I'll try not to draw this out too much cuz if I go into all the details this post will be insanely long. Also, idk if conspiracy theory is allowed here as I have no proof one way or the other.
My father-in law recently hit me with a spiel about “nobody wants to work”. And talked about how all these businesses are hiring and understaffed. (Which BTW, I'm pretty sure he was taking a jab at me because I'm self-employed and they HATE it.)
I said, “I'm not so sure it has anything to do with desire to work. For starters, working conditions at some of these places are awful. Been there, done that. Secondly, your daughter (my wife) has been applying for new work for almost 2 years and can't find a new job. Everywhere she has applied has been “urgently” hiring and understaffed. And a bunch of the jobs she was over qualified for.
He replied “well yeah, but those places hired SOMEBODY if not her”
To which I countered with my conspiracy theory “Did they though? I know there have been reports hospitals are getting government assistance for cases of COVID. Are businesses getting assistance for being understaffed due to COVID?”
Again, I'm trying to keep the details of this short. I'm interested in your opinions on the “short-handed & nobody wants to work” story.
I know I've utterly failed at not making a long post but I have one more question that came up during this conversation that I'd like to hear your opinions on. We were discussing the “raising minimum wage just causes more inflation” argument. Which naturally he took the stance of raising wages raises costs of products etc. I'm no economist, but replied with “okay. Fine. What's the solution then? Because people are struggling. And inflation is steady rising. If raised wages isn't the answer what is?” and he had no answer. What do yall think?
EDIT: If you're still interested I can share more here but the main reason for the post is done. My father in law is VERY much a company man. He worked for Entergy as an Operator and Operator Manager his whole life. Which worked out fairly well for him and his family. And he was able to put both of his kids through college without either needing a full time job. I on the other hand needed a full time job just to get by. Never could afford school. I don't think he is crazy alt right or anything. We're both conservative but I'm definitely more middle than he.
And SOMETIMES he gets it. When I say things like “college was forced on my generation and now there are too few people who know trade work because we were told you can't make a living doing it” which he knows you can. He just doesn't understand that the generation before is who put us in the position we're in.