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Did Lockdowns Turn Americans Into Lazy Bums?
Brownstone Institute ^ | AUGUST 11, 2022 | JEFFREY A. TUCKER

Posted on 08/11/2022 9:23:49 PM PDT by Mount Athos

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To: Mount Athos
The author’s underlying point may be correct, but this article is highly deficient because he fails to even mention two obvious points:

1. Supply chain disruptions have made it impossible for many workers to be productive even if they are ready, willing and able to work their tails off. I would imagine, for example, that the productivity level of the sales rep at a car dealership is in the toilet right now.

2. Maybe the COVID fiasco did make workers lazy. What it did more than anything else, though, is completely destroy many critical aspects of the underlying relationship between employers, employees, and government. Through my friends and former associates, I have been following the goings-on at my former employer over the course of the last 2+ years. It has been embarrassing to watch the leadership of that company fumble through one bad (in my mind) decision after another — first by racing to impose every draconian Branch Covidian lockdown measure, then by trying to “return to normal” while maintaining some practices that are dystopian and irrational by any measure.

I don’t think this collapse of productivity is a result of workers being lazy. I think the system has been irreparably broken. Rational people in many, many employee-employer relationships have no reason to ever trust this nation’s government or business leaders again.

21 posted on 08/12/2022 2:43:42 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It's midnight in Manhattan. This is no time to get cute; it's a mad dog's promenade.")
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To: Mount Athos

And what it reveals is probably what we might expect. American workers have dealt with lockdowns and shutdowns, plus vaccine mandate demoralization, plus inflation eating away at real wages, plus an existing or impending recession, and you have the result. A nation of goof-offs.


Difficult times only REVEAL what was already there, they do not cause anything.

Time for personal reflection. What as it revealed in us?


22 posted on 08/12/2022 2:54:08 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Az Joe

𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯?

Did the coof make people lazier?

Hopefully that wasn’t too long winded ;)


23 posted on 08/12/2022 3:05:49 AM PDT by Antihero101607
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To: Mount Athos

It sure seems to have made people much bigger jerks driving.


24 posted on 08/12/2022 3:17:57 AM PDT by jughandle
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To: Mount Athos

I do think the other part of this is the lockdowns gave millions the chance to recalibrate their family budgets, see what was being taught in schools, some dreamed of the homestead life and moved out, many left the cities...

Lazy? Sure some were lazy. But I see a wide cross section of people on a daily basis and they have just recalibrated their life to put family first. Where it should have been all along.


25 posted on 08/12/2022 3:20:22 AM PDT by EBH ( 1776-2021 May God Save Us.)
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To: Mount Athos

Raise the wages you’re offering and more folks will apply.

Demonstrably untrue. Wages in many service industries have doubled...remember the push for $15?
Well most have it and jobs still go begging. And those who do show up have little taste for actual work.
I know some warehouse jobs paying up to $25/hr! To pick stock and put it on a pallet.. Really?
Not mentioned was the rent holidays that allowed people to shaft their landlords for months. Thats a large chunk of budget they get to play with without consequence.

The workforce is not the same as it was even 3 years ago....


26 posted on 08/12/2022 3:44:41 AM PDT by Adder (ALL Democrats are the enemy. NO QUARTER!!)
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To: mass55th

The average American was lazy, fat, drunk and dumb before Covid. They just got lazier, fatter, drunker and dumber.


27 posted on 08/12/2022 4:54:35 AM PDT by nonliberal (Z.)
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To: Adder
I’ll go one step further …

Any employer that fired employees for refusing to get a COVID “vaccine” almost certainly threw away their most productive, responsible, self-motivated and conscientious workers. And they KEPT the workers who are most likely to be whining, malingering hypochondriacs.

28 posted on 08/12/2022 5:02:47 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It's midnight in Manhattan. This is no time to get cute; it's a mad dog's promenade.")
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To: Adder

One of the sites that we support pays very good ($25-30/hour). The problem that they have had with people are no show / no notice sick days, coming back routinely late from lunch, etc. Two no shows / no notice at work gets you fired. You get two warnings - one when you start, one when you do it the first time.

