Restaurants in Florida can’t get enough staff to fully open. Some are so desperate for workers, they are offering signing bonuses of up to $400 for wait staff. It turns out not to only be Florida, and not just restaurants.
So what’s going on? Unemployment is at 6 percent, so it isn’t so low that we have full employment. The labor participation rate is at an all time low- only six out of every ten adults are working.
Why? Because the government is paying people $575 a week to not go to work. That works out to $30,000 a year. But that isn’t all. Unemployment isn’t subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. This means that a person on unemployment is taking home the equivalent of $32,300 a year. Now we find out that there is a program beginning in July that will pay people another $300 per month per child.
So let’s explain what is going on here: (Sorry about all of the math and numbers)
A pair of parents were working to support their two children. They were both working in the tourism industry in Orlando. Together, they were making $50,000 a year. This made them middle class, putting them in the 43rd percentile. Usually, they worked different days, but would occasionally pay for daycare. In all, day care was costing them about $400 a month. This left them about $3,000 a month.
They were laid off at the start of COVID. Now they are getting unemployment in the amount of $1,150 per week between the two of them. There is no longer a need to pay for child care, and they get to spend all of their time in leisure, instead of working. They now are left with $3,600 a month.
Why would they ever want to return to work? It isn’t COVID that is destroying this nation. It is the government. What we are doing is living off of our credit cards. Sooner or later, the cards will be maxed out and the bill will be due. The powers that be know this. The clock is ticking, and we are running out of money and time. What is coming will have to happen before we are out of money.
1 Comment
TechieDude · April 22, 2021 at 8:01 am
Starting with Obama, the U-3 number (now 6%) turned into BS.
Workforce participation is the number, and maybe U-6, which was like 10.7% last month.
We’ve been kidding ourselves for years. With only 62% paying into social security and medicare, not to mention the money printing, the whole things going to collapse.
I’ve been reading about this for decades. And the general date of collapse for SS was in the 2030s. I figured I may get a year or two of retirement, but what the hell, most men in my family check out at 65-70.
Now? Pfft!… a year or two.
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