This is going to be more of an opinionated post. One that exudes passion and frustration from the confines of my keyboard. Every day, there is news about people being laid off, being replaced by AI or robots, or walking out of jobs that pay them too little and transitioning into jobs that pay them substantially more. While the latter is a feel-good type of story, this situation isn’t one to underestimate.
There is a massive problem with labor globally, and I believe it will only worsen. Employees are frustrated at their paychecks and inflated houses, groceries, and gas costs. People like me, other Gen Z folks, and even some Millennials struggle to find sturdy ground to start our lives with because we don’t have enough money to get by. Universities are still charging a fortune even when administering online education; minimum wage jobs are still not giving raises, and if they do, they’re laughable; and prices keep rising! All of this is, in my opinion, going to lead to a collapse in the job market that is unprecedented and may lead to riots, lootings, or things much worse.
For starters, inflation is ramping up the prices of essential goods. We have all heard our parents exclaim, “I remember when X was Y amount! These prices are crazy!” While we roll our eyes at our parents’ frugal mindset, they aren’t wrong in thinking this. Prices have increased dramatically, and there is no ceiling for them to plateau. Looking at gas in April 2020, it was around 54 cents in Canada! Now (October 2021), it is almost at $1.54. In a little over eighteen months, gas has increased by nearly a dollar. What are people going to do when it reaches $1.60, $1.70, or even $2! If you’re Gen Z or Millennial, and you haven’t moved out yet, be prepared to stay at home for the foreseeable future because housing costs are not coming down anytime soon. Things are becoming too costly (and I use the term “too” seriously: if people cannot afford basic goods, they are too expensive).
As a former minimum-wage worker working at the world’s largest coffee chain, I was given a ten-cent raise in October 2021. Yes, ten cents. This caused me to leave that place altogether. Having worked there for practically four and a half years, knowing the ins and outs of the corporation, knowing customers by first name (and vice versa), excelling at my job in all regards, my company handed (not just me, my entire team) a ten-cent raise. This was due to “inflation.” This is how workers are treated, how companies handle upset staff complaining about their paychecks not meeting inflation rates. It’s laughable, but it’s pretty sad, confusing, and frustrating. These paychecks keep families fed, keep mental health afloat, and are necessary to live a decent life. Companies are incredibly stingy with how much they pay employees that some employees refuse to work and quit. After all, why should they go through emotional turmoil for a paycheck that does not make ends meet? The question remains of where those employees go to find work, but it’s a separate discussion.
Suppose companies don’t get their act together on how much they are paying their employees, what benefits they are providing, and how they are keeping up with rising inflation rates. In that case, more employees will walk out, strike, or possibly boycott their institutions in the hopes of higher pay. Count on people to take necessarily drastic measures to get their points across.
Of course, I must tie it back to automation. Switching jobs, while necessary, is dangerous at the present moment. It may be a game of sooner rather than later because if corporations start resorting to AI, they’ll reduce paychecks even further, and the employees going out on strike would most likely be fired anyway. It’s a bad time that the world is going into, precisely because there is no already respect from employers to employees; imagine if those employers had a way of replacing their entire staff through one click of a button. They would, without hesitation.
While being pessimistic is not my strong suit, I am eager to see necessary changes. I hope Bitcoin radically destabilizes central banks, creating a deflationary currency that helps people rather than harms people. I hope more people can transition to creative work rather than repetitive work, allowing them to accumulate more money, time, and passion for what they do for a living. Most importantly, I hope the government steps in and does something about the housing problems or the rising prices. While my views and hopes may be very Gen Z-esque, optimistic, and possibly even ludicrous, it is necessary to remain confident in this century. With such turbulence approaching, learning to be stable-minded is of great importance. And, of course, last but not least, buy Bitcoin.