As the economy reopens, some employers are struggling to find workers.
Some people blame the unemployment insurance checks as if they pay too well.
Others blame the low wages and therefore demand minimum wage hikes as if all employers could afford it!
But I think it's something else.
I think it's the respect or the lack of it!
People are becoming more aware of the necessity of taking care of their mental health!
They don't want to go back to jobs where they're not respected. And they definitely don't want to be at jobs where they're told to suffer abuse in silence!
I've had lower-paying jobs that felt like "heaven on Earth" due to the respectful atmosphere of the workplace.
I've also left higher-paying jobs because they were too hazardous to my mental health.
Money comes & goes! The memories of being respected or disrespected last forever!
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I don't begrudge employers that can't afford pay increases. It's hard to run a business in hard economic times with all the demands in less-than-ideal situations.
But I definitely begrudge employers that expect their employees to suffer abuse in silence. It really doesn't cost much to say "thank you" More importantly it really doesn't cost much to say "I'm sorry for disrespecting you" or "we'll back you up in case someone gives you a hard time!"
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Now, time to be political.
Left-progressives tend to demand minimum wage hikes and some are even dismissive towards smaller businesses that struggle with pay increases. They don't understand that this attitude actually empowers the large corporations they dislike so much.
Interestingly, left-wing progressives say that we should be more like Denmark or Sweden.
But Denmark and Sweden don't have a minimum wage.
But what they do have is more unionization.
learn more at
“Working in Sweden: Wages, Working Hours and Annual Leave,” Just Landed, accessed April 9, 2019,
https://www.justlanded.com/english/Sweden/Sweden-Guide/Jobs/Working-in-Sweden
Claire Boyte-White, “5 Developed Countries Without Minimum Wages,” Investopedia, August 5, 2015,
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080515/5-developed-countries-without-minimum-wages.asp
Houston Keene, “AOC Invokes Denmark in Minimum Wage Debate — Critics Point Out Denmark Doesn't Have a Federal Minimum Wage,” Fox News, March 3, 2021, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-mcdonalds-minimum-wage-denmark.
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I think that for every job offer, every employee should be given an option to join a union.
In Hawaii, for every job offer, every employee gets offered health insurance plans (ie. HMSA, Kaiser, etc) or they can declare they already have insurance from an outside provider.
I think it should be like that for union membership. When someone gets offered a job, they should be given brochures from various unions (ie Teamsters, AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME, etc) and note which union they want to join, or even chose not to join a union. However, if a person chose not to join a union, they'll need to pay for their own representation when trouble occurs on the job.
Unions can represent their employees when it comes to negotiating pay rates and work conditions. Being that businesses don't have infinite money, unions would have to be realistic in how much pay increases they can negotiate for.
Obviously, large corporations like Amazon & Walmart should pay their workers more. It is very important for their workers to be unionized so they can get the pay increases and improved work conditions that those giant businesses can afford.
With smaller businesses, unions may not be able to negotiate a $30 an hour wage, but they can negotiate slight increases.
But whether the workers are at a large corporation or a small business, they need the unions even more to demand better work conditions and most importantly, demand respect!
Unite Here, Local 5 (which represents many hotel workers in Hawaii) has publicized their victories in getting the hotels to improve work conditions.
learn more at their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/uniteherehawaii/
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As for the unemployment checks or any welfare in general, it is common for some people to resent those who get paid without working. Even when growing in public housing, I've heard gossip about who is "working the system" and "who is getting benefits because they're lazy". But really, so what?
I really don't resent those who get paid while not working.
Some will yell "My taxes", "taxation is theft" and the sort.
But if you're really really concerned about your taxes, those getting welfare checks should be the LEAST of your concerns.
The US military is stretched overseas, getting involved in foreign conflicts and having bases in countries rich enough to fund their own military. And add to all that, the defense contractors get rich with all the spending on weaponry and will put facilities in districts of representatives who take their money.
Agribusiness & fossil fuel industry also get billions in subsidies from our taxpayer's money.
Learn more about "Welfare for the Rich" from John Stossel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwpIBJ3jbFA
Also, so much of our infrastructure spending is mismanaged. In Hawaii, billions have been spent on a rail system that is taking forever to complete. And recently, it was found that the wheels of the train and the track it's supposed to run on don't match. But the consultants continue to live large off our taxes!
learn more at
Dan Nakaso, “Honolulu’s Rail Project Plagued with Wheels Too Thin and Tracks Too Wide,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, May 7, 2021, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/05/07/hawaii-news/honolulus-rail-project-plagued-with-wheels-too-thin-and-tracks-too-wide/.
