“Sure. Grab it, store it, shove it.” – Babylon 5
My parents always called me a gifted child. Turned out I was abandoned in a box on the front step.
I was at the store the other day with The Mrs. and Pugsley. We saw a retail clerk we knew and were discussing life with him. Normally, the retail clerk is very opinionated but upbeat. I’ll admit, it has been over six months since I’ve seen him, but his transformation was amazing.
He’s “retired” but spends his time selling things that he likes to sell. He’s probably one of the biggest experts in town, and a job like his is (more or less) being paid for talking to people about his hobby. He doesn’t have to work, but he wants to. Thankfully it wasn’t a weird hobby, like taking pictures of trout wearing cute outfits. That’s like shooting fish in apparel.
This visit to the store was different. Like I mentioned above, he’s normally upbeat. Now? Not at all. He was angry. He railed against management that didn’t care. He railed against customers that treated low-wage retail employees as if it was their fault that the store didn’t have their particular brand of banana mist spray. The store employee sounded as angry as Darth Vader – I mean he was really venting.
The clerk we talked with wasn’t quitting. Yet. But he was done. He’s done taking crap from management. He’s done taking crap from customers.
I got fired for asking a customer “rare or well done?” The funeral home said that wasn’t the right way to ask, “burial or cremation?”
One more customer screaming at him because something wasn’t on the shelf? He might take off the company shirt and step outside with the customer. After he’s finished the business with the customer he would probably just keep walking.
And this is in Modern Mayberry, where we’ve been essentially untouched by the ‘Rona crisis and mandates and masks. He’s done.
In society at large, I see the very same pattern.
Keep in mind, the retail worker that I described above was nearly at the sour cream stage on his taco because of the rude customers. Why were the customers so rude?
They’re done, too.
- They’re done with an economy where they have been abandoned.
- They’re done with shortages they don’t understand.
- They’re done with rising prices to feed their family.
- They’re done with expensive gasoline.
- Oh, and they’re done with masks and mandates, too.
Voters on the Right are done, too. The idea of compromise is hateful – the positions are crystallized:
- Vax mandate for the greater good versus basic human rights.
- Collective guilt over crimes committed hundreds of years in the past versus meritocracy.
- Five million other things. I’d list them, but you know them. You see them every day, and it boils down to the violence of the collective mob versus the rights of a constitutional republic.
In my adult life, the high point of our country being cohesive was on 9/12/2001. In that moment, we tried, really hard, to come together as a country. The result? Two of the longest wars in United States history, trillions in debt, the Patriot Act, and Obama.
What do you call Bill Gates’ divorce? An unplanned update.
The lowest point?
Right now.
This has significant political implications, but also economic implications. People like the retail employee, working because they want to, can leave anytime. But it’s more than just that one retail employee. How many other people are just walking away? How many are one rude customer away from wadding up the company smock, and walking out the front door for the last time?
How many firefighters will quit rather than get the jab? How many EMTs will simply walk away rather than submit to it? By my count, the number is not insignificant, and these are crucial jobs if you like keeping your house not burned up like and would like granny to get to the emergency room in some other fashion than you tossing her into the bed of the pickup after you move the Purina® Lion Chow™ out.
Often, the people who run the services that keep the economy running are paid at the lowest levels. What happens when they decide they are done with the nonsense, too? What happens when they look around and see that they could work at McDonalds® for 10% of the stress and 90% of the pay?
No matter how often I ask for a large fry, they keep giving me lots of small ones.
We hear about an economy where jobs are plentiful, and takers are few. From what I see here, it’s true. Except the jobs that are plentiful are at the lowest levels of pay and prestige, and the people are simply not interested in taking them.
We have shortages of everything. Inflation is wonderful at creating that: inflation pulls demand forward. Why buy a window tomorrow when the price will be up. Buy the window now. Buy everything that that you can, now. This is a rational reaction, but when everyone does it, it feeds inflation.
