I feel like i've been seeing a torrent of photos depicting signs announcing a stores entire staff quitting in protest of their shitty working conditions. Nobody seems to be talking about it but are Americans starting to experience class consciousness?
I wouldn't say it's any signs of a movement. I think individuals have a bit more of a safety net for a brief period and are taking advantage of it. Like there's different tiers of lower wage jobs with food generally being the lowest, retail second and then some more professional ones that are still low wage but generally above that. And it usually doesn't take too much experience to move between them, just the time to find some and apply to them. So now's the perfect chance to move up a bit, and industries that pay unlivable wages are getting deservedly hurt because of it.
In the long term, I do actually think this is going to have consequences both good and bad if it continues for even just a few more months. I do think some businesses that survive on paying low wages are going to go away, which is good. You might even see some massive fast food chains shrink a bit. But the bad side is that's gonna be giving territory to mega businesses like Amazon, Target, McDonalds-places that know exactly how much to keep slowly increasing wages to crush any chance of unionization.
What's gonna be funny is Biden will absolutely stop these programs in an effort to not get hit hard for businesses closing, but will still get hit hard for it regardless because businesses are going to close regardless because of covid. I live in a college town and businesses just got obliterated here, basically every other one downtown is closed.
How much longer do you think covid is going to be fucking shit up?
Come summertime we will all just give up and start throwing parties
Well, the lack of hiring people means more lines which means less people wanting to come in, so thats a current issue. There's also other ones: even if places reopen but require masks, thatll deter some people from going because wearing a mask sucks. There's also still supply chain issues such as a chlorine shortage, there's still a lack of international tourism, and there's still the fear in people's minds that this shit isn't over yet because there is still that lingering threat of a new strain and there's still a lot of confusion about covid because there's been so much conflicting information.
Worth noting in some parts of europe oe whatever McDonald's already pays like 15 an hour and the food is basically same price. They could easily do higher wages and benefits amd not skip a beat.