That is the attitude of people that want a socialist society.
Your entire post is predicated on the fact that ANY labor should be able to dictate wages and that is not true.
Capitalist societies are driven by people
willing to work and who have a desire to improve their labor worth.
"Labor" doesn't dictate wages. Skilled and professional labor dictate wages. People that are good at their jobs create options for themselves when they can go to another company if one doesn't pay enough or have good enough benefits.
The reason that there is a shortage of workers is that the government has made it more financially rewarding to stay at home. Take away that safety net and people will go back to work. The lazy are taking the easy way out and then complaining that they can't make ends meet or don't have insurance.
Take a job, any job, and that situation changes.
It sucks, but people that want to improve their situation do whatever it takes. I've been there and done it at jobs that I hated with a passion. I had bills and responsibilities so I did what I had to in order to take care of it. I've been laid off and then taken a minimum wage job because I needed insurance and a steady pay check.
But, I'm not lazy.
There are people that have been working their entire lives and paying into a system that were laid off due to government over-reaction and shut downs.
People that took a chance and opened a small business. People that put time, effort, and money into learning a skill or a profession.
They deserve unemployment benefits. They are also going out and getting jobs that they are overqualified for. They have a strong worth ethic. Fast food, retail, convivence stores...whatever it takes to support their families until there is an administration that wants the economy rolling and jobs open up. Meanwhile, people that didn't study in high school and don't have the resume' for for skilled labor are taking unemployment because they are "too good" to flip burgers or work retail.
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IMO too many businesses got used to dictating wages to workers, and now they don't like it when workers won't take what they offer. Boy, capitalism sure is tough when Labor can no longer be told what to take by Capital.
A free-market, capitalist economy is the ONLY economy where people decide that they can control their labor worth. It's the only economy that gives the power of upward mobility to the labor pool. However, it's done by people that are willing to improve themselves. Not by people wanting the government to improve their life for them.
Stop making it easy for the lazy to get paid for doing nothing and that will stop. Drug test people on unemployment. Make them show proof of effort. Start making it more difficult to get unemployment and easier to work in order to get paid.
For the record, I'm not saying that everyone on unemployment is lazy. But we need to make it more difficult for the lazy to remain there.