The cost of childcare is absolutely insane. My wife is staying at home. She is looking for something part time to get some extra cash.
She got a position at a day care
Our child goes to the top of the list since she’s employed there
We do not get a discount on child care with her working there
Her monthly pay will be ~1100
Our monthly cost to put our daughter there will be $2000
It costs more for my wife to work than it would to be stay at home.
And it’s mind boggling to me that there are so many great solutions that have been in use for decades in other developed countries, but the US refuses to take any cues, because that’s “socialism” or whatever. It’s tiresome.
Low unemployment is the logical consequence of a labor shortage.
That said, I don’t believe we’re in a labor shortage. We are experiencing the natural consequences of decades of stagnant wages and rising costs. Higher wages would pull more people into the market, but that would cut into profits so business leaders invent an imaginary “labor shortage” which requires government intervention.
Unemployment rates are the rate of people looking for work, and higher rates usually indicate a lack of open jobs. Lower rates mean there are more jobs available. It does not necessarily mean there are more people in the labor force. That’s a separate metric. But even if more people are working, a labor shortage is still possible. Why? A shortage happens when there is more demand for something than there is supply, so it can happen at any level of supply, if there is enough demand. So even if there are more workers, if employers want to hire even more, there could be a shortage.
There is also a problem that most of the jobs right now are unable to pay rent on their own, so some people are starting to work 2 jobs.
So whenever I hear record employment, I wonder what that statistic would be if it only counted people that worked a single job. How many people in our workforce only need one job to survive in this economy?
That we rationalized taking away children, in their most important phase of development, from the most important entity for this phase, is the prime example for how we failed as the mankind.
This even makes sense in context of the article, my wife doesn’t work because it makes no sense to go to work and dump all the money she’d make into child care.
…why does the U.S. need more workers in the first place? With real wages being largely stagnant over the last four decades, who is producing what for whom?
The US, like most other developed countries, needs a constant influx of workers because the population is getting older on average. Boomers will soon be completely out of the labor market, and the smaller, younger generations will not be able to sustain the economy and society without extra hands.
It’s times like this that I just want to stare at the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, and just contemplate what kind of policy changes could possibly solve our upcoming labor shortage?
If only Lady Liberty could speak, she might have some ideas. I guess I will never know.
/s
Edit: I’m also a big fan of higher wages. And I suspect US immigration levels won’t bounce back quite as high with a ploicy change, after years of racism in our news. We’re going to feel that consequence pretty strongly, I suspect.
It’s mainly because of the infinite growth paradigm outpacing the rate of population growth. If only investors had realistic goals, we could avoid all this.
It’s honestly baffling to me that big business isn’t making a major push for universal healthcare so they don’t have to worry about health plans anymore.
Bigger the company = easier it is to have this settled. If you have this settled you can attract and retain talent that smaller companies can’t. Besides, you can just take it out of their salaries.
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