[pcorsaro]

I run a small business that sells supplies to restaurants and other small businesses. Everyone I deal with is busier than they've ever been with less help than they've ever had. Hardly anyone has been able to take a vacation for 3 years now. There's a multitude of things going on that are drastically different than 10 or 20 years ago. There's a schism being created in this world with the work from home crowd being one side, and the warehouse/foodservice crowd on the other side. The warehouse side has a huge demand, in part because of the pandemic, and also in part because of the work from home crowd not leaving their house as much. None of the restaurants can afford to pay what the warehouse jobs are paying. The number of people willing to work in the food industry is lower than I've ever seen it.

[defterGoose]

>There's a schism being created in this world with the work from home crowd being one side, and the warehouse/foodservice crowd on the other side.

Totally agree, and it's good to know that anyone besides myself sees it. For me personally, I'm educated and know I have the skills to be on that first side of the divide, but it makes me feel very nervous/sad, because I know a lot of the stuff going on at the lower-wage end of the scale is unsustainable, and it makes me very worried for the future of our society. In the sense of how modern people want to live their lives, people in the service industries are extremely undervalued, and everyone deserves a fair wage for fair work and the ability to live in a dignified way.

I complain about everyone expecting a tip on their POS terminals and prices constantly rising, but in the spirit of my above point, they probably deserve it. We need a return to sanity regarding the returns of being a business owner.

[pcorsaro]

> I complain about everyone expecting a tip on their POS terminals and prices constantly rising, but in the spirit of my above point, they probably deserve it.

This is also a huge complaint of mine in specific situations. If I go to an NBA game or concert, buy a beer for $12, and the POS has a tip thing, I want to scream. I want to scream at the vending group to just pay the people more money. The profit margin on the beer is insane, give your workers some of the money rather than try to pass the buck on to the consumer you’re already gouging.