Midwest Gasoline to Spike $0.50-$1.00 Per gallon

[Torvy]

Who are all these people who should be working but on unemployment?

I doubt you or anyone who regularly posts here are among those who game the system. Those same states are not prosecuting violent crimes, they're not going after benefit scammers.

Those scare letters only scare honest folk. How are they going to take back money from people they cannot find? Those who don't bother with bank accounts.

 

[Snobdds]

Here is a few points for those who like to claim "people are sitting at home getting fat on unemployment".

During the pandemic I couldn't get any extra, so what I did receive wasn't even 1/2 enough to live on.

One of my work mates did and after a year, received a note from the state that stated "you do not qualify and must return all funds paid out to you". This freaked him out and knew that the state had made the mistake, not him. He pointing this out and the state dropped the suite but he wouldn't take any more unemployment and said "its just not worth the risk!"

So me and most of my buddies did not qualify for unemployment during the pandemic and they just wanted to work.

Who are all these people who should be working but on unemployment?

Mostly males between the ages of 18 & 30.

Our young males in this country have been the one demographic to drop from the labor force.

Fentanyl is one hell of a drug. Portland and SF should stop making it comfortable for users to continue to use.

 

[jyoutz]

How about this one?

https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Paying-Americans-Not-to-Work.pdf

Still most of the funds are health care benefits. A different discussion. And I don’t disagree that some states are overly generous in welfare. This needs to change. Still the labor market is tight and it’s not all due to welfare. No doubt that’s part of it. But the participation rate doesn’t account for many of the things I posted earlier. Most people are working and that means upward pressure on wages.

 

[jyoutz]

Sure they do...a smaller pool of people drives wages up. A large pool of people decreases wages.

What do you think all the migrants are doing to wage pressure?

Migrants should in theory lower wage rates, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. How do you explain that?

 

[Snobdds]

Migrants should in theory lower wage rates, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. How do you explain that?

7 trillion dollars of Covid money actually takes a long time to spend. But were almost there. Goldman sach said the last of the Covid money will be through the system by December.

In otherwords...Inflation is powerful. It's the worst thing for an economy.

 

[Torvy]

Most people are working and that means upward pressure on wages.

Most people are always working...as long as participation is over 50%.

The upward pressure is due to low participation for a variety of reasons. The biggest of those I stated and you denied. Your example is a trivial % of those not participating and as I said before, does not represent a change from 4 years ago.

Ultimately, it is participation that matters. You cannot manipulate those numbers the way you can unemployment. Clearly there is a huge problem in participation and it is not just a bunch of people like me taking early retirement. Most of those were going to retire anyway.

 

[Snobdds]

The unemployment rate is a different measure than participation rate. Unemployment measures people who are seeking work but unemployed. Participation rate is entirely different. It is just a measure of the working age people without a job. Many in this category aren’t seeking work (working spouse), students, gig jobs, etc…. My son is a PhD student and not seeking work at this time. He’s listed as not participating. The only meaningful metric is the unemployment rate.

Don't go dying on this hill...

Unemployment rate is a crap metric...

Go back and look how for the past year, they come out with a very good number, only to be revised up later on. It's a manipulated statistic.

 

[jyoutz]

Don't go dying on this hill...

Unemployment rate is a crap metric...

Go back and look how for the past year, they come out with a very good number, only to be revised up later on. It's a manipulated statistic.et

Whatever your opinion, there’s no question that we have a tight labor market that is driving up both wages and general prices. There’s not one small business that doesn’t have a help wanted sign.

 

[jyoutz]

Most people are always working...as long as participation is over 50%.

The upward pressure is due to low participation for a variety of reasons. The biggest of those I stated and you denied. Your example is a trivial % of those not participating and as I said before, does not represent a change from 4 years ago.

Ultimately, it is participation that matters. You cannot manipulate those numbers the way you can unemployment. Clearly there is a huge problem in participation and it is not just a bunch of people like me taking early retirement. Most of those were going to retire anyway.

Non-working spouses and 20 something college students are not a trivial percentage of the labor pool. And early retirements are at lot more common than in the past.

 

[Torvy]

Non-working spouses and 20 something college students are not a trivial percentage of the labor pool. And early retirements are at lot more common than in the past.

What changed? That is the story. Why would there suddenly be a change in the number of non-working spouses and/or 20 something college students? Could it be the promise of free money? Could it be actual free money?