Tensions are high. People who make $30,000 a year have seen themselves take a $3,000 pay cut, simply through the government’s printing of money. The cause may not be apparent, but at the gas station they see it. At the grocery store they see it. When the time to pay the rent comes?
They see it.
It’s not just that. At the voting booth, they look back at the 2020 election.
They see the fraud.
I will say this, he’s certainly given himself an incentive to not slip . . .
This is, to say the least, a very, very chaotic situation. As I said, we have shortages of everything. In 2018, the economy was working because the people in it were working. Now, in addition to the shortage of “stuff” we have shortages of the people who make things go, as well.
What does that lead to?
Increasing dysfunction. Worse services. Longer waits on EMT calls.
Why?
I call it the IDGAF economy. People are done. How many folks simply don’t care? How many have been crossed out of the economy and have the attitude, “screw ‘em all, I didn’t need this job anyway”?
A lot. In the 1977 as inflation hit there were similar sentiments – Johnny Paycheck scored a big hit with Take This Job and Shove It. This is where we are in 2021. People are done. People are sick of it all. They know the economy isn’t right.
I got some extra money this Halloween. I went into a haunted house and on the way out they handed me a paycheck.
Economies consist of more than companies and procedures and policies. Each of those things depends on: people. Lose a foreman? The crew may or may not do as well. If it was a good foreman, it’s likely that they don’t do as well. Lose an EMT, and you’re one shy for a full shift? Which heart attack do they skip out on?
Who makes that ambulance run? Who gives time off to the weekend dispatcher? Who runs the window at the DMV? Who makes the PEZ®?
The reactions I’ve seen so far are discouraging. The idea from at least some management is that, “Well, isn’t that a part of their job?” which is technically correct. But if they can do another job for a dollar less an hour that doesn’t cause a sacrifice?
They’re gone.
That’s the difficulty. An economy isn’t Nike® or Amazon™ or Netflix©. An economy is made of the people that run it. We’ve seen that truckers can paralyze an economy. Now imagine the economy when all the people that make it go say, “IDGAF”.
We’re close.
Big Steals of a burned bridge too far have consequences.
The burning it all down better plan is to deliver the North America prize to the global Soviet cabal that owns Let’s Go Brandon.
Get ready for engineered chaos as it is all by design for the Great Reset and Schwabworld.
Everyone is hiring but Uncle Sugar has made it possible to get by without working in evil racist terribly oppressive America. (sarc)
Just going out day to day and you can see that it is fundamentally destroyed with a highway roads upgrade to accommodate the tens of thousands of replacements being a major undertaking that takes months or years to complete.
Most retail stores locally will have one live person at a we accept cash lane and the rest are self-checkout and there you will see people who could never handle being a clerk or cashier.
Yup. It’s almost like people are a bug, not a feature.
Yup, that was it . . . !
[
.”…Which heart attack to they skip out on?…”
If I was a fussy old fart, I would edit this to something like:
* “Which heart attack (do) they skip?”, “Which heart attack do we triage as non-viable?”
]
.
*****
.
Why the shortage of cow-orkers?
.
Galt Gulch.
Some folk are embracing the concept (‘triaging’) ‘the whole shooting match needs a re-boot, so this is as good a time as any to hunker-down, shelter-in-place’.
.
Or ‘I withdraw my consent’.
.
Or ‘with Glorious Leader MostPopularPresidentEver chinesium joe biden helming the ship of state, everything is handled A-OK… so I can relax’.
.
Or, in my case, the view from the porch-rocker amuses me.
The visuals from anyplace else… not so much.
[
.”…Which heart attack to they skip out on?…”
If I was a fussy old fart, I would edit this to something like:
* “Which heart attack (do) they skip?”
]
.
*****
.
Why the shortage of cow-orkers?
.
Galt Gulch.
Some folk are embracing the concept of ‘the whole shooting match needs to collapse without my help, so this is as good a time as any to hunker-down, shelter-in-place’.
.
