“It is not cut rate wages that has stopped the availability of workers......it’s just that they can get too near welfare wages in the workplace to bother to actually work for nearly the same money.”
IMHO, both arguments are valid, and are not mutually exclusive.
I’m not sure that’s true for technical workers. But I would say that I have seen lots of tech workers quit because they can easily get work. And the taxes are so high that they can quit to travel or ski or something for an extended period of time and then get a job when the money runs out. There are lots of web-sites dedicated to this.
These people may be able to get unemployment if they are let go. But they can’t quit. I have seen young people just quit a six figure job. They point out that they can’t take home very much because of taxes. And they would like to hike Machu Picchu while they are still young. And off they go.
I know they really do it to. Because they send back pictures for a year. Sometimes they come back and sometimes they move to another city.
Interesting comment, and probably technically true. I will tell you though, the low pay issue is not what most think it is. It's cultural - our spoiled entry level work force will not perform, they will not show up day after day reliably, and they easily get bored with rote jobs - but these are jobs that need to go on day after week after month after year.
There is also way too little emphasis put on the welfare state's place in this, and too much on the low pay issue - and a total lack of acknowledgement that the low pay issue benefits all consumers as well as businesses. If you can bring home 50% of a full time job salary laying about, many will. Until we let folks go hungry a little, lose their obama phones, their flat screens, there ability to hang out at Starbucks 20 hours a week - they are not going to do the really boring repetitive jobs.
The way to solve this? Secure border. Cut guv benefits to illegals totally, and cut benefit longevity to native born. Do that, and watch this thing unravel on it's on in maybe 2-3 years.