Let’s Call High Unemployment What It Is: A Strike
Workers don’t want to come back to low pay, no benefits, long hours, and grumpy customers. Why should they?
As the American economy digs out from the devastating financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the result has proved a patchwork of unmet expectations, high unemployment, inflation, and plummeting consumer confidence.
To the dashed hopes of optimistic economists, the U.S. financial engine has not rebounded as fast as some predicted. Sluggish, and more than slightly unpredictable, the economy has begun to recover though.
There are still challenges for U.S. businesses, and plenty of them.
The confusing network of disparate Covid-19 restrictions — varying wildly from county to county and state to state — and the absolute nightmare of public messaging about the pandemic haven’t done struggling U.S. businesses any favors over the past 18 months.
Outdoor shelters, improved sanitation methods, social distancing measures — most businesses have tried hard to comply with ever-changing guidelines that often seemed arbitrary and have become politicized.
Businesses are now facing even more difficult choices: Ease up on mask mandates and alienate their progressive…
