Today's headline:

Nearly 70% of Americans are looking for extra work to combat inflation

CNN

Real life Example:

$120 groceries weekly now $220

$50 gas weekly now $100

Using credit card for basics without ability to pay the cc without a second job.

GOOD!

That's what you're "supposed" to do when you need more money - do more work.

I have had two jobs (or more)when needed.

Dave Ramsey's often used quote is, "Grandma always said there's a great place to go when you're broke: to work!"

Who knows if grandma actually said that, but that's how mankind has lived for almost 6,000 years of recorded history up until the modern age when Govt is expected to provide when times are tough.

Funny money was printed and given away. But money is just a representation of value. Creating more money doesn't create more value: it just spreads out the representation of value. So yes...now that more money exists, you have to do more value-add tasks to soak it all up or prices will increase as more money bids for the same amount of real world goods and services.

Anyone who paid attention in high school economics could see this happening before it did. Modern Monetary Theory is a joke, but sadly the only ones laughing are those of us who understood it and took advantage of the opportunity. The poor folks who thought Govt was here to "help" and didn't realize that there's no such thing as free lunch are getting clobbered now. All the Govt really did was kick the can down the road a bit and ensure that prices were higher when it finally stopped bouncing.

Can't shut down the global economy and pay people to stay home without expecting to see higher prices.

2nd job: nice work if you can get it.

Inflation is bad enough. What about recession?

It is likely that soon, there won't be enough work for all who want to work, 1st job or 2nd.

Sorry about the typo on the subject line.

Did this on my phone.

"It is likely that soon, there won't be enough work for all who want to work, 1st job or 2nd"

The ditch diggers guild made the same argument when backhoes and bulldozers were invented.

Instead: what happened? Prosperity exploded for those will to see what potential could be unleashed.

Creative destruction is the lifeblood of innovation and forward progress.

We will see fewer people manning the checkout lane. In their place, there will service technicians who install, service, and upgrade the machines. There will be assembly language coders that tell machines how many inches to move a product this way or 4th generation coders to identify what that series of barcode labels translates to in the database.

I'm sure the automobile put a lot of buggy manufacturers out of business too, but today, who wants to go back to the days of horse drawn carriages.... I mean, who outside of California? Buy your electric cars, but don't dare charge them.

Last I heard, we're short 300,000 tradesmen in this country, and more boomer tradesmen are retiring every day. Time to level up your skill set, baristas of the world.

There's such a huge shortage of workers I don't see a recession stopping it much. Many many job openings aren't even tracked because employers don't bother listing all the openings because they know they can't fill them.

I'd believe it if you said 79% of already employed persons are looking for a second job, because 50% of potential workers are trying to get by with no job t all.

Anyone looking for a second job isn't looking too hard. There are help wanted signs all over the place and they are paying decent wages.

I call Bull! In my locale, I doubt that 7% of the employed are looking for a second job.

It takes about $22 an hour now to afford an average 1 bdrm apt. So min wage workers would need to work 80 hour weeks. In places like CA min wage workers need to work more hours than exist in a week! It can't be done. Even $40k a year is a marginal income now.

When SSI and Soc Sec only provides 1/4 to 1/2 of the income needed to survive it's no wonder we face a growing homless crisis. Everyday in my town I see elderly and disabled folks on the street. They aren't mentally ill or on dope. They are priced out, without family or backup support.

One medical issue, or long term inability to work (long covid for example, or a car accident) can wipe people out. I have Blue Cross and VA, and my cancer has still cost us $100k out of pocket. I could afford to travel to the best team in the country, or I'd be dead. Most are not as fortuate as we are.

More and more workers are and will be displaced by AI and robotics. There is no place for those people to go. Not everyone can be an ER nurse or rocket scientist, or even an auto mechanic. Stuff's too complicated for many to comprehend. When strippers and bartenders in Vegas make $1,000 a night something is skewed.

You guys are going to call me a traitor to capitalism and landlords, but we are going to have to revamp society. UBI (universal basic income) is going to have to be implemented - at a living income level. Universal medical and housing (yes I said it, socialized housing) is going to become a necessity for millions of people in coming years. Or they are going to die. It's just that simple.

I have no better idea how to accomplish or finance such a feat than anybody else. But we either face potential massive die offs or the restructuring of traditional capitalism into something that works for everyone, not just the oligarchy. I'm a multi-millionaire, and yet all my assets wouldn't cover a fantasy land space ride for Bezos or Musk.

People are getting angry. We see it in the cities, you see it in some of your tenants. A second job isn't going to fix things.

>>>> You guys are going to call me a traitor to capitalism and landlords, but we are going to have to revamp society. UBI (universal basic income) is going to have to be implemented - at a living income level. Universal medical and housing (yes I said it, socialized housing) is going to become a necessity for millions of people in coming years. Or they are going to die. It's just that simple.

