I appreciate their desire to Go Galt, but in the end this will fail.
The reason is we just don’t have enough people willing to drag their arse out of bed and go take a 20 hour per week near-minimum wage job when they can scam unemployment, welfare or SSI. (this was likely the very reason Obama dropped the work requirement for welfare).
Store up the road from me planned to hire 100 people and cut everyone’s hours. They were actually able to hire 17 who were willing to take the job (and I understand some of those have already moved on)
“The reason is we just don’t have enough people willing to drag their arse out of bed and go take a 20 hour per week near-minimum wage job when they can scam unemployment, welfare or SSI. (this was likely the very reason Obama dropped the work requirement for welfare).”
The nanny-state provides more than a 20 hour-per-week minimum-wage job; that is why immigrants (legal and otherwise) are imported to do them. Dropping the work requirement for welfare, while certainly a goal of President Foodstamps, was probably just acknoledging that you can’t force people to look for work that simply isn’t there.
Americans are slow to realize that “the new normal” is here to stay; unless you have some specific skills that are in demand, you will work for minimal sustenance (or not work at all). As companies figure out how to replace those workers with specific skills that are in demand (either importing Asian coolies to do it, or sending the work to Asia), those skilled workers will also fall off the map. This already happened with tech and finance, and will continue to spread.
you might as well go on unemployment....at least you can stay home with the kids....
work is not valued anymore....its not a "reward" onto itself....infact,20 hrs at minimum wage is a punishment....(unless you are a kid or college age and just want that much work...otherwise, working families can not live on that)