This has become acute at Stevens Pass ski area, where forty percent of the slopes are not open, even though there's plenty of snow. Turns out people don't want to work for $15 an hour, never mind commute a long distance to do it. Yes, they're paying $15, can you believe it, what a gift to the working public. THEY NEED TO PAY $25! It's raw economics, just like houses, everybody's got a price. And obviously it's not high enough to entice workers off the couch.
And then there's the problem of housing. People are so rich they've bought up all the vacation property, and they've paid a ton of dough to do it, therefore there is nowhere for the employees to sleep. Not that this problem could not be foreseen, and some ski areas are building employee housing, but on its surface it's not enough. So, if you paid millions for your vacation home, you can't afford to rent it out to minimum wage employees. You can't meet the mortgage!
Welcome to America in 2022. It's not your father's America, hell, they don't even make Oldsmobiles anymore. And it's not even Trump's America, it's superseded that paradigm. We are in uncharted waters, and when everything is up for grabs, there's the possibility of change. Hopefully.
Now Naomi Klein has posited her shock doctrine, that in times of chaos corporations and governments use the opportunity to ram through policies that are anti-worker, never mind anti-humanity. And that still may happen, but something is bubbling up from the bottom, will it turn into an explosion?
The rules are clear. You get paid what we want you to. Take it or leave it. We dictate and you obey.
But Amazon is running out of Americans to work in their warehouses. Truly. So many have quit and many have been fired and Amazon is on the verge of being America's number one employer and...are they going to start hiring has-beens, old workers? Are they going to make working conditions better?
As it is, companies are giving up on drug tests. They just want you to show up, who cares if you were high last night, who cares if you're high on the job, so many gigs can be done by the brain dead.
So we thought we knew where we were headed, how the movie played out, but now...
This is hope folks. Spontaneous generation. Every action has a reaction. It's not like Vail can't afford to pay its workers more, it's got tons of cash on hand, it just doesn't want to, Wall Street wouldn't cotton to it. And sure, the market has gone through the roof in the past year, but how many people are invested in it? Hell, how many people are even financially literate? Like the imbeciles who take Social Security before they're seventy. Let's see, not only do you get a lower payment, and miss out on the inflation adjustment on the higher amount, if you run out of money...then what? You can't get a job at ninety five. Good luck. You're gonna be on the street begging. Or maybe you have some kids you can mooch off of.
And it comes down to kids. They're much more educated and worldly than their parents, than prior generations. Credit the internet, it's information 24/7. And it's not only hard news, you see how the other half lives.
I got an e-mail from a musician boasting about TikTok. HE DOESN'T HAVE TO GO ON THE ROAD! Think about that, for twenty years ancient rockers have been bitching that they must work live because recorded music revenues cratered. But maybe they don't have to leave the house at all! That's the hardest, most expensive part. The travel, the production, the mental wear and tear. But if you could do it all in your bedroom...
That's another thing we learned in the past two years. People would rather work at home. And statistically, they're even more productive. You can ask them to come back to the office, but many of them are just going to QUIT!
Now in the old days, you couldn't quit your job. You couldn't get a new one. And you needed the health insurance. But today jobs go begging and you can buy insurance cheaply via Obamacare, you've got many more opportunities, you're sick of fitting your square peg in their round hole.
And oldsters can't understand this. It has to be done the way they did it. Now let's see, during their years lifetime employment disappeared. But it gets even worse, even if you did work at a company for a lifetime they change the pension rules, screwing you on your expectations.
Which brings us to Robinhood and Wall Street Bets. It's not only about getting rich, but giving the middle finger to the man!
Maybe all the existing systems are out of date, they don't work for the public. The machines replace people and then what, we're all gonna drive Uber? What happens when we have self-driving cars?
Not that anybody is thinking about it, just like they're not thinking or doing anything about global warming. Used to be we lived in a society, we felt an obligation to look out for each other, but then Reagan came along and said the government was evil and we should all put ourselves first, and then we did! Screw everybody else, life is just too hard!
