Fixing Problems

[Independentthinker]

Ok..
So there are severe issues in the State of the Union at the moment.

Supply Chain
Inflation
Labor shortages
Healthcare inequalities

Instead of pointing fingers at Who did what and made a mess...it isn't going to help.

Let's discuss what can/should be done to fix these issues.

Pick a topic and let's hear your ideas on what should be done to fix the mess we are in.

What would help alleviate any of these current problems?

Democrats could actually accomplish some things if they didn't ignore Republicans as if they didn't exist. Both side's problem is that compromise only means finding enough on the other side to agree with YOUR view. It never revolves on changing YOUR view, only in changing the other's view.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Democrats could actually accomplish some things if they didn't ignore Republicans as if they didn't exist. Both side's problem is that compromise only means finding enough on the other side to agree with YOUR view. It never revolves on changing YOUR view, only in changing the other's view.

Trump made multiple efforts to solve problems with the left. As far as any Democrat in leadership is concerned, the only way is our way.

You can't work with people not willing to work with you. Trump wanted a wall but they fought him tooth and nail to make sure he didn't get one under any circumstance. And how much was that wall? About what we spend for a half-month on food stamps.

Now they want to rig the entire election system so they can't ever lose in the future. How do you compromise on that? If they can't pass their commie bill, it's curtains for them in 2022 and the know it.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

The world you old timer animals helped create in America is no longer sustainable. That should be evident by first the teacher strikes a few years ago, now more recently factory strikes. The average Joe ie the bottom 95% of working Americans is FINALLY waking up to that fact. Worker to CEO pay in the US is at its highest and the spread is the greatest among all 1st world countries. People have had enough of this shit. Paying people less and less relative to their upper management counterparts is not a sustainable American business plan. The chickens have come home to roost. Hopefully it's not too late to fix things because the obvious next stage is violence.

Right. It would make too much sense that if you're not making satisfactory money, to better yourself in some way so that you are worth more. Instead, violence.

If you don't like the pay a company offers, start your own exact company and pay your employees what you like. See how many months until you are out of business.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

The roadblocks are thrown up by greedy business owners. The government should knock at least some of them down by requiring a fair minimum wage and fair treatment and safety for employees.

Correct. Our inflation isn't high enough already. Make it higher with an increased minimum wage.

 

[Mac-7]

Ok..
So there are severe issues in the State of the Union at the moment.

Supply Chain
Inflation
Labor shortages
Healthcare inequalities

Instead of pointing fingers at Who did what and made a mess...it isn't going to help.

Let's discuss what can/should be done to fix these issues.

Pick a topic and let's hear your ideas on what should be done to fix the mess we are in.

What would help alleviate any of these current problems?

Except for the phony “healthcare inequality” issue the first three were caused by locking down the US economy

so step one is to end all the lockdowns

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Welcome to the real world - wear a cup.

Edit: My step sons have been wondering around aimlessly in the job market because they were told for too long that they just need to follow their passions.
Crain operator [not too many of those jobs]
Construction [tough work and difficult to find work due to illegal workers]
Expert Gamer YouTuber. Yeah, that didn't go well

Turns out, life is just tougher than what many people were prepared for.

Over here the bricklayers union was sending out letters to their retirees to help them find younger people willing to join the trade. They found some, but none that could pass the drug test.

My father made a pretty good living as a bricklayer. Yes, hard work but it pays well. Here you will make $50.00 an hour including benefits. Because you can't lay brick in the winter, you go on unemployment for the winter months.

Still can't find people.

My former industry is starving for more drivers. Can't find Americans to do the job, and it pays pretty well, and even excellent depending on what kind of work you're willing to do. I had this story before covid, but things haven't changed all that much. Maybe tell your step son about it.

Walmart to hire hundreds of truck drivers, raise salary to nearly $90,000

Walmart has announced it will hire “hundreds” of truck drivers and raise driver pay in 2019. Last year, the company saw same-store comp sales hit three percent, “which is leading …

fox8.com

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

From your link:

Those numbers speak to the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people who become truck drivers every year—some with their training subsidized by the government—only to find that the job pays much less than they’d been led to believe, and that working conditions in the industry are terrible.

Exactly as I said.

