In a brand new introduction, Eberstadt explains how the government’s response to Covid-19 inadvertently exacerbated the flight from work in America. From indiscriminate pandemic shutdowns to almost unconditional “unemployment” benefits, Americans were essentially paid not to work. Thus today, despite the vaccine rollouts, inexplicable numbers of working age men and women are sitting on the sidelines while over 11 million jobs go unfilled. Current low rates of unemployment, touted by pundits and politicians, are grievously misleading. The truth is that fewer prime-age American men are looking for readily available work than at any previous juncture in our history.
Nicholas Eberstadt
Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022)
It always shocks people when one says it, but after 6 months out of the workplace for absolutely any reason and in absolutely any circumstances, workers encounter serious difficulties with fitting back in. After 18 months, the difficulties become severe. If we are talking about people who don’t have conscious strategies of keeping themselves in working shape, these difficulties become insurmountable.
Even a freaking radiator stinks and makes weird noises after 6 months out of use. Humans are a bit more complex than that. You can’t put them on a shelf for a year or two and them drag them back and hope to flip a switch that would make them work.
Of course, none of this is news to those who engineered the lockdowns. The current labor shortages were manufactured on purpose. They give a great excuse to bring in migrants who’ll work for low pay and tremble in fear.
So yeah, this is “inexplicable” only to those who haven’t noticed any differences between human beings and kitchen appliances.
Clarissa's Blog 
I wonder how many of our problems as a society could be solved if the government stopped paying able-bodied people not to work.
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They aren’t going to go back into the workplace. They are going to get drugged and go live in the streets, like they did in San Francisco, LA, Philadelphia, Seattle, etc.
Austerity never solves anything.
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