Shipping container Inflation! (700%)

[Borderland]

That is only part of labor. The cost of the food sold in the grocery store is a large percentage, and if food producers are also increasing wages, that will drive up costs.

around Bozeman, McDonalds had increased starting wages from $12 to $18/hour and still can't fill their positions. Literally every business is looking for staff. The local hospital has 450 open positions. I have never seen such a challenging time to recruit and retain staff.

The shit just hit the fan.

I'm wondering how many people here, who are mostly above average intelligence, some way above, realize this?

[peterb]

around Bozeman, McDonalds had increased starting wages from $12 to $18/hour and still can't fill their positions. Literally every business is looking for staff. The local hospital has 450 open positions. I have never seen such a challenging time to recruit and retain staff.

Well, if you believe that a job in retail or almost anything entry-level and customer-facing is a path to nowhere, there’s no reason not to jump ship when someone else offers slightly better wages and/or working conditions.

Dealing with the general public in a retail or service job is usually an occupational hazard, not a benefit.

The customer is NOT always right, but a lot of managers will not back up their low-level employees when customers are jerks.

I just listened to a talk by a consultant that included a description of a barista who worked essentially the same job at two different hotels. Same wage, but loved one job and tolerated the other. Why? The quality of the management.

I’ve read several stories about the spiral of customers being cranky about slow service due to low staffing, and staff quitting because of cranky customers. :-)

[LittleLebowski]

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....Project-Mayhem

[GJM]

Well, if you believe that a job in retail or almost anything entry-level and customer-facing is a path to nowhere, there’s no reason not to jump ship when someone else offers slightly better wages and/or working conditions.

Dealing with the general public in a retail or service job is usually an occupational hazard, not a benefit.

The customer is NOT always right, but a lot of managers will not back up their low-level employees when customers are jerks.

The pay thing is not just entry level positions, because increases at entry level positions impact pay at mid level positions, and further in organizations. Sign on bonuses are almost a given at all level of positions.

No one has been able to explain to me what the cause is for so many open positions, that were previously filled, given the level of increases which commonly have been approaching 30 percent or more.

[Borderland]

Well, if you believe that a job in retail or almost anything entry-level and customer-facing is a path to nowhere, there’s no reason not to jump ship when someone else offers slightly better wages and/or working conditions.

Dealing with the general public in a retail or service job is usually an occupational hazard, not a benefit.

The customer is NOT always right, but a lot of managers will not back up their low-level employees when customers are jerks.

I honestly have sympathy for retail who have to deal with the general public. I've never given any of those employees a reason to feel they need another job. Mostly they're well trained and doing a fantastic job.

I wouldn't last a week in that job with all the screaming Karen's out there.

The next big fail will be staff that work in health care.

[LittleLebowski]

The pay thing is not just entry level positions, because increases at entry level positions impact pay at mid level positions, and further in organizations. Sign on bonuses are almost a given at all level of positions.

No one has been able to explain to me what the cause is for so many open positions, that were previously filled, given the level of increases which commonly have been approaching 30 percent or more.

I apologize if I drift the thread, but I believe this is true.

[peterb]

With growth in e-commerce and work-from-home, transportation, distribution, and delivery are all growing. Distribution centers are popping up in all sorts of places that aren’t major cities. A warehouse job may not be great but you don’t have to deal with the public.

[Borderland]

With growth in e-commerce and work-from-home, transportation, distribution, and delivery are all growing. Distribution centers are popping up in all sorts of places that aren’t major cities. A warehouse job may not be great but you don’t have to deal with the public.

Why is the USPS having problems hiring? My local USPS has had we're hiring signs up for months. My mail delivery has gone from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM.

Might have something to do with the $17/hr wage they offer.

[Cory]

Amen, amen, amen. Don't care if you make $40k or $400k. Living within your means (the old definition of 'within your means' didn't include maxed out credit cards and HELOCs) and delayed gratification are remnants of another time and another way of thinking.

Today we (the collective 'we'), and I include myself, believe in leveraging ourselves and counting our chickens before they're hatched. I've built my business this way, and the risks involved are real. It's a fine line we walk. As far as business owners go, I'm probably more risk averse than most. My machines are newer but my trucks are older and everything is paid for. In my personal life, I'm about to have to double my debt load in order to add on to the house to go along with a new relationship that includes 3 kids as well as their mother. It frankly scares me to death, and I don't care whether the bank says it's no problem at my repayment capacity and collateral level or not. I won't like it, but I'll shut my eyes and do it.

But I'm a relic in that I was raised by parents who saved up their money and then paid cash. I kid you not, my Mom would only buy one $0.99 Christmas light every year until we had one in each of the rooms of our house that faced the road. That's how much of a skinflint she was. We laugh at and make fun of stuff like that today.

That way of thinking isn't gone, just isn't talked about. My wife and I have reasonable mortgage debt, and one very modest car loan. Both of which are set to pay off early.

[TGS]

We laugh at and make fun of stuff like that today.

My grandparents were like that as well and eventually lost their home in retirement, moved into a trailer park and died paupers.

Being "thrifty" has nothing to do with knowing how to manage money well. The chickens came home to roost when the economy changed and all these thrifty old people like my grandparents had nothing but CDs and savings accounts, which today isn't too much different than lighting your money on fire given the ROI vs inflation.

So, compared to when they were alive there's very limited ability for people at or below the median threshold to effectively save for the future given that pensions are a thing of the past for everyone except government workers (and only 7 of 50 states were properly funding pensions, last I checked) and many positions at/below the median don't offer a 401k.....not to mention the realities about 401ks are a little depressing for a significant chunk of people.

@Joe in PNG's point is spot on though regarding financial literacy. No disagreement on that. I wonder how much of it is people just giving up figuring they're fucked anyway or just kicking the can down the road because it's just too stressful to think about.

My sister is a teacher with a pension, and her husband is a home inspector....great salary, but no benefits or retirement plans. The only feasible way they can plan their retirement is to move out of country to central America, otherwise they'd have to retire to inner-America where they've never lived and have nothing they want in retirement. That's a dual-income couple, which is also something we've neglected to discuss thus far: the disappearance of viable single-income households compared to years past. The only people I know making it work (so from my social circle we're talking NOVA and the northeast US) aren't just living "thrifty" lives; they're basically poor. One couple I know, they're virtually destitute living on the husbands salary as a teacher while the wife raises the small girl, and they live in an extremely small house that is fairly run-down and hasn't been upgraded probably since the 70s or 80s...drive 20+ year old vehicles, heat the house in the winter almost exclusively with wood they cut down, eating out is a once or twice a year event, regular purchases from Starbucks isn't even in the realm of possibility, etc. I'm pointing this all out just to show what it looks like for someone "doing it the old fashioned way" that doesn't participate in many of our modern conveniences or luxuries. They're still poor as fuck and would be homeless if he got laid off.

So, the viability of truly saving for retirement among the average American, and especially the below average income household, is honestly pretty low regardless of their financial literacy or thriftiness.