has been the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley since January 2006.[7] He was formerly a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government[8] and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University. He has also been a contributing editor of The New Republic, The American Prospect (also chairman and founding editor), Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Reich is a political commentator on programs including Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN Tonight, Anderson Cooper's AC360, Hardball with Chris Matthews, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNBC's Kudlow & Company, and APM's Marketplace. In 2008, Time magazine named him one of the Ten Best Cabinet Members of the century,[9] and in the same year The Wall Street Journal placed him sixth on its list of Most Influential Business Thinkers.[10]

He has published 18 books which have been translated into 22 languages,[11] including the best-sellers The Work of Nations, Reason, Saving Capitalism, Supercapitalism, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, and a best-selling e-book, Beyond Outrage. He is also chairman of Common Cause and writes his own blog about the political economy at Robertreich.org.[12] The Robert Reich–Jacob Kornbluth film Saving Capitalism was selected to be a Netflix Original, and debuted in November 2017, and their film Inequality for All won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Utah.[13][14]

In 2015 Reich and Kornbluth founded Inequality Media, a nonprofit digital media company.[15] Inequality Media's videos feature Reich discussing topics relating to inequality and power primarily in the United States, including universal basic income, the racial wealth gap, affordable housing, and gerrymandering.[16]

 

[Rightguide]

It's appropriate if you're going to cite the Hoover Institution, of all things, as some kind of credible authority. What's next, the Heritage Foundation?

Reich has some damned solid credentials. He is not a "failed" anything.

Please don't be silly. Just refute the findings and facts the Hoover Institution put forward. This is your problem, you're intellectually limited and thus crippled by your ideological bias. You're left to condemn institutions that are not ideologically aligned with your preconceived notions. And editable Wiki isn't anywhere near Hoover's credibility.

 

[CornusKousa]

https://i.imgur.com/qbAJnjl.jpg

Yet none of you mother fuckers will tear your ass to these countries that are oh so much better.

Hell you won't even do those things in the states you have TOTAL control over.

Wonder why that is!!!!

Anyone want to take a guess why California doesn't have a no ID, free for any and all who show up with their hands out HC system paid for by taxing the fuckin' shit out of Californians?

https://media2.giphy.com/media/8FhXc8w45aN32/giphy.gif
https://media.giphy.com/media/yar6rQxkoLLqM/giphy.gif