So, a couple of days ago I was standing in line at the checkout in my local grocery store. The line was long because they only had two registers open. An elderly woman standing behind me says: “They should get more lines open.”
In most circumstances, I would have just nodded. But a few days before I had overheard two clerks talking. One said that a bunch more of his coworkers had walked out the day before. The other said, “I’m about to quit myself. I’ve had enough. They just had the best quarter in their history and they don’t want to give us a penny of it.”
So, I looked back at my fellow line-stander and said, “I understand a bunch of workers in this store quit. They’re short handed.”
The woman nodded, “Yeah, probably getting too much money from the government, so they don’t want to work.”
I almost let it rest there, because getting in shouting matches with frail little old ladies doesn’t strike me as a good thing to do. But… I couldn’t let that one go.
“Um...” I said. “People who are working here don’t get unemployment. They have jobs. They’re not getting money from the government. Generally, when people quit a job, they’re unhappy with the working conditions or the salary.”
She kind of sputtered a little, but let it rest.
This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered the “there’s a labor shortage because unemployment is too generous,” canard.
A couple of weeks ago, at a memorial for a recently deceased relative, one of her friends (one who I know to be a Trumpist) was holding forth on “nobody wants to work because they can get more than $900 a month in food stamps.”
I don’t know where she got that idea, but I’m pretty certain it isn’t close to that — and that food assistance has gotten harder to qualify for. She then went on about how extra unemployment just encourages people to be lazy. (I personally, think it encourages people to pay their rent and feed their children, but I guess that’s just me.)
Grocery store workers are oppressed. They have been doing dangerous, thankless jobs for the entire pandemic. They should be paid more.