Opinion

American worker shortage

Ashlynn Sherman, Writer | 11/8/2021

Currently in America, there is a staffing shortage in which businesses don’t have enough workers to stay open and they aren't making as much money to pay their workers. The government is then paying people to stay at home and collect unemployment, even when they are healthy and it is safe to return to work.

Stores are out of products like toilet paper, paper towels, food products - pharmacies are out of medications, shipments have been late, and the economy is at a low.

There aren’t enough manual workers in shipment so products aren’t shipped out in time, which is causing a supply shortage of many necessities. People are unable to get their medications because pharmacies are running out. Automobile shops are unable to do business because they don’t have the parts they need to fix cars since they aren’t getting shipped out. Restaurants are closing extremely early because they don’t have enough staff to keep them open or wait on customers, which creates bad service and makes said business look bad.

“The U.S. economy isn’t yet experiencing a downturn akin to the 1970s period of stagflation. This is something different, and quite strange. Americans are settling into a new phase of the pandemic economy, in which GDP is growing but we’re also suffering from a dearth of a shocking array of things—test kits, car parts, semiconductors, ships, shipping containers, workers. This is the Everything Shortage,” according to the Atlantic.com.

The message being portrayed in this cartoon is that the worker and supply shortage isn’t just something that's of inconvenience to people, but something that actually impacts the lives of many.

The income of millions all over America comes from the businesses that they have created or are a part of. They cannot afford to lose workers or business because their livelihood depends on it. This is not only forcing more and more people to collect unemployment in order to feed their family, but the economy is only getting worse.

This is the government's way of trying to control America's capitalistic society and turning it into a socialist society and creating economic progressivism by containing the growth of businesses and supplies in which America has the right to have.

Instead, the government is giving away money like its candy just so people won’t work and will become heavily dependent on the government almost as if America is imperialising itself and forcing the government's power. This worker and supply shortage will only continue to get worse and worse unless we, as a nation, decide to make a change.