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It gets kinda frustrating.
Dog Whistle 1: “No one wants to work!” This is a far-right dog whistle about how the government is broken, Biden is demented, and we’re all descending into socialism where people are paid to sit on their couches and smoke weed. Ironically, this narrative is put forth largely by people that have stock portfolios which are performing well and live in expensive houses. Is the economy truly crumbling around them? It doