Conspiracy?

It is kind of interesting times we live in. 

Last year, as covid-19 hit, there were many who stated various so-called conspiracy theories: 

The virus was man made. 

Vaccine passports were going to be a thing. 

The stimulus checks and plus up of unemployment benefits were going to create a labor shortage once the economy started showing signs of recovery. 

Each and every one of these thoughts (and many others that have also come true) were dismissed out of hand by the media and many others. We were called tinfoil hat wearing fools. 

Well, it turns out these "conspiracy theories" were not theories after all. 

I'll not go too deep on the first two. Been covered here and elsewhere in depth. But I will remind you that early on the the pandemic it was discovered that a portion of the gene sequence showed a human touch. It was dismissed at the time. Now it is commonly accepted as fact that China's wahun lab manipulated the virus to be much more potent through gain of function research funded by the U.S. 

We are now facing mandates across the nation stating that if one cannot prove they have taken the shots they will not be admitted to restaurants, sporting venues, gyms, and a host of other places. 

Now we are seeing a significant negative impact of a recovering economy that doesn't have enough workers to staff all the positions that are available. One only has to do a brief search to find small businesses across the nation that survived the lockdowns are now closing because people don't want to work. Even big businesses are feeling the strain. Fed Ex, the nation's 2nd largest ground shipping company can only staff to the 65% level. This impacts their ability to make deliveries on time. Their stock recently took a 9% hit based on significantly reduced earnings centered on lack of staffing and having to spend more money rerouting shipments. 

While many large companies won't state it out loud, they know they inability to hire has everything to do with the stimulus checks and increased unemployment benefits being paid. And these companies are increasing wages for unskilled labor to levels not seen. 

A warehouse worker for Amazon STARTS at over $18.00/hour. While that's not send you kid to college kind of money, it's certainly an awesome starting wage. Warehouse work was never intended to be a life long occupation. But it was certainly a place were a person could gain job experience, possibly save some money to go to college or learn a trade. Many restaurants are having to pay their wait staff well above the minimum wage, and this doesn't include tips, just to attract employees. 

In states, such as Texas, that ended the additional unemployment benefits, they are not seeing the hiring struggles other, mostly blue states, are seeing. While many businesses have departed heavily taxed blue states for better business climates of Texas and Florida, they are also reaping an unforeseen benefit: a healthy and available work force. 

Until states realize that unemployment benefits are actually harmful to their economic recovery, we will continue to see businesses struggle and close.