President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Very true. Change WalMart to Costco or Winco, which treat their employees like human beings, and a very different picture of the American work ethic emerges.

 

Re: Walmart

Growing up in the company’s backyard, the evolution of WM has been fascinating. It created a lot of millionaires out of people who worked as cashiers but put X per paycheck into the stock plan. Front-line employees loved Sam. You couldn’t find a better job in Bald Knob or Ash Flat.

As the company grew, it morphed into the evil empire as it had more shareholders to appease.

 

https://www-washingtonpost-com.cdn....21/05/07/jobs-report-labor-shortage-analysis/

 

All this pearl-clutching and scoreboard-pointing over something that in all likelihood doesn't really suggest or portend anything. When there's money to be made by increasing wages, wages will increase. And as being back at work becomes more attractive than not being at work, more people will go back to work.

 

Copped from today's Politico Playbook:


OVERHEARD IN A HIPSTER COFFEE SHOP — “Conservative activists accused of 2020 voter intimidation robocalls lose appeal,” Detroit News: “Two conservative activists authorities allege organized thousands of robocalls aimed at discouraging voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election have lost an appeal to toss the case against them, Michigan Attorney General DANA NESSEL announced Friday.

“In October, JACK BURKMAN and JACOB WOHL were bound over to Wayne County Circuit Court on multiple felony charges, including voter intimidation and conspiracy to commit an election law violation. … Burkman and Wohl appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals in March. Their application was denied Thursday, meaning the case heads to trial, Nessel said in a statement.”

 

And the companies that wait until people have “no other choice” to take low pay will get “no other choice” employees. What will determine if it sticks is if the American consumer decides it no longer wants a “no other choice” level of services.

 

Schools tend to promote that worldview through the seemingly benign action of being unusually active and helpful to the high-achieving, awards-oriented students while offering a torrent of attention and concern toward students who struggle with school for behavioral reasons.

It leaves a vast, almost invisible middle - those subpar high school educations you spoke of - who neither learned how to think nor the value of working in service of a well-earned C in a class. School has become less "formative for all" and more of a societal sorting hat. Schools would be wise to do far less than they do, but they won't, for fear they are the Atlas who cannot shrug. They should shrug and see what happens.

 

Another factor with regard to employment. Thread. Note that this is particularly important to single parent families.

 

In my experience, schools cater to a very small subsection of students who can do better on standardized tests which then can raise the grade of the entire school and bring in more money. In my experience, schools do not cater to high achievers. My daughter's district did away with awards for top students a decade ago.

 

I’m sure it’s only a coincidence that most of the business owners complaining that nobody wants their low-wage jobs are restaurant owners who typically have drawn from that “‘no other choice’ employees” labor pool for back of house. Now they can’t even get those people.

 

In some places, that "more attractive" is a high bar though. Working for $22 an hour isn't as good as not working for $18 an hour.

 

Apple just added the ability for iPhone users to elect not to allow their apps to track them. (/rude gesture, Zuckerberg) I wonder when Google will offer this on Android phones. I'm not holding my breath.

Just 4% of U.S. iPhone Users Let Apps Track Them With New iOS Update