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A comment on Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue?. Parent comment

Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by b33j0r on Sunday March 05, 2023 @07:53PM (#35036148)
This conversation needs someone fiddling in the background.

No one had a normal economic life for several years. It’s a miracle that these levers have been adjusted to the point that everyone is like “well no one going to work for three years had no impact! What over-reactionaries!”

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by ceejayoz on Sunday March 05, 2023 @08:39PM (#35036492)
> no one going to work for three years

Where did this happen?

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by zamnos on Sunday March 05, 2023 @09:11PM (#35036711)
I'm not sure about three years, but anywhere the service and entertainment industry was shut down due to Covid. Eg California.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by noah_buddy on Sunday March 05, 2023 @10:12PM (#35037120)
It was not even a year before people in the film business were returning to sets.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by midasuni on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:19AM (#35038335)
No nobody works in California outside of that industry?
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by realjhol on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:24AM (#35038367)
Not due to covid - due to government's hysterical overreaction to covid
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by koudelka on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:42AM (#35038456)
for the purposes of this conversation, that’s a distinction without a difference
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by umanwizard on Monday March 06, 2023 @07:54AM (#35040387)
It’s important to keep the distinction in mind. We can’t forget that the hardship we imposed on ourselves was a choice, and that we could have chosen differently.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by dd36 on Sunday March 05, 2023 @09:12PM (#35036718)
Yeah, I don’t know a single person that didn’t work.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by b33j0r on Sunday March 05, 2023 @09:41PM (#35036916)
Good analysis. It was more of a comment on the nature of the economy and work getting turned upside down.

Anecdotes and economics get kinda blurry here. It’s like how Austrian economists must feel 110% of the the time.

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by toomuchtodo on Sunday March 05, 2023 @09:38PM (#35036903)
A friend worked for Royal Caribbean in their entertainment division onboard. No work, no unemployment, a bit of stimulus, and had to crash at one of my homes so they weren’t homeless. Because no one rents to you when you have no assets and volatile income during a pandemic.

This is one of many of my associates in the service industry that had employment challenges.

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by takeda on Sunday March 05, 2023 @10:32PM (#35037240)
How came no unemployment?

If you had regular job, you were eligible for unemployment there was also PUP enabled due to pandemic, so if you were self employed you could request unemployment under that. In addition there were also short periods of time where you could get extra $600/week (as it is impossible to survive for long on the usual unemployment amount)

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by shagie on Sunday March 05, 2023 @10:58PM (#35037370)
https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-line-crew-workers-los...

They tend to work as contractors on a limited term contract and intercalation maritime labor laws are unlikely to require it. Note also the country of registry for the ships may have more lax labor laws too.

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by CydeWeys on Sunday March 05, 2023 @11:46PM (#35037602)
Royal Caribbean's ships are flagged and run out of Nassau. I doubt US labor laws are relevant here.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by takeda on Sunday March 05, 2023 @10:24PM (#35037187)
I know two that previously worked as waitresses, and were let go immediately once emergency was declared. Fortunately for them they used the time and money from unemployment to return to school and will be soon graduate with much better careers.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by jandrewrogers on Sunday March 05, 2023 @10:33PM (#35037251)
I am close to several people that were unemployed for at least 18 months due to COVID policy erasing their jobs.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by spatley on Sunday March 05, 2023 @11:14PM (#35037457)
Yeah, we need to stop talking about the pandemic experience like it affected people in any way similarily. Tech worked their fingers to the bone— 50 hour weeks and isolatng heads down grind. Everyone made money but it crushed their souls. Hospitality and entertainment stayed home and starved. Essential workers went in every day under crushing conditions, fear and literal death.

We were all subject to one master. But under a different punishment.

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by IAmGraydon on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:40AM (#35038446)
Hilarious to think that 50 hour weeks is working your fingers to the bone.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by bryanrasmussen on Monday March 06, 2023 @03:45AM (#35038838)
10 hours over the default American work week does seem a bit much.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by WeylandYutani on Monday March 06, 2023 @07:49AM (#35040336)
America is not "the West". Everyone kept their pay check in my country.
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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by umanwizard on Monday March 06, 2023 @07:56AM (#35040409)
> Tech worked their fingers to the bone— 50 hour weeks and isolatng heads down grind.

This may have been your experience but it was nowhere near mine. I think talking about “tech” as a whole is generalizing too broadly.

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by majormajor on Sunday March 05, 2023 @09:37PM (#35036893)
I find the idea that there's a "normal" period somewhat baffling. Conditions have been constantly changing for hundreds of years, from interest rates to investment strategies to technology to globalization etc.

Nobody has a magic crystal ball for what's next.

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Re:Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue? by SimDeBeau on Sunday March 05, 2023 @10:33PM (#35037250)
I don’t disagree, but it also seems possible to identify periods that are more unusual compared to their neighboring periods, and useful to talk about them.
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