I have no better idea how to accomplish or finance such a feat than anybody else. But we either face potential massive die offs or the restructuring of traditional capitalism into something that works for everyone, not just the oligarchy. I'm a multi-millionaire, and yet all my assets wouldn't cover a fantasy land space ride for Bezos or Musk.

People are getting angry. We see it in the cities, you see it in some of your tenants. A second job isn't going to fix things.<<<<<

In some ways, I agree with you LTD. I thought UBI was a great idea as Andrew Yang outlined it. But when I saw the results of the Covid unemployment benefits, which were so ineptly handled and unevenly distributed...I was a bit taken aback.

And then again, although I agree it's freakin' amazing how we have SUCH rich people in the world, most of them started out as college drop-outs in their garages. I can't fault Bezos or Musk for creating things people want and profiting from it.

"....who wants to go back to the days of horse drawn carriages...."

Why not?

Grow your own food, make your own clothes, build your own house, help your neighbor build theirs, walk more and sit less, be healthier, socialize more (well, maybe), spend more time with family to include the animals, be self reliant and efficient, no drama TV, No high electric bills, no phone bills or phone ringing all the time, no robo calls or text, no vehicle expense, ect.......

What would be wrong with that?

Yes, you would have to work harder, but for yourself.

The simple life. Enjoy nature and the animals.

@ WMH - You are absolutely right. While some kind of UBI is very likely to become necessary as the future progresses, will we just end up with a country / world of lazy freeloaders?

I work because I like nice things, extravagant trips, oh I could soooo become an oligarch myself! LOL But if you take all my money for others, or to support the state, I totally understand the "why work" mindset. When you take away incentive it removes iniciative.

That's a big reason I quit flipping and left CA. I was risking a half million bucks on a rehab, then between taxes and commissions I was ending up with not even 50% for busting my tush. AZ isn't perfect but my tax burden is about half of CA. Of course I'm not operating at the level I was in my 40's either.

@ 6x6 - Somehow I just don't see myself as an Amish farmer on the homestead. I do have the FoxFire books in my library, just in case. LOL For one thing in recent years I've killed about $500 worth of ornamental cactus. If I can't grow cactus in the desert, tomatoes don't have a chance! Though my spouse is actually growning some onions that just might survive!

The struggle is real, and even for landlords.

I just went to the hardware store and dog food is now $60 a bag. It used to be $30!

Gallons of paint are now regularly $50. They used to be $25, just a year ago.

I can't even afford the microwave meals at the grocery store across the street I used to pick up all the time. They were $5.99. Now they're $8.99. I've been reduced to just buying chicken chunks, lol. But even packs of meat that used to be $6 are now $12.00.

The last time I repaired the stairs at an apartment, it cost $100 just for two stair boards.

Gas bills are also expected to skyrocket this winter.

Literally, everything, every little thing is costing twice as much. I'm always out of money these days. And the media trumpets higher rents only, calling only US greedy. What about all the rest of it? Are we supposed to just house people and absorb all the cost? Please.

My initial reaction was “Who are these people?”

I suspect the survey is skewed. People SAID they want a second job so they look honorable to the surveyor but giving up time in the LazyBoy and video games is another matter.

I see the workplace has been forced into learning to operate with fewer people.

Fewer cashiers, drive thru only fast food, using DoorDash instead of employing drivers…

LTD,

You're not a com mie or anti-capitalist, I know. You're way too smart and your life experience has confirmed you know how reality works.

Ever read JRR Tolkien's "The Silmarillion?" In the Second Age of Middle Earth, he tells the tale of the nation of Numenor, a small continent in the West, where men who were allies of the gods/angelic powers of the world in the fight against evil are given a blessed land in which to live. They start off industrious, hard-working, and benevolent, but over time they gradually get corrupted by fear of death and wish to become like gods themselves. They eventually abandon their religion and seek sources of greater wealth and power, until finally the society implodes and the entire land is swept away. The interesting part is their land continues to grow in wealth and power even as their society declines and their fear of death increases. They do everything they can to postpone death, but they just die all the sooner because they lack the bliss that makes a long, fruitful life possible.

@ Sid - yes, an excellent analagy.

@ WMH - LOL I tried planting those plastic flowers from the Dollar store at our last house. The wind blew them out of the pots!

I've put huge effort into the "poor man's backyard" the past few years, planting fruit trees and other edibles. Even though my yard is hardly more than postage stamp size.

But thanks to rising temps here in the Midwest, we're now overrun with stinkbugs! They sucked most of my peaches this year which were shriveled, and destroyed all the raspberries. I tried to pluck them off but they're too fast.

Then the hordes of Japanese beetles came and half skeletonized the cherry trees, they may be dead. Just about the only edible thing I could grow this year was crabapples, and they're hardly any food at all.