“No One Wants to Work Anymore”

How is it possible that, with American unemployment rates so low, there seems to be such an appalling lack of staff in key trades–in everything from retail to healthcare?

So often we hear, “No one wants to work anymore,” but does that really make sense?  People would rather live on ramen cooked on hotplates in their parents’ basements?  Live under freeway overpasses?

As suggested at left, it’s more likely that “Few people want to work anymore under truly oppressive conditions.”

Perhaps the truth is that life in the corporate world, unless you’re the CEO, has gone from stressful to hellish–within just the last few decades.  From 1978 to 2022, CEO compensation shot up 1,209.2% compared with a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s compensation. In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much.

It’s hard to rejoice for young people, and especially for young parents, whose kids will grow up into an economic world that’s hard to imagine.