I just don’t understand our current times. I remember getting a couple of substantial checks from the government in the last year or so, to help me in case I was one of the 10% who lost my job to the pandemic. I wasn’t out of work and I really didn’t need the extra money, but the first check was well spent in that I contributed the entire amount to assure a Biden win in the 2020.

Fast-forward to today, and there are millions of jobs openings with no one wanting them? At the same time, unemployment is now at a near two-year low! Where did all the people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic go? I know that my local Lowes Home Store has shut down all their checkouts but do-it-yourself ones. I hate that. 😠 I know that the retirement community where I reside is having a terrible time finding waiters to staff the dining room and people to clean the resident apartments. That is definitely affecting the quality of service here.

They now claim that the lack of people to fill the jobs is one reason we are in the shape we are. The other seems to be that there is a massive pent-up demand for discretionary items. It is almost as if millions have disappeared in this pandemic, when it is currently around 700,000. Dont get me wrong, 700,000 is a tragic number, but that doesn’t account for the 12 million jobs going unfilled. Is part of this problem, the trillions of dollars given away to make sure 10% of the population didn’t suffer too much?

We in the US seem to have a poor choice of economic policy deciders to choose from. The Republicans want to make sure that the 2% continue to have a stranglehold over the rest of us, and the Democrats think the answer is to just give people money as the solution. I think the answer to our problems is as usual somewhere in between. The trouble with that is that no one occupies that middle ground anymore. The other problem is that this extreme partisanship has driven well-qualified people out of the system entirely. What can be done about that? I don’t have the slightest idea. We are certainly in some very confusing times.