Dear employers / those that say there is a labor shortage –
Let's be honest with ourselves. There is no ” labor shortage “. There are just as many people now as there has ever been. There are not more jobs suddenly needing to be filled.
No, what's going on is people are f'n TIRED of working a job that paid $12 an hour in 2005 in 2022 for $12 an hour. People are f'n TIRED of working themselves to the bone for pennies. People are f'n TIRED and PISSED that they went to college for 4+years to get an education for you to offer them $12 an hour with their qualifications (and on your stupid resume a 4 year degree is a must!) . People are f'n PISSED they were pretty much forced / told / coerced into going into college (“if you don't get a higher education you will have to mop floors for a living!” we were scared with into going to college) pay a massive price for the education for you to offer them $12 an hour.
I was one of those people who did it for a fuel company for a decade. That stupid holdover from another era was ingrained in me ” work hard, put your nose to the grind stone, do what needs to be done and they will give you raises, blah blah blah “. All that is GARBAGE. You are an X in someones algebra equation. You will NOT get raises that keep up with the cost of living. Working for one employer for 30 years and retiring is a dream in 2022. In order to get meaningful raises you must continuously job hop from place to place.
The “labor shortage” that America is facing is because folks are finally waking up to the fact the American dream is nothing more than that – a dream. We are tired of working our lives away, 60+hours a week to make someone else rich just to go to an early grave to have a roof over our heads.
Our grandparents worked a job as a damn janitor at a HS and afforded a two car garage house with a housewife and 2 kids. Our parents generation started to have to have a dual income household to keep up with that standard of living. Hence my generation being latch key kids – coming home to an empty house.
That's why so many people are starting to go off grid. Starting to say ” screw you ” and living super minimal lives. I'm seeing people riding bicycles in my town more and more as a means of transportation. It's cheap, doesn't require any investment like fuel beyond the initial purchase. My townsfolk on the local FB pages criticize these people for riding bicycles everywhere, complain of how shabby they look etc. I'm actually starting to think they are secretly jealous of their minimal lifestyle, free time and what not VS them working 60+ hours to keep up with the Jones.
I don't know where I'm going with this 6:00am rant, but I know that a load more people are fed up and DONE with the system.