The article is playing games with words. The fact is, while there may be a lot of people with CDL licenses, they aren't applying to be truck drivers, or when they do they quit not long after, because the conditions suck.

So the shortage is real.

It's government that makes the profession suck, and they keep making it worse every year. Like anything else, you get paid for how good of a worker you are. You can make excellent money driving for a living.

 

[JohnDB]

The government is not in the way of employers raising wages.

Giving them tax credits just enables them to continue their bad practices. Huge mistake.

Truck Drivers are paid by the mile. IOW a portion of the retail price of shipping is theirs to have as their very own.

But truckers use fuel...which is heavily taxed. Truckers also pay fees and permits. Which are just voluntary taxes usually passed on to the customer.
Giving truck drivers some tax credits for these things isn't exactly a bad idea. It's double taxation of the same money. It allows their wages to increase without costing anyone anything. Same thing with logistics personnel. Then they also get a job that pays better. Providing incentives for low skill workers to get a job driving a forklift.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Sure. The employers should pay a fair wage, and treat their employees fairly, and they will have all the employees they need. When McDonalds averages more than a billion in profit each year, and their employees barely make minimum wage, it's not the taxpayer's responsibility to pay the difference.

You would have to look high and low to find a McDonald's job that pays minimum wage. Most all (if not all) of them pay much more.

 

[JohnDB]

Trump made multiple efforts to solve problems with the left. As far as any Democrat in leadership is concerned, the only way is our way.

You can't work with people not willing to work with you. Trump wanted a wall but they fought him tooth and nail to make sure he didn't get one under any circumstance. And how much was that wall? About what we spend for a half-month on food stamps.

Now they want to rig the entire election system so they can't ever lose in the future. How do you compromise on that? If they can't pass their commie bill, it's curtains for them in 2022 and the know it.

TBH so did Democrats and the Republicans blocked the legislation of building a wall.

That's political gamesmanship for you. Everyone cares about "the win" and not what the people actually want.

 

[JohnDB]

It's government that makes the profession suck, and they keep making it worse every year. Like anything else, you get paid for how good of a worker you are. You can make excellent money driving for a living.

Not entirely true but let's say that when you work for yourself you get paid what you are truly worth.

Here in TN years ago I went to a small business conference. Only 24,000 businesses were large to medium sized. Over 600,000 businesses were partnerships or sole proprietorship with one employee.

 

[Richard-H]

Ok..
So there are severe issues in the State of the Union at the moment.

Supply Chain
Inflation
Labor shortages
Healthcare inequalities

Instead of pointing fingers at Who did what and made a mess...it isn't going to help.

Let's discuss what can/should be done to fix these issues.

Pick a topic and let's hear your ideas on what should be done to fix the mess we are in.

What would help alleviate any of these current problems?

Declare war on Uruguay, then immediately surrender.

Let them figure these out.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Labor shortages can be addressed by tax credits or by erasing the taxes on gratuities and no longer requiring employers to actually pay Waitstaff.

the labor shortage was caused by the idiot sitting in the White House today trying to figure out which end of the spoon he's supposed to scoop up his food with.

If you pay people not to work, don't be surprised when they don't. Rush Limbaugh.

When people are not working, less product gets produced. When less product gets produced, you create a supply chain problem.

 

[john doe 101]

Commie Joe?
Out of touch here - workers are making more now than ever before.
But go ahead, the lazy generation.

Being paid "more than ever before" doesnt mean people are getting paid fairly.
Wanting to be paid fairly makes one a communist? LOL. Maybe you like getting ripped off, but most people dont.
Also you think people are lazy because they want to be paid fairly? You're thinking is REALLY illogical.

We get it, you're from the generation that thinks they should just be thankful that you've been given a job. You bow down to corporations. You're the type of guy that congratulates a CEO for getting a $90,000 toilet installed in his office or taking a $50 million severance package for running a company into the ground and doesnt give a shit about paying their workers. You're a dinosaur. And an idiot. Fortunately you old timers wont be around for much longer.

 

[JohnDB]

Declare war on Uruguay, then immediately surrender.

Let them figure these out.

Well since the politicians in DC are out of ideas but not out of games....

I was thinking that we could give some real leaders a few ideas to carry for their stump speeches.

These guys don't know anything except how to play games...never with an original idea.