There’s a couple FReepers that insist that if you raise the wages enough, these sorts of people will be weeded out.


29 posted on 08/12/2022 5:04:31 AM PDT by Fury
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To: FormerFRLurker

Have you ever owned a business with employees? I have. It is not so simple to raise wages. An employer has to have the resources to do that, and other costs then go up as well.

And then..... the prices on the products they sell increase. Sales will probably decrease.


30 posted on 08/12/2022 5:04:38 AM PDT by xenia ( “Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell)
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To: metmom
No, it didn’t turn people into lazy bums. It just pulled back the curtain and revealed what was already there.

Absolutely correct.

The office was filled with "look-busy" nonsense. Meetings were for incompetent staff to hide behind other employees' work. Senior staff could hide their ignorance from junior staff. In-person work was pushing things around for days to weeks instead of just getting it done. I have incompetent coworkers now and have had coworkers previously who've had almost all their work done by others.

Remote work exposed it all. It showed who had skills and who didn't. The time stamps on shared documents showed exactly who was holding up the processes.

One person creating a document for others to review saved countless days instead of meeting after meeting to get to the point the talented ones already knew.

The American worker isn't lazy; they're just unwilling to go back to that nonsense.

31 posted on 08/12/2022 5:21:45 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: MinorityRepublican

thx


32 posted on 08/12/2022 6:00:25 AM PDT by Az Joe (Biden & ChiComs are the enemy, not Putin.)
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To: Antihero101607

I got through it. Thx


33 posted on 08/12/2022 6:00:46 AM PDT by Az Joe (Biden & ChiComs are the enemy, not Putin.)
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To: Mount Athos

The lockdown, no.

The “free” money and government forcing landlords to take it in the shorts and not collect rent and other government OVERREACH, yes!

Unfortunately, most college grads have been sold a bill of goods concerning Socialist Governments, and they have bought into this BS hook, line, and sinker! They are waiting for the Marxist Democrats to finalize our demise from the Constitutional Republic! These educated idiots are unwilling to help rebuild, restore, or expand our economy because they do not WANT a rebuilt, restored, or expanded economy!!


34 posted on 08/12/2022 6:11:08 AM PDT by ExTxMarine (Diversity is necessary; diverse points of views will not be tolerated.)
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To: Mount Athos

Before Covid, millennials were abandoning jobs because they don’t like to work. I remember Rush talking about this a few times. Most of us would rather not work, but the current generations have been raised to think they shouldn’t have to do anything they don’t like.

Of course, there are exceptions. I work in aerospace and have some great millennial co-workers. Smart, hardworking, good leaders. I trained one last year who’s as sharp as a tack and has an excellent work ethic. He has become a valuable asset to the team. One of my millennial colleagues says “most of the workers in my generation are worthless.” These are the people who will have to carry the load for the entitled class once we are all gone.

I’ve heard millennials and Gen Zzzz people say that they can’t wait until Boomers and Gen X “die off,” so that they can have their imagined little utopia.

Maybe they need to think further about that.


35 posted on 08/12/2022 6:33:28 AM PDT by Allegra
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To: Az Joe

Short Version ?
.
After my nap


36 posted on 08/12/2022 6:39:35 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: Mount Athos

When asked why I work:

“I like to eat.”


37 posted on 08/12/2022 6:48:03 AM PDT by dakine
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To: nonliberal

Fat, Drunk and Lazy,,,
.
Terrible way to go through Life.


38 posted on 08/12/2022 6:48:36 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: nonliberal

👍🏻


39 posted on 08/12/2022 7:32:32 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: Mount Athos

Or could part of the problem be that more people have died than we realize?

Either way good luck to the IRS on those 87,000 new hires. 😆


40 posted on 08/12/2022 8:12:58 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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