The recent labor strikes signify American economic stress. Hollywood, the auto industry and a major hospital chain are prominent examples. Pilots and flight attendants have been in long-term negotiations. UPS headed off a strike.
The Department of Labor charted 4.1 million lost work days for September, the most in decades. Only 10% of private sector workers belong to labor unions, but they can cause major disruptions.
The September Jobs Report—President Joe Biden crowed mightily about a jobs report that showed many more jobs created than analysts expected (336,000 jobs). However, looking under the hood: 73,000 of the jobs were government jobs, 151,000 were part-time jobs and full-time jobs actually decreased by 22,000. If a person has two part-time jobs, both are counted as jobs created. There were 123,000 people with two or more jobs. Many jobs added were service and hospitality jobs, social services and hospital positions. Those are not the most high-paying jobs.
But for the beef industry, more service and hospitality jobs are important, as restaurant and foodservice operators have had severe labor shortages. Half our production goes through away-from-home channels.
However, the statistics have been significantly revised every month for many months, often enough and significantly enough that folks have suggested the Labor Department revise their process.
President Biden had his own jobs data interpretation. “I think (Americans) know they’re better off financially than they were before,” Biden said.
Fact: Inflation was 1.9% under Trump and has averaged 6% under Biden, said John Carney, of Breitbart Business Digest. Carney also pointed out that Biden’s claims that he has reduced the deficit and produced a budget surplus are purely fanciful.
The Atlanta Fed in early October was projecting a 4.9% GDP figure for the third quarter, as consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of the GDP, has continued to be strong. The difference is that households have shifted spending towards necessities to cope with inflation. Beef has, for the most part, seemed to have been rated a necessity by many, although boxed beef prices have come down some and briefly dipped below $300. Demand for lean beef for ground beef has been strong.
Laphonza Butler, appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to former California Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein’s seat, has a history with California’s fast food outlets, obviously including burgers. When Butler ran Service Employees International Union Local 2015, she was credited with securing passage of a statewide $15/hour. minimum wage law. That eliminated 400,000 entry-level jobs, according to 2017 economic research at Miami and Trinity universities. Imagine what the new $20/hour law will do to labor-short fast food outlets. Are entry-level workers today worth $20/hour?
The left has been after your car and pickup for some time. They’ve just gotten bolder recently. We tend to squeal loud enough fast enough—and then assume they’ll wise up and go away when their stupidity is exposed. Instead, they take the silence as acquiescence and accelerate their movement—like outlawing gas-powered cars, coal plants for electricity and gas stoves and water heaters.
The Wall Street Journal highlighted both the symbolic and very real movement to take away cars and trucks from the American people and businesses. Of course, the climate “change” activists ignore the carbon emissions necessary to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles or generate power to charge them. Symbolically, running a gas or diesel vehicle “signifies that some concern other than the climate is more important—cost and convenience often at the top of the list,” according to the article “The Culture War Is Coming For Your Car.”
The story notes the car is a “cultural flashpoint” where “climate-apocalypse proselytizing meets anti-elitist pragmatism.” Governments in France, Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) have run up against citizens objecting to this fundamental overturning of their life, especially in rural areas. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently opined that maybe the British government should be fixing potholes instead of forcing citizens into electric cars or expensive new high-speed rail lines. Politically pragmatic, he’s sided with average people for whom “cheap mobility is a matter of economic survival.”
Cattlemen seldom use subways and commuter trains. Emphasize that to your members of Congress. Tractors, pickups and feed trucks are daily tools.
Big city dwellers, young tech workers and D.C. denizens don’t understand moving or hauling in the countryside. Complaints from the tech workers who moved with companies from California to Austin, TX, are that public transportation is so poor. Public transportation in Austin? Ever take the subway in Austin? Clueless. — Steve Dittmer, WLJ columnist
(Steve Dittmer is the author of the Agribusiness Freedom Foundation newsletter. Views in the column do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of WLJ or its editorial staff.)
