Today, I’m on my way to the ferry dock in the San Juan Islands of Washington State to catch a boat on a long drive to the Seattle airport for a trip to the New Orleans Investment Conference, starting Wednesday. I leave a day early since I can’t rely on the State-monopoly ferry system being on time, or even sailing at all, since they laid off their unvaccinated workers last year and haven’t hired them back. In addition, most of the ferries are 40+ years old and break down a lot, and they can’t find enough new workers to man the ships.

Then, when I get to the mainland, most of my favorite diners are closed for lack of staff, so I shop around to find anything open. The Seattle airport TSA lines are sometimes backed up into the parking lot (photo).



When (if) I finally get to the New Orleans hotel (or any hotel), there is no maid service. Many local shops are boarded up, out of business, and most others have prominent Help Wanted signs. Many shops are out of goods, and goods I order on the Internet for “overnight” delivery often take a week to arrive.

So, a more important question is: Where have all the workers gone, and how big is the real Jobless Army?

...

Eberstadt also points to the mental shift of men no longer being the main “breadwinner” in the family, of losing or forsaking the responsibility of providing for a family. It casts men “into the role of dependents – on their wives or girlfriends, on their aging parents, or on government welfare.” Instead of “shouldering the burdens of civic responsibilities, it instead encourages sloth, idleness and vices.” You may know some men (even relatives) that fit this description too closely for comfort. This has also led to the “deaths of despair” which have risen so rapidly, from suicide, opioid abuse, obesity or diabetes, and alcoholism.

... and

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy describes how the New Left has invaded corporate America, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, with an array of silly exercises in trendy group-think, reminiscent of totalitarian state schools. Who wants to submit to mandatory indoctrination in “implicit bias,” scolding sessions from some overpaid consultant mandated by the company or the state, as happened to a nurse with 39 years training? I’m not sure I would want to work in such a toxic environment, in his new “Woke, Inc.” era.