Republican Governors Order the Slaves Back To the Plantation

Rush Limbaugh was right about Republicans when he spoke of them “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”. Today, let’s discuss how Republican states have refused to oppose the welfare state until their businesses ran out of exploitably cheap labor.

A a rule, their past efforts ‘opposing’ welfare have only been to include a provision that the recipient work some kind of a job. This allowed Republicans, the Party of Big Business, to employ people at reduced wages because the government would backfill what employers refuse to pay. A hundred years later, nothing has changed:

Montana Is First State To Cancel Unemployment Benefits In Response To Unprecedented Worker Shortage

h ttps://www.zerohedge.com/markets/montana-first-state-cancel-unemployment-benefits-response-unprecedented-worker-shortage

By Tyler Durden, 6 May 2021

Three weeks ago, when looking at the unprecedented labor shortage that is crippling the US economy (even with some 100 million Americans not in the labor force), we said that there is a simple reason for this paradoxical phenomenon: trillions in Biden stimulus are now incentivizing potential workers not to seek gainful employment, but to sit back and collect the next stimmy check for doing absolutely nothing in what is becoming the world’s greatest “under the radar” experiment in Universal Basic Income.

The Democrat experiment in Universal Basic Income is having its expected consequence of turning ordinary people into unproductive bipedal parasites. Excuse me, I meant reliably Democrat Voters.

From the Republican perspective, the problem is that the Democrats dropped the “thou shalt work” mandate. No, no, Churchians, shut up, this isn’t about 1 Thessalonians 4:11. If you were consistent about your interpretation of that command, you’d enforce it upon the idle rich as well as the idle poor. Pigs would be shamed by the human squealings that would cause.

There is nothing wrong, Biblically, with leisure or nonproductivity as defined by government economists. What *IS* wrong, is eating food that doesn’t belong to you. Multibillionaire Democrat banksters don’t earn their food. They steal it. Republican senators don’t earn their food. They steal it. And the minimally employed, deliberately impoverished workers who don’t want to take a pay cut to do manual labor for minimum wages, I’ll call that theft only when the government stops intentionally sabotaging them such that they have no choice but welfare.

According to Yahoo, Montana plans to stop some of its federally-funded unemployment benefits to address “the state’s severe workforce shortage,. according to its labor department, which will leave many out-of-work residents without any support at all.

“Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage,” Governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, said in a statement on Tuesday, echoing what we said last month, namely that “The vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good..

Only now? The time to thwart the Welfare State was AT ANY TIME SINCE THE 1930s. Why now?

As a way to incentivize workers to return to work, the state is offering a one-time return-to-work payment of $1,200, using money from the American Rescue Plan to fund the program. Only those who complete four weeks of work would receive the payment.

.Incentives matter,. Gianforte said. .Our return-to-work bonus and the return to pre-pandemic unemployment programs will help get more Montanans back to work..

Aaand there it is. Even in Montana, the Republicans aren’t opposed to welfare or even UBI. They just want their cheap labor. Offering a one-time cash bonus for the wage slaves to crawl back into their pens is exactly their concept of what a welfare state should be: socializing the expenses of Big Business while privatizing the profits. The Left shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that and neither should the Right.

What would happen if we had NO welfare state?

Consider the following striking anecdotes from Bloomberg:

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Melissa Anderson laid off all three full-time employees of her jewelry-making company, Silver Chest Creations in Burkesville, Ky. She tried to rehire one of them in September and another in January as business recovered, but they refused to come back, she says. .They’re not looking for work..

What beautiful loyalty to one’s employees. “Early in the pandemic”, did you catch that? Either Melissa was on the edge of bankruptcy in the first place or she treated her employees as liabilities the moment she could justify it. Build up some inventory. Stretch to new markets. Try new sales strategies. Or JUST DON’T SHUT DOWN, because jewelry stores have never been a hotbed of plague in the entire history of history.

I was furloughed immediately because I’m hourly and Californian, but my boss fed me jobs as they came in as quickly as he could. He tried to keep his men employed. But Melissa, she sent her employees home for five months then was upset they didn’t come back when she whistled.

*checks* She makes cheap-o knockoff jewelry. I doubt her employees were highly paid or trained.

Sierra Pacific Industries, which manufactures doors, windows, and millwork, is so desperate to fill openings that it’s offering hiring bonuses of up to $1,500 at its factories in California, Washington, and Wisconsin. In rural Northern California, the Red Bluff Job Training Center is trying to lure young people with extra-large pizzas in the hope that some who stop by can be persuaded to fill out a job application. .We’re trying to get inside their head and help them find employment. Businesses would be so eager to train them,. says Kathy Garcia, the business services and marketing manager. .There are absolutely no job seekers.”

Payscale.com says their wages start at $16/hr for laborers. That’s not bad but not really incentive to move to a rural area, hence the signing bonuses. Which is what would happen without a welfare state: companies would pay more for hired help, which would fuel a regrowth of the middle class, which would be bad for our rapaciously cruel rulers.

[From NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg:] “Small business owners are competing with the pandemic and increased unemployment benefits that are keeping some workers out of the labor force.”

They compete by offering potential workers MORE MONEY. Which will raise prices.

One can only hope that more states follow Gianforte’s extremely unpopular, if extremely prudent decision, before the US is mired in 1970s style hyperinflation.