Or ‘I withdraw my consent’.
.
Or ‘with Glorious Leader MostPopularPresidentEver chinesium joe biden helming the ship of state, everything is handled A-OK… so I can relax’.
.
Or, in my case, the view from the porch-rocker amuses me.
The visuals from anyplace else… not so much.
Thank you!
Consent is being withdrawn . . . person by person.
Going Galt in short
And sooner, rather than later.
A couple of months ago, I was startled because the price of bulk-bin organic rolled oats jumped from $0.99 to $1.29 per pound, but I reminded myself that it’s still a bargain: cheaper and more nutritious than name-brand breakfast cereal (by a long shot). Saturday, the bins were empty. Tuesday, the bins were still empty, which I mentioned to the checkout clerk. “Yes, I know…”, she sighed. “That’s one of the things we haven’t been able to restock lately.” Fortunately, I keep 3-6 pounds of rolled oats in the pantry at all times, so maybe we can ride this one out. But the next 100 lb. bag the store gets is going to sell out even faster.
Happy talk on the nightly business report yesterday “Consumer spending is up about 10% from this time last year!” That sounds to me as though people are just paying more for the same stuff: mostly groceries and fuel. There was no mention of adjusting the figures for inflation. I guess the guy who tabulates the total spending doesn’t talk to the guy who checks the prices of individual items. 😉
The thing is, given the fact that so many people get some government support:
– Veterans
– Disabled
– Seniors
– Those on Social Security/SSI
– Welfare
– EBT
– Unemployment
– Covid handouts
the number of citizens who are available to work is sadly down.
Many people are sufficiently sheltered with a base income, that they can afford to leave their jobs. Many only need a part-time income, and, for short periods of time, not even that.
I know I fall into that category, at 70 years old. I get some Social Security (reduced by WEP), two different states’ teacher retirement (not a FULL retirement, but good enough), and, while working, put away money into a tax-deferred retirement account.
We lived frugally, and, by retirement time, had paid-up cars, a home with a small mortgage (which, when sold, would more than provide a fully paid up home in a cheaper part of the country), and essentially no consumer debt that could not be paid off at the end of the month.
So, the money I earn selling Medicare and Obamacare policies is just gravy. If I am actively working, good. If I can’t work, or chose not to work, no problem.
Inflation will kill that flexibility. It will lead to a shrunken family budget, and cut – drastically – our future income. Only the fact that we have substantial investments makes our future income possible. Most people don’t have that luxury.
Inflation will KILL the Progressive Wing of the Dems, and probably most of the rest of them, too.
Inflation likely contributed to a conservative like Reagan winning. Another conservative that really believes in the philosophy and is positive could sweep the election (if the machines don’t fully control the outcome).
No real conservative will be allowed anywhere near federal power. Youngkin winning was seen as a sign that conservatives could prevail through voting, but he has already started cucking. Which shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that did the slightest bit of research on him.
Hmm, need to expand my pantry – this isn’t going to be a short storm.
It’s being called The Great Resignation. Google that term and there’s endless articles. You can find the raw JOLTS data at https://www.bls.gov/jlt/ . If you wanna cut to the chase, here’s the quit rates by job category:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
Huh. The lowest quit rate is for … government workers!
Reddit has a thread for the quitters: r/antiwork. It’s a leftist (of course) thread, but I would bet people from all sides engage. It extoles the virtues of dropping out of the system. I believe the movement is growing as quick as marxism is. Coincidence?
….Boo frickin’ hoo….
Ok Boomer.
How would government workers even know if they weren’t working any more? How would we know? The transportation secretary took 2 months off during a transportation emergency and no one noticed.
Ha! It’s almost like this was . . . planned!
“We’re close.”
John, we be there ‘rat now. I own a rather successful environmental consulting services company (sole member LLC for the last 10 yrs.) that is 32+ yrs. old. I can’t source subcontrators anymore in semi-remote areas. They only want large projects, period, as they are “short on help”. I cannot even find an excavation contractor for a $2.5K, one day project 40 minutes south of Asheville NC. “Not worth my time, sorry.”