Spending on unemployment & welfare is pennies compared to all that!
If employers want more workers, they should provide a better workplace! Treat their workers with respect, reduce stress levels, take safety seriously, and allow for bathroom breaks. When a workplace treats the workers well, the workers will tell their friends and will even recruit them. Who knows, they might even convince a friend who is on welfare to take a leap into the world of employment. When that former welfare recipient is treated with respect on the job, he/she will feel a sense of pride & dignity.
I've heard all the arguments that welfare deters their recipients from initiative to improve their life. But you know what really deters people from taking initiative from improving their life? Abusive employers who treat their employees like trash knowing they're not going to leave because they fear becoming homeless. When people feel like their only options are to either continue working at the abusive workplace or go homeless, they'll usually take the abuse.
With the pandemic shutting down workplaces, some workers finally feel free of the abusive workplaces and finally have the chance to take initiative to find a better employment situation.
examples mentioned in
Eli Rosenberg, “'the final straw': Pandemic Pushes Restaurant Workers Over the Edge,” Yahoo! News, May 24, 2021, https://news.yahoo.com/final-straw-pandemic-pushes-restaurant-200323148.html.
Associated Press, “Changed by Pandemic, Many Workers Won’t Return to Old Jobs,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, May 18, 2021, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/05/18/breaking-news/changed-by-pandemic-many-workers-wont-return-to-old-jobs/.
Things like welfare, unemployment insurance, disability payments, and Universal Basic Income (UBI) are only meant to ensure the recipients have enough to survive (and usually it's not even that).
People would rather have employment with higher pay, flexible schedules, a sense of purpose, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, a sense of respect.
The solution isn't so much "eliminate welfare" or "increase minimum wage", the solution is to Eliminate Workplace Abuse and provide Maximum Workplace Respect!
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And one more thing about welfare, people express concerns that recipients are going to use the money on drugs.
Look, I hate drugs! I even hate alcohol! I hate it so much that I threatened to pepper spray someone who kept encouraging me to get drunk!
learn more about the incident at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2019/07/still-resisting-peer-pressure-to-drink.html
But the reality is that the drug addicts are going to use their drugs no matter what!
So what would be the better scenario?
- 1) drug addicts doing their thing on the streets or at the public parks
- 2) drug addicts doing it in their subsidized apartment
I still believe in libertarian goals like
- legalizing a whole bunch of stuff (ie gambling, drugs, adult industries, plastic bags, ghost guns and much more)
- de-escalating the police (and escalating the accountability standards for police)
- getting military out of foreign conflicts
- eliminating licensing for non-dangerous occupations (ie hair-braiding)
- allow for as much entrepreneurship as possible
- reduce zoning laws that restrain the building of more affordable housing
- end the Jones Act (shipping law that restrict foreign ships from going between US ports)
- treating people as individuals and not as "members of groups"
But the demonization by some libertarians on things like unions, unemployment checks, and welfare is where they lose me!
I believe capitalism has improved our lives immensely.
But expecting people to endure workplace abuse, acting as leaving such situations is "easy", and demonizing unions & welfare doesn't win many converts for libertarianism, but it sure wins a lot of converts for socialism (even when proven socialism can have disastrous results, just look at North Korea or Venezuela)
If we want people to respect capitalism, we have to be real about its pros & cons!
This blog post is an example of that!
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Ps: Please also check out this article by Danny de Gracia of the Honolulu Civil Beat with so many classic points
Danny de Gracia, “Let the People Get Paid to Stay home. It's Good for Us,” Honolulu Civil Beat, May 24, 2021, https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/05/danny-de-gracia-let-the-people-get-paid-to-stay-home-its-good-for-us/.
It should be no surprise that while tourists are again visiting Hawaii in droves, locals don’t want to get back into the dead-end jobs that put them at risk, pay them so little, and force them to deal with people or situations that are toxic and emotionally draining. And so long as Ige says it’s not safe to take off the mask, we shouldn’t be forcing people to go back to work in-person.
The token unemployment benefits we pay are nothing compared to the subsidies we give to corporations or the grants that partner nonprofits receive to do the bidding of the state.
It’s okay, apparently, to receive billions of dollars from the federal government, take forever to spend them, mismanage their use, but when it comes to giving people a few dollars for unemployment, we want to put them through a cheese grater to prove they’re not freeloading.
also this
Until then? We need less people on the road wearing down the infrastructure or polluting the environment. We need less people clogging up corporate human resources reviews of applications because people are applying just to comply with UI job search requirements. Let the people who want to work apply for work, and let the people who want to stay home, stay home – and let’s pay for them too.
