I have seen various articles talking about how McConnell says that the 1200$ given to the average American still somehow is contributing to the high levels of open jobs we currently have, since the average American is somehow still living off that one time only windfall. That's straight up bullshit. The contributing factors regarding the excess jobs in America are due to excess deaths from the Coronavirus,(1) excess corporate use of PPP loans in creating job openings to apply for forgiveness,(2) and the failure of the 2004 sitting congress to mitigate the failure of the housing market by not prosecuting CEOs and at-fault owners of businesses.(3)
Due to the coronavirus, there have been an estimated 1M deaths in America, and this number is a number of contention for some right-facing people who say that this is an inflated number. However, as stated by the WHO regarding the deaths on a global level, these deaths are understated by a factor of 50-60%, if not more or less. In the CDC excess deaths report, it is estimated that there are a total of 1.15~M or so excess deaths, a population percentage of 2020's America of some 0.33% of the total population; however, the actual participation rate of the US workforce is only 62% for the past two years; an actual decrease of .24% overall average workforce. All things considered, the population that is unemployed sits at a crushing 3.6% unemployment rate; just 1.1 points above the historical low of 2.5% in May of 1953. Why is there a deficit of workers then?
It might have something to do with McConnell's adoption of the ideal that Anti-vax tactics would help him get reelected in 2021.(4) In addition, maybe it has something to do with the retirement of a massive 50% of the 55+ crowd during the pandemic, either through fear of death and the virus, or just dipping out in general. Yet, despite these facts, the senate minority leader continuously makes comments that the average American is to blame for the shortcomings, and points to unemployment programs that have been defunct for almost a year at this point, and stimulus programs over a year old, contributing to the reason that there is either inflation or no workers.
Yet he makes no comments about the PPP loans that total a massive $793 Billion, with 9.2 MILLION loans of 11.4 Million, of which $664 Billion were forgiven! Despite this fact, the average working American only received 2500$~ in stimulus. The average corporation received $69,500 in handouts. Yet, these same corporations seek to keep wages low, pay workers less, and these loans were still forgiven. As part of the said forgiveness, these companies had to advertise their jobs as proof that wages remained the same and they did not cut wages as a result of the pandemic.
Yet, the issues remain that contributed to the housing market crash in 2008, due to an ineffectual congress of the preceding years that stripped away regulation for said market. Yet, those CEOs that were responsible for the issues were completely rectified of all responsibility.
The reality of the situation is that the same people that are saying these things about the American people have done the least to help them through the last 20 years of turmoil. Wall street investors and commentators have to reassure their stockholders that the “Millennials will have to come back sooner or later to the workforce! ” and make fewer demands because we will need to compromise our integrity for pay in our “First tough job market” like they haven't been paying attention for the past 20 years. The problem is that when you make housing unaffordable, life unaffordable, and children unaffordable, you eventually have no more babies to throw into the babygrinding machine.
So they pat the other investors on the back and say “don't worry, you'll make back your money, see, there's a lot of people saying that office workers are going to have to come back eventually, and that millennials are going to eventually have to be reasonable with their employment demands!” while ignoring the bubble right beneath their office.
(1)https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/03/united-states-deaths-spiked-as-covid-19-continued.html
(2)https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program/ppp-loan-forgiveness
https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/data-interactive-tools/data-stories/how-many-paycheck-protection-program-loans-have-been-forgiven#:~:text=More%20than%2011.8%20million%20Paycheck,4.1%20million%20have%20been%20forgiven.
(3) https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-2007-i-m-excited-housing-market-crash-n578761
https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/11/the-ghosts-of-2008-000315/