I pick up moderate sized projects in the SC Lowcountry that are enough to keep me interested. But, rising insurance costs make it very likely that 2022 is my last year in biz. There is huge consolidation in my industry, and one biggie wants to retain me as a board member and a “marketing consultant”. I’ll do the consultant thing but want no part of the corporate world. They’re also yankee carpetbaggers.
My belief is that thousands upon thousands of competent and expert “senior citizen” contractiors like me are damn sick and tired of the ongoing sh*tshow and will drop out, leaving the mess to incompetent morons.
It will only get worse.
lamont cranston: I am one of those competent and expert “senior citizens” of which you write. Glad to work for myself and my family. Otherwise, Galt’s Gulch it is.
It will. And? It’s almost like it was on purpose. Excellent comment.
Definitely “on purpose”. My fav movie line is from “Rancho Deluxe”, circa 1975, starring Jeff Bridges & Sam Waterson (odd combo, no?). who are modern-day cattle rustlers in MT. Rancher hires Slim Pickens to get ’em. He does. Near the end Harry Dean Stanton, their crony that works for the rancher, sez, “How’d you catch us?”. Slim – “Son, all large scale crime is always an inside job.”
‘Nuff sed.
Nicely said . . .
The anger and resentment, simmering just below the surface, isn’t like anything I can recall. I sort of remember the end of the Carter years and while things were crappy, people were mostly depresses rather than angry. Now? They are angry, all the time. A lot of it has to do with the firehose of negative reinforcement we all get, all day, every day. We used to only suspect how bad things were but now we get confirmation that things are bad in real time.
As for hiring people, Amazon is building a new nearly 700,000 square foot distribution center in Fort Wayne and they need a mere 1,000 employees. This in a city where everyone is hiring and starting to sound desperate. If you don’t like your job or you get mad, any number of places will snap you up for way more than the same job would have paid 3 years ago. I can’t imagine how this would have negative repercussions in the economy as a whole.
The Rona hit us hard – 12 months of nothing, add in trillions of dollars of spending, and poof . . . the dehyrated economy comes back to life.
John, I think the reality is people are looking around and asking hard questions about what they are really doing in life. If you want to make someone question the course and trajectory of their life, removed their comforts and anything that allows them to disguise the fact that they are doing something they do not like or care about for money that just barely covers their living expenses. If you contrast that with a governmental handout system that seems to reward certain behaviors contrary to that, and then counter contrast it with the government telling you that you are not doing enough/sacrificing enough/paying enough, the results can be quite eye opening.
For many, I think they are looking around and asking “If not now, when?”
Well said – it’s that tension between what is, and what could be. And what is, doesn’t look very good . . .
Punched out of the rat race on 31 Aug 21 and do not regret it. Best thing I ever did was to “Go Galt.” Hunkered down and watching the shit show get worse every day, while continuing to prep the for lean times ahead. I really hope Terrance Popp is wrong about the 2 way rifle range opening in the near future, but as I learned in my 25 years of active duty, “Hope is not a good plan.”
Indeed. Hope is a very, very bad plan. Wonder who will tell Congress?
I’m pretty sure that message will travel at the speed of sound.
From their windows.
Perhaps of interest, the Zman wrote today about the lack of talent in the job pool: https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=25707
Good post. As usual, Z has some good insight.
If you haven’t been buying extra and stocking up, on consumables as well as tools, spare parts, and durable goods, you aren’t paying attention.
Need moar . . . . everything.
Maximum hours for low wage workers is 30 due to government health care and other mandates. (Thanks, Obama!)
Let’s do the math. 30 hours times $10 per hour is $300 per week.
30 hours times $15 per hour is $450 per week.
Unemployment pays $600 per week.
Gee, why can’t places find people to work?
It’s like it was a plan . . . .