So if you think that political discussions aren't monitored by politicians you are nuts. Their aides will let them know about this discussion...a few even peruse the website. (When they aren't fundraising)

 

[JohnDB]

the labor shortage was caused by the idiot sitting in the White House today trying to figure out which end of the spoon he's supposed to scoop up his food with.

If you pay people not to work, don't be surprised when they don't. Rush Limbaugh.

When people are not working, less product gets produced. When less product gets produced, you create a supply chain problem.

Actually some of the supply chain interruptions are coming from labor shortages in other countries.
Some are from ourselves and lack of labor.

Orange groves in Florida use peat from Canada to plant new trees...and Florida has a real issue with the green virus.

But where they have the product they can't get it delivered because Canadian truck drivers refuse to dead head back to Canada...there are no loads available. But their grocery stores are empty...but our food processing facilities are backed up and can't produce enough food. Seeing the issue yet?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Not entirely true but let's say that when you work for yourself you get paid what you are truly worth.

Here in TN years ago I went to a small business conference. Only 24,000 businesses were large to medium sized. Over 600,000 businesses were partnerships or sole proprietorship with one employee.

You don't have to work for yourself to make a good living. Like I said, my former industry pays well for experienced drivers. Even local work for major companies pay well. FedEx for example is in the $28.00 an hour range plus overtime. Same with UPS and both have excellent benefits.

Sure, when you first start off you won't get rich, but two years of accident free experience and you can make great money without owning your own truck.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Actually some of the supply chain interruptions are coming from labor shortages in other countries.
Some are from ourselves and lack of labor.

Orange groves in Florida use peat from Canada to plant new trees...and Florida has a real issue with the green virus.

But where they have the product they can't get it delivered because Canadian truck drivers refuse to dead head back to Canada...there are no loads available. But their grocery stores are empty...but our food processing facilities are backed up and can't produce enough food. Seeing the issue yet?

Outside of items related to the virus like toilet paper, hand sanitizer and soap, we didn't have that much of a supply chain problem international or otherwise under Trump, and even those were temporary.

Today it's worse than ever and it has little to do with other countries. It has to do with bad leadership. Had Trump won the election, we wouldn't be having half the problems we have today.

 

[JohnDB]

Outside of items related to the virus like toilet paper, hand sanitizer and soap, we didn't have that much of a supply chain problem international or otherwise under Trump, and even those were temporary.

Today it's worse than ever and it has little to do with other countries. It has to do with bad leadership. Had Trump won the election, we wouldn't be having half the problems we have today.

Well I do believe that Trump would have addressed these issues and tried to solve them. Instead of blaming the public or acting like they don't exist.

Now whether he had pissed everyone off so much that nothing could get done about them is another story in itself. Trump has never been known to play well with others...he has a long track record for that.
He is successful at his tasks, I'll give him that. But playing well with others? Never once has had an instance of doing so.

 

[Concerned American]

Supply Chain - This isn't a truck driver shortage. For anyone who has driven on the highways, there are more semi trucks on the road than ever before. This is a labor issue. More on that later. We also need to base more manufacturing here in the US. Getting goods to the end market is less difficult when those products are located in the US. Granted, where I live, I am a bit isolated from this because my county has the worlds largest retailer [headquarters for Walmart] and one of the worlds largest transportation companies [JB Hunt].

Inflation - Stop printing money. No more hand outs, no more covid stimulus checks, raise the interest rates a touch. Our governmental spending is out of control, we have doubled our monetary spending. That means we have cranked up the money printing machine.

Labor shortages - See above. No more hand outs.

Healthcare inequalities - what? If you meant healthcare cost, get rid of obama care. My insurance rates have tripled thanks to the increased cost that it has created. Make sure that we can actually negotiate with Medicare/Medicaid. No more allowing drug companies to advertise. Tort reform. The amount that doctors have to spend on malpractice insurance is crazy. I knew a doctor that got tired of patients suing him because they didn't have a positive outcome that he got a law degree. Sure, they were twice the weight that they should be, smoked 4 packs a day but still would sue the doctor.

And most of all Quit saying equality (equity) while just reversing existing equality. Everything is treated EQUAL and let the chips fall where they may. Enough of the divisive bullshit. You are a human---PERIOD.