As you stand in a checkout or a fast food line, you have to be thinking, where are all the workers? I couldn’t help but wonder how I ended up in a McDonalds line for 25 minutes for a drink, when I’m not even a big fan of the place. But there I was, caught in a curbed-off drive thru with no way to escape, questioning the latest dilemma plaguing the United States, the lack of workers! Clearly, the fast food industry has taken a major hit in terms of employee hiring. Once I made it out of the drive-thru I vowed I’d never visit a fast food restaurant again. (Which should be the case regardless of the economy.) But where are the workers? Some say they’ve moved on to other jobs, some say they are living off their parents, while others throw their hands in the air and say, it doesn’t matter, something’s got to give. And give it shall….
We will lose America as we know it if we don’t do something soon to combat the lack of workers and supplies. I don’t know if the youth of America truly understands how dire our economy and way of life have become in the past year, but the truth is this, during the Great Depression, it was the year following the crash that American’s found themselves without jobs and food. Here we are a year out of the pandemic and it seems we are following in the steps of our great grandparents. Must we look back in time to find our solutions? Can we even follow those solutions since our nation is so much more divided than it has ever been?
We all remember from our history lessons that one thing that brought us out of the depression was the New Deal, the jobs created by the government. But can something like that work again? To be honest, I don’t know, but I highly doubt it. The reason I say this is because American’s are different. We are arrogant, selfish, and too proud to lower ourselves down to take a job as menial as dish washer, cashier, wait staff etc. We have built a nation of white collared college thinkers that haven’t a clue how to really work like our ancestors.
Here’s what I see happening in the not to distant future. You know all those baby boomers that have been accused of ruining our country, our world? You know the ones now in retirement or just heading into retirement who worked over 30 years and were hoping to travel and do all the things they couldn’t do when they were younger? Yep, those folks. They are going to come out of retirement and start doing the jobs that their children refuse to do. They are going to bail out the country that they have been accused of ruining. Why, because they know what has to be done. They know that if they don’t do it, our country will fail and we will be on the brink of civil war… people fighting for the basics in life. Oh, I’m not a doomsday kind of girl. But I am realistic and know that the path ahead is going to get far worse before it gets better.
For me, I’m one of those folks who has already started helping out where others have disappeared. I’ve taken on a role at a store that I had no intentions of doing. But if I can help for the time being, I’ll do my part. And if I have to go back to work full time, I’ll do it for the future of my country because that’s what it may take to get our country back on track. What are you willing to do? How long will you let things go before you step up and do more than you are doing now? Something has to give and I hope it’s not the downfall of our great nation.