Just got back from Saint Augustine for a Wifey Work Trip… Veterans Day: Applebees: Closed for inside dining, takeout only. Ruby Teusdays: Closed. Like shuttered/closed. Also, on the Fast Food side: Taco Bell, Burger King and a KFC ALL Closed/Shuttered due to no staffing. St. Auggie is a pricey tourist town. Rents are high and people have split from the whole F’n program.
The Buffalo Wild Wings was surprisingly open, but only at half-capacity (one half of the restaurant was closed off/not in use) and they only had 3 staff members on the floor. Normal I boycott their anti-second amendment asses, but at that point, I was ‘hangry’ enough to eat the ass out of a dead racoon.
We ate at the bar as otherwise, we’d have had to wait 45 minutes. The bartender told me that he’d demanded a $300 a week bonus per week ON TOP of his meager normal salary plus tips, as he’s one of the only competent bartender in town… said he’s getting offers daily for him to jump ship…
Me? Since leaving my last gig? I’m able to pick n’ choose. It’s a ‘sellers market’
For Now.
Well said – for now. That, really is the mechanism of control that I’m worried we’ll all see soon . . . the buyer’s market.
I waved Adieu to the rats something like 5 1/2 years ago, I think. (Can you tell me what day it is? I’m retired.) For a little while I missed my job, but now? Oh heck no. I can do all the things that I used to pay people to do, myself. Of course, the age and mileage is showing, a good day’s work is now 5-6 hours. But I don’t have to deal with idiot managers who have no clue what it is I actually do and I don’t have to deal with end users who think I’m some incompetent version of Merlin the Magician. Less money? Sure, but I grew up poor. It’s not what I’d call fun, but I’m remembering how I used to do everything on a small budget. I have a better grip on wants vs. needs than I have in years. And I have zero effs to give, which means the little know-nothings who think they are God’s Gift will get a rude surprise when it all goes pear-shaped. People like me have already been told we’re surplus, so thanks for the freedom of action, kids. May God have mercy on your souls, because I’m fresh out.
I’m still on the treadmill. The Mrs. is worried if I step off, that I might go to seed.
I just had that conversation for the nTH time the other day in as many years. The people have grown more callous over time do to the bullshit.
My Dad said after he retired, “I was tired of the bullshit”. My father in law who was a God fearing man said the same thing when he shut his retail business down instead of my wife taking over but in a much nicer way. My wife was tired of the bullshit as well.
My Dad’s quote stuck with me from then on, I was mid twenties. I started seeing the bullshit many years later as I was no longer young and bull strong enough to ignore it. i.e.; I became more callous.
I was basically dis-employed over 6 years ago and I was tired of the bullshit. I get up every day and do what ever the hell I want to and it is nice.
ps. Sales will be reported as glorious and great till January. Sales are measured in dollars, not ounces or pieces. Ain’t inflation great. The market will go up for the same reason, more dollars to buy same stock.
Bear Claw- Agreed. I’m sorta semi-retired but get enough calls/week to practice my trade at 68. Most youngsters are lazy & incompetent, not seeing the forest for the trees. Just jacked my pricing up 40% or so, nobody complains.
Inflation makes sales numbers . . . look great. But something about bulls . . .
Where does unemployment pay $600/week? Not here.
Every place I pass has a help wanted sign. I stopped for gas at Buccee’ss last night and the pump listed their pay rates. They started at $12/hr and went up to $30 for department manager. $20-30 for department manager of a retail store. Two years ago CNC operators with experience were only being offered $15/hr.
In-n-out Burger had a similar scale listed. Both offer benefits. The beaver even offered a $2 bump for the overnight shift.
I’ve been out of the workforce for 10 years. I still do work. I still earn money. I still even pay taxes on it, but I don’t get counted. There are a LOT of people like me, and more every day. Now, whether the kids hustling as resellers haunting the thrift stores pay any income or sales tax is an open question… but I do because that’s my business, and I’m 55 and know that the IRS can fall on you like a Winnebago from above.