The youngsters know all this. And all the oldsters can to is bitch about their work habits and expectations. The boomers got sexually harassed, you should endure it too! Huh? Homey don't play that no more.
And we were told it was final days for the Republican Party, because soon America would be minority white and people of color vote for Democrats. But now that is turning out to be untrue. Many Latinos are joining the GOP.
So if you think the future is set in stone...
Corporations have been paying low wages for decades. Mom and pop shops have supported Republicans who vote against minimum wage increases for even longer. And they were winning for so long, but not anymore... Now they can't get servers for their restaurants!
There is this thought that we can return to normal, the good old days, but we can't do that and those days weren't so good to begin with.
Did you read the "Washington Post" article about Ted Koppel's visit to Mount Airy, NC, the self-styled Mayberry? Everybody wants to go back to that era, not realizing the show was staged in Culver City and written by Hollywood scribes. It's a fiction.
"How Ted Koppel's trip to 'Mayberry' turned into one of 2021's most striking moments of TV": wapo.st/3sPFCXi
And believe me, many are dumb, and many are uninformed, but not everybody. So many know they're getting a raw deal. And no, the Democrats are not taking your house and instituting socialism, and the fact that Biden has embraced progressive policies is a good thing, he's doing what the people want! Those January 6th protesters? Many were upper middle class, who else could afford to fly to D.C. to protest? Who else could leave their job?
No, the dissatisfaction with work and the dissension is coming from the underclass and the educated. Maybe we shouldn't send those 1/6 protesters to jail, but farms, have them pick crops for a few months, they'll emerge pro-immigrant, it turns out no American citizen wants to do that back-breaking work for so long for so little.
And my point here is the unexpected happens. The music industry was cruising at a previously unknown height. Selling overpriced CDs with one hit song. Times were rich. And then came Napster. And sure, it was copyright infringement, but none of the traders felt guilty because they'd been screwed by the labels for eons, not only financially, but the companies wouldn't just sell them the one track they wanted. Companies can't dictate economics in the internet age like they used to. You can't charge a high price, because the low price is sitting right next door, just a click away, on the internet. And we know it's all about low prices, people didn't want to save their downtowns from Walmart, and they're willing to fly on Spirit Airlines. And sure, people are cheap, but they've also got a limited amount of money.
I no longer recognize my country. Hell, if you lived through the sixties and seventies you wouldn't either. Equality? Fairness? Love your brother? Out the window.
As for Occupy Wall Street...what we learned is protest doesn't work, action does. Don't show up for work and Wall Street has a problem.
They've pushed it so far that people have finally had enough, and they're not only pushing back, they're quitting the game!
This was not foreseen. This was not predicted. You didn't read about this anywhere. But it happened and is still happening. It's not like you can force people to work hard for a pittance.
And there's plenty of money, it's just that Wall Street, the owners of this country, don't want to cough it up.
But the public is stronger than the corporation every day of the week. Assuming it is organized and in numbers. The record industry couldn't stop Napster even when it was suing its customers.
This is the modern era.
And it all starts online.
You can take tech free Saturdays, you can lament the fact that everybody's on their screen, but the joke is on you, you're missing out, you're less informed, you can't see what's coming down the pike.
And hopefully it will be more change. Not every revolution involves guns and ammo.
"Epic crowds are colliding with epic labor shortages at ski areas - As a record number of pass holders arrive at Vail Resorts ski areas, a critical labor shortage and quarantined workers has delayed terrain openings and cut services, spurring a backlash among workers and local skiers.": bit.ly/3mJ3TdZ
"At Stevens Pass, epic lines, not-so-epic times amid staff shortage - Skiers, snowboarders and employees blame owner Vail Resorts for a 'dysfunctional' season. Management cites industry-wide issues.": bit.ly/3HvQa1Q
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