Higher prices are a good thing when the money is flowing to your neighbor instead of a Chinese sweatshop. A reliable rule of thumb:

The rich want expensive land and cheap labor.

The middle class wants expensive labor and cheap land.

But guess what? More (red) states DID follow Gianforte’s decision!

Nine Republican-Led States Reject All COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits

h ttps://www.zerohedge.com/economics/nine-republican-led-states-reject-all-covid-19-unemployment-benefits

By Tyler Durden, 12 May 2021

Wow, that was fast. This issue is hitting near and dear to the hearts of the Republican Establishment.

One week ago, when we reported that Montana was the first state to cancel unemployment benefits in response to the unprecedented worker shortage which was laid bare by the dismal Friday jobs report, we said that “one can only hope that more states follow [Montana Gov] Gianforte’s extremely unpopular, if extremely prudent decision, before the US is mired in 1970s style hyperinflation” but that “we won’t be holding our breath.”

In retrospect, we were badly underestimated the willingness of at least some people to do the right thing, because just hours later South Carolina announced it too was joining Montana in ending all supplemental unemployment benefits programs, which in turn sparked a wave of Republican states following through with what would be a career-ending move for any Democratic politician.

And any Republican politician. At this rate, Dems won’t even need to steal any votes.

By the way, Greg Gianforte’s net worth is estimated at $135 million. No doubt that every dollar was earned from the strength of his arm and the sweat off his brow…

Segue

h ttps://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/KofP-prodigy-in-15B-Oracle-cloud-software-deal.html

Greg Gianforte, chief executive and 20% owner of Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow Technologies Inc., which Larry Ellison’s Oracle Corp. said Monday he’ll buy for $1.5 billion, grew up a high school football star, class president and neighborhood fix-it man in [affluent Philadelphia suburb] King of Prussia, son of an engineer at General Electric Co.’s Philadelphia satellite works.

To his credit, he did have a lot of early achievements in life, but he started high and flew higher the old-fashioned way of being in the right place at the right time. It’s no wonder that he is not sympathizing with what the underclasses are going through today.

Also to his credit, he was convicted of beating up a journalist for the Guardian in 2017. Against his credit, he did no jail time for it.

End segue

As the WSJ reports overnight, at least nine Republican-led states have rejected enhanced federal Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payments, saying the extra $300-a-week supplement is providing an incentive for some people to avoid work at a time when employers are struggling to find labor.

Did Greg allow Oracle Corp to buy him out because he wanted to work MORE or work LESS? Hello, hypocrisy.

On Tuesday, Iowa and Tennessee joined the list of states that are moving toward the elimination of the extra benefits ahead of the program’s scheduled expiration in September, which even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce blamed for the sudden collapse in labor supply as millions of Americans opt to stay home and collect benefit checks instead of working.

.Federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs initially provided displaced Iowans with crucial assistance when the pandemic began,. Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement that called for the pandemic-related benefit to end June 12. “But now that our businesses and schools have reopened, these payments are discouraging people from returning to work..

Which is it, Republicucks? Do you want businesses to be able to throw away people at will without facing torches and pitchforks, or do you want your worker drones to be dependent upon having a job for their daily food?

As a result, there are now 9 states that are ending the generous handouts are: Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and South Carolina, which have sent letters to the Labor Department asking to end their participation in federal programs including the $300 supplemental benefit and extended payments and benefits for gig-economy and other workers not typically eligible for unemployment benefits. Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee have announced publicly they plan to opt out of the programs early, but the states hadn’t sent letters to the Labor Department as of Tuesday.

All they have to do is allow businesses to raise wages & prices. The prices will be going up regardless thanks to the corporatism and feminism and all the other evils that Republicans have courageously tolerated since the New Deal.

Unemployed workers are eligible for an additional $300 a week on top of regular state jobless benefits, which average $318 a week, according to the Labor Department. That means the average benefit recipient earns slightly more than the equivalent of working full time at $15 an hour. How much? Former Obama Admin Treasury counselor Steve Rattner recently tweeted that “with enhanced benefits, workers (take Pennsylvania, for example) can now make more on unemployment than they did at their jobs.”

He also showed a chart according to which as of this moment, tens of millions of US workers, in jobs ranging from dishwasher, to hotel clerk, to preschool teacher, to anyone on minimum wage, can now earn more from unemployment than from their regular job.

I cannot imagine why a dental assistant would rather stay home than root around in peoples’ mouths when the reward is the same and the job will be yanked away again with no notice and the assistant has been terrorized into believing that every person she works on is about to die of a horrible plague while she watches.

There’s nobody innocent here. Republicans have driven down wages to the point where Democrats can simply buy the poor’s loyalties. Behold the furious and well-thought-out retaliation of Reps:

So instead of rewarding sitting on one’s ass, the mostly republican states are pursuing back to work policies: Montana’s Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said residents would instead be eligible for a $1,200 .return to work bonus. if they were receiving unemployment benefits as of May 4 and subsequently took a job and completed at least four paid weeks of work. Idaho implemented a similar one-time bonus of as much as $1,500 last year.

Yeah, that’ll show those poor people. You want to enjoy life without effort like a rich man? Making money while you sleep just because you’re special? You don’t get to enjoy life like a rich man! Eat Orwellian boot heel! It’s good for you!