Contempt

Last report I saw put the number at more like 2 million. The labor force participation rate is 62% which is about 1.5% off where it was pre-COVID. You can get the the 7 million number by counting the 5+ million people who want a job but who haven't looked for one in the last 4 weeks or are currently unavailable to take a job. One reason a person might be "unavailable" to take a job would be that they are caring for a child or another person such as an ill parent. My sister would fall into this group. She would love to work but she's not able to because she cares for my niece who has special needs. There are many people in that situation. Appropriate child care is either not available or is so expensive that it makes no sense to work because you'd spend your whole salary on paying for child care. Extrapolating that out further, there are a lot of people who have re-evaluated their living arrangements post-COVID. They had to rearrange their lives when child care was closed and they realized how much they were actually paying for it in time and treasure. When everything opened back up they elected not to send their kid back to day care and became one-income families. This isn't the same thing as sitting as home doing nothing and, frankly, is the model quite a few people have advocated for for quite a long time. The difference is, this time, a greater number of the people staying home with the kids are men which still carries a stigma. FWIW the labor force participation rate in the 1950's, which seems to be the end all and be all of American society in people's minds, was between 58 and 60%. What that means is there is a higher percentage of "able bodied Americans" working now than then despite the narrative that young people like to sit home on their *****. IMO, the places I've noticed labor issues are at crappy jobs or for companies that jerk their employees around by not offering fair wages or reasonable numbers of hours. For example, a business near me has been advertising for jobs since COVID began. The problem is they only offer people 8 hours a week and they try to fill the hours with 3 people at 8 hours rather than 1 person at 24 hours. Working 8 hours a week in a retail environment isn't even worth your time to do. After taxes it will barely pay for the gas you need to drive to work so why do it? If the business offered those 24 hours to one person rather than 3 a person could come much closer to surviving. Why is it they don't offer people 40 hours for those kinds of jobs? Because the business doesn't want to offer healthcare. Basically we have a labor shortage in certain areas because people refuse to be treated like garbage right now and certain businesses refuse to treat their workers ethically. There was once a time where a person could get a full-time job as a cashier in a grocery store and work in that store for 30 years. and then retire with a pension They wouldn't get rich, but they'd make a living. Now the store won't do that. It had become cheaper for them to make their staff a disposable commodity. There once was a time where businesses offered training for new hires. Now businesses have an expectation that you'll have all the necessary skills and 5 years experience on day one, they then complain when those people don't exist. Another example, substitute teachers. I haven't seen a substitute teacher in nearly 3 years. Not one. Why? Because it's a garbage job that pays next to no money to do. For the money they pay to do the job, a person with a degree can get a host of other jobs that don't come along with taking abuse from children as a side perk. My district pays $105 for a 7.5 hour day. $14 an hour with no benefits. Any person who is qualified to be a sub is also qualified to be a paraprofessional in the building. A paraprofessional makes ~$16 an hour, gets benefits, and in many cases signing and retention bonuses not to mention the stability of knowing that you are working everyday and where. Why be a sub? Is there a labor shortage for subs? Sure, but it's not because young people are sitting at home. It's because retirees aren't doing it anymore and it doesn't pay enough for anyone else to afford to do it. It's also a sucky job. I did it briefly 15 years ago when I was in-between gigs and I'd never do it again. Places that treat their people well don't seem to have too many issues getting people. Good jobs fill themselves most of the time.

I have a 16 y/o and 13 y/o. I don't need to snowblow anything. lol

I'm so jealous. I was up in WNY last weekend and the snow rejuvenated my soul. A legit Christmas blizzard? Sign me right up.

Comrie is magically not healthy until someone slows down in goal. Even then seems to me like he will need a conditioning stint in Rochester for at least 2 weeks after that. Short story is you stall for as long as possible. If UPL stays hot there is no way on Earth you send him down. How do you do that and keep credibility with the team? Now, if he regresses back to his mean then sure, back to Rochester he goes, but if he's killing it? No way. If Anderson is the one that slows down and Comrie is ready who is going to argue with a team who puts a 40+ goaltender on the injury list?

Surely you can scAVEnge some somewhere

It is. I use the same one during my son's games.

I'm just going to get this out of the way. I identify as an attack helicopter and my pronouns are it and its.

In Casey's defense, he does have a pretty sick couch.

Oh I'm well aware of that. I swore off them a very long time ago. Fiat didn't make it any better.

You may have purchased a Chrysler product from his family's dealership in Niagara Falls back in the day. My grandfather did. Twice.

I like me some Bo Horvat, but he doesn't play defense or goal and he fills the role I want Cozens to take

If they don't solve the goaltending issue there's nothing else to discuss. They won't win enough to make up the gap.

I heard he had a ruptured perineum

Agreed

UPL is what terrifies me about waiting for another goalie.

I'm simultaneously flattered and disappointed.

I do wish that it showed you how many people are are ignoring you. I want to know how big a void I'm shouting into. It's sort of like a goal.

I didn't say he was knocked out. I'm saying you watched someone get whacked in the back of the head in slow motion. Your body's reaction to getting hit there when not expecting it is to lurch forward away from the impact and there's a little delay in that while your brain processes what the hell happened. He's standing on skates and lost his balance. If you'd like me to whack you with a hockey stick while we film it in slow motion I'm willing. That's not a dive.

You probably aren't. When I'm acting trashy I'm usually aware of it so I'm sure others agree with me.

That's not a dive.

Uhm, no.

It seems like it. Is there a fingerpaint font we can use to help him out?