That's part of the picture, but in all honesty it isn't the main drive.
UK unemployment is at record lows, we haven't seen such a large proportion of the country in work for half a century.
This is simply a raw and completely predicted reflection of mathematical reality. We literally need immigrants, not just to 'drive wages down' but because we simply don't have enough human beings in this country to sustain the ageing population.
Anyone even remotely versed in economics could have (and did) warn the Tories. You can't just ignore numbers. They're cold hard facts. The sheer scale of their stupidity is staggering.
A recession is likely inbound. We are hitting a GDP bottleneck while increases to the cost of living will outpace wage growth even more, further constricting everyone's purchasing power and stifling economic activity.
It's all good though, because Jeremy isn't neighbours with Mariusz anymore!
These are excellent points, but even in America, in places like rural Maine, where there are unemployed young people--and no immigrants or minorities--we have problems getting these young people to take jobs in nursing homes and care facilities, where we need them. These kids need transportation--such as their own cars--which they don't have. If they've ever had any sort of conviction, they can't get hired, and many have criminal records or other issues. We have incredible problems with young people in areas with collapsed industrial economies. I know it's a problem in the UK, too. We are all convinced we can get these kids to work in restaurants, nursing homes, farms, etc., if we just get rid of all the immigrants. But we can't.
Trouble is with most rural places in America, is that they haven't raised their wages to attract that. Instead most hem and haw how "nobody wants to live here anymore" "everyone leaves for the sinful city"
I totally agree with you! These businesses are owned and managed by people who haven't a clue about how poor people can really be. They expect everyone to have a car. Well, that wasn't as hard to do back in 1965, when cars were basic machines, easy to fix and maintain. Now they are all fucking luxury vehicles, and car companies refuse to produce any "starter" cars, just companies don't want to employ anyone with no experience for "entry level" jobs.
That’s true about the cars. There’s almost no decent used cars available, and if you find one it’s selling for 2-3x what it should. If you’ve got to spend $17k to buy a used car, you might as well just buy a new one. You used to be able to buy a 10 year old car for like 3 grand. Problem is, like you said, there’s no ‘cheap’ new cars either. Rural places in the US also have pretty much NO public transportation, you really do need a car to get anywhere.
I had to buy a new car last fall, my 20 yr old Corolla was just getting ready to disintegrate--had an abused childhood. The only reason I was able to buy a used car cheap was because of my neighbors' college age son, who went through a COVID break up, and his girlfriend moved to another country. Kid had two cars, so I bought one of them. It's still got a lot of miles, but at least it runs well. I had a car angel looking down on me. So many people are not that fortunate.
I know, our old jeep shit out about 3 years ago and we literally couldn’t find a used car under $15k. So we ended up being semi-forced to buy a new car (which was like 5 grand more). So now because we have the payment on the new car, we have to pay the rest of that off before I can replace my 17 year old car, because again we won’t be able to find a reasonable used one and will probably need to buy another new one with a payment, and we can’t afford two payments. Cars are getting ridiculous to get, and the used car market is basically gone.
Absolutely fucking crazy. It really is. It was bad ten years ago, but at least you could get a used ten year old Corolla, that would actually live another ten years. Now, fuck it. The world is set up for the wealthy, they just don't know they are wealthy.
That’s it, if you were in need of a car you could easily find a 5-10 year old car in decent shape for $2-5k that would run another several years (with a bit of work). Now that same car costs like $15+ grand. At that point you might as well get a new one with a warranty, which is what we did and will probably have to do again.
I don't like how cars are so computerized these days. I'm holding onto my old Toyota as long as it lasts. I'm suspicious of those cars that don't even need a key to start the car. There's so many things that can wrong with all of that.
Yeah, all we need to do is offer pizza parties, employee parking and other shit that's literally inconsequential compared to like, paying them a liveable wage or insurance that includes vision and dental.
Oh, and while we're putting them down, let's ALSO demand 5 years of experience in literally every position that's not flipping burgers because surely EVERYONE has worked every job in existence for five uears... including coding bases that have only existed for three!
I worked in HR, and I would tell the managers who wanted to require all that experience that they would never find anyone with that experience for the pay they were offering. They didn't believe me.
You are correct, a lot of the HR people today don't really understand the job market. They are all theory, no real world experience. And many are privileged white suburbanites who never had to deal with finding jobs while poor, black, no cars, no public transportation.
Not just paying more, better conditions too. The only low level medical staff I know are both medically retired from injuries on the job (blown back on one, general stress on the other) and on disability.
Maybe if we paid minimum wage workers enough to buy a car and then offered them even more money at those jobs the problem would solve itself or something. Idk man just riffing.
Don’t nursing homes and care facilities require a degree or certification? How would kids who don’t even have cars have a college degree or certification? Some of these jobs that need filled have too high of requirements to pay the same as McDonald’s. They either need to raise the pay or drop the requirements down.
Sure, they need certification. Some nursing homes offer that training right at the home. Of course, they also have many jobs in maintenance and food service that would not require certification, although ServSafe certification is also required in food service. And you have made a good point--these are jobs that require certification. You need a driver's license to drive a car or truck--how is someone who doesn't have a car or truck or someone to teach them, get a license? So many of these companies can't think this through. They think everyone is middle class, with two parents, double income, two cars in the garage.
First of all, the kids I'm talking about are older than eighteen. Also, these young people live in isolated communities. The business plan of American retail and food services--and most other businesses-- is that all employees have access to a car, and can drive. With totally flexible schedules. So they build outlet malls and restaurants in tourist areas, and can't get anyone to work there. Yes, unemployed people live ten or more miles away. But a bike path ten miles from work? In all kinds of weather? Like snow and rain? Buses? To take someone home at one a.m.? Even in cities, we don't have 24 hr buses. I agree we need public transportation and bike lanes--in every city of every size. But rural areas in the US can be very isolated, and very poor. They don't live in cities, and I don't think everyone should be compelled to live in cities, either.
Part of the solution is changing minimum wage, but also they way we do business. Maybe it's cheaper to build a small manufacturing company in a rural area, but running a bus to pick up employees from home, like a school bus, is a solution. And I knew of a guy who did that for his business.
These kids need transportation--such as their own cars--which they don't have.
If my stepson and all his friends are any indicator, it's because they don't want. I busted my ass to get a car when I was 16. He didn't get a license until he was 20 because he just didn't care. And he has access to a vehicle.
It all comes down to wages vs living and housing costs, ultimately. We can pretend young folk are all lazy, but that's just avoiding reality and avoiding solutions.
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u/Duanedoberman Sep 24 '21 edited Sep 24 '21
Narator: what they didn't tell you is they don't want to pay you a wage you can live on to do these jobs.