"In my son’s case, he has had a couple of restaurants offer him good jobs that pay more than minimum wage and would let him set his own schedule, but he's holding out for a retailer that he prefers. He can afford to wait. Not only does he have no rent or car payment but he already has a job that will last through the end of the school year. In the meantime, one of the restaurants often has to close its dining room due to lack of workers."
How much were restaurants offering that were under the wages he WOULD accept to skip out on the future retail job? It seems unreasonable to expect that post-pandemic wages in the service industry should track wages before (for some good reasons and some bad reasons), and it may be that Americans should prepare for a number of industries to go under as pre-COVID business models are revealed to be unsustainable as well as price hikes in sectors that are having to offer workers more in order to operate. Add to this the resurgence of adaptations such as "ghost kitchens"[1], and it may be that the restaurant sector as we know it doesn't come back.
These anti-vaxxers and those on the right who kept spreading lies about the vaccines did a major disservice to our country. Also, I can't help but think that most of those who refused to get a vaccine did it for selfish reasons. This kind of dishonesty and selfishness is why we won't reach herd immunity, as you mentioned in your column David. I was recently talking to some friends who are from several different countries around the world, and they asked me why are there people in the US who are refusing to be vaccinated. They told me that they would do just about anything to get the kind of vaccines that many Americans are refusing. They just don't understand why they would do that. Those friends of mine are from countries whose living standards considerably trail that of the United States and other countries in the developed world. What they told me really had me thinking and asking myself, if I was truly thankful for the blessings to live in such a great country like ours. It is true there are people outside the US who are refusing the vaccines, probably because of the lies told by anti-vaxxers. But I think many others would gladly trade places with the ones who refused to get vaxxed.
We are so blessed as a nation in so many ways, including the fact that we had the vaccines made available to us earlier than many parts of the world. But collectively, we don't always realize just how blessed we are to be Americans, and don't show as much gratitude as we should be doing. Among the 2 greatest commandments is to love our neighbors. And if we truly love those around us, we ought to be good citizens and get vaccinated.
I think that the key question falls out of here:
"In my son’s case, he has had a couple of restaurants offer him good jobs that pay more than minimum wage and would let him set his own schedule, but he's holding out for a retailer that he prefers. He can afford to wait. Not only does he have no rent or car payment but he already has a job that will last through the end of the school year. In the meantime, one of the restaurants often has to close its dining room due to lack of workers."
How much were restaurants offering that were under the wages he WOULD accept to skip out on the future retail job? It seems unreasonable to expect that post-pandemic wages in the service industry should track wages before (for some good reasons and some bad reasons), and it may be that Americans should prepare for a number of industries to go under as pre-COVID business models are revealed to be unsustainable as well as price hikes in sectors that are having to offer workers more in order to operate. Add to this the resurgence of adaptations such as "ghost kitchens"[1], and it may be that the restaurant sector as we know it doesn't come back.
[1] https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/how-the-pandemic-accelerated-the-us-ghost-kitchen-market-5-years-in-3-mont/585604/
These anti-vaxxers and those on the right who kept spreading lies about the vaccines did a major disservice to our country. Also, I can't help but think that most of those who refused to get a vaccine did it for selfish reasons. This kind of dishonesty and selfishness is why we won't reach herd immunity, as you mentioned in your column David. I was recently talking to some friends who are from several different countries around the world, and they asked me why are there people in the US who are refusing to be vaccinated. They told me that they would do just about anything to get the kind of vaccines that many Americans are refusing. They just don't understand why they would do that. Those friends of mine are from countries whose living standards considerably trail that of the United States and other countries in the developed world. What they told me really had me thinking and asking myself, if I was truly thankful for the blessings to live in such a great country like ours. It is true there are people outside the US who are refusing the vaccines, probably because of the lies told by anti-vaxxers. But I think many others would gladly trade places with the ones who refused to get vaxxed.
We are so blessed as a nation in so many ways, including the fact that we had the vaccines made available to us earlier than many parts of the world. But collectively, we don't always realize just how blessed we are to be Americans, and don't show as much gratitude as we should be doing. Among the 2 greatest commandments is to love our neighbors. And if we truly love those around us, we ought to be good citizens and get vaccinated.