The growth of the ‘secondary’ economy is rapid and huge. It’s the economy of the side hustle, the ‘practice your trade off the books for yourself on weekends’ economy, the swap meet seller, semi-permanent yard sale economy. It’s not an economy that really produces new stuff, but it’s an economy that re-cycles and re-distributes existing goods and labor pretty efficiently.
The more onerous and expensive the official economy becomes, the greater the unofficial economy, with less friction, and more efficiency will become.
I’d prefer to live in a place with thriving retail stores, instead of a market bazaar of folding tables and blue tarps, but along with the rest of the slide into third world conditions, that’s where we are headed.
nick
10/10, Nick.
We are headed to that world. And it won’t be a happy trip.
The correct answer, like chocolate or vanilla, and blondes or brunettes, is “Both, please.”
Stay on the hamster wheel, make a good show of compliance.
Side hustle? Cash only, tax free, at your discretion.
Don’t deposit it, don’t consolidate it. Spend as you will, and translate it into other things.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
And wherever you are, you should always be on speaking terms with people who know where to get things, and can keep their mouths shut.
Re-reading thru the comments I had another thought that might develop into an idea… consider for a moment —
People appear to be choosing not to return to the grind, however they define that. Several comments observed that in different ways.
We are living in the middle of a global pandemic. I’m not debating the impact of the disease itself, that is outside of the discussion for now, but consider that the whole world is focused to one degree or another on the wuflu and believes it to be a deadly threat.
People spent a year sitting at home, being told their kids will murder their parents just by being, seeing the institutions they mostly ignored suddenly turn out to be toxic to them (.gov, .edu) and constantly being bombarded with negatives about health, jobs, the future, etc…
Now, consider it in light of the Black Plague in Europe.
If you don’t see a future for yourself, why go back to the job you never really liked anyway? Someone steps up and gives you money, or they don’t. And if you LIVE, there are Help Wanted signs everywhere, so you could go back any time.
I think people might be going plague nuts. No point in work if you’re gonna die. No point in saving if you’re gonna die. No point in marriage, child rearing, education, etc if you’re gonna die from the china plague…
It’s probably entirely subconscious at the moment, but a lot of what we see in the greater world could be driven by that idea.
The Black Plague changed western civ forever. Changed continents. Led to where we are now. And now, the perception that we’re in the middle of a deadly plague could lead to the worldwide change many of us feel is already underway.
Bears some more thinking about anyway.
nick
/tin foil hat/ and explains a lot of the speculation about dramatic population reduction (which naturally follows from plague) either from vax poisoning, or mass starvation when the world economy fails, or when the next stage of the biowar unleashes the whirlwind… (you know, someone releases the virus that “cures” the wuflu, and it goes pear shaped, like in the Newsflesh book series?)
and I offer this headline in support of the idea…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10224897/44-American-adults-say-dont-want-child-future-bleak.html
44% of American adults say they don’t want a child because the future seems too bleak as the US experiences the biggest decline in births since 1973
44 percent of adults ages 18 to 49 said they simply ‘just do not want to have children’ when surveyed, a 7 percent decrease since 2018
74 percent of parents of the same age also said they would not be having more kiddos
Similarly, both groups ranked medical and finances high up as reasons, while parents ranks age up high, too
Non-parents and parents both cited the ‘state of the world’ was a reason for not wanting more children, at 9 and 4 percent, respectively
The average US household is 2.53 people as of 2020 and only 3.6million babies were born last year, a 4 percent decrease – the biggest since 1973
In 2020, 25 states experienced more deaths than births, a trend that’s continuing in 2021
nick
It’s bleak because for the last two years all they’ve seen is failure. And I imagine it will be the same for the next three.
And 1973 was a very, very bleak year . . . .
Oh, Nick, I love that one. Great idea – how does the echo of the past flip to the future, since that was the *only* century when Europe’s population decreased. It changed everything.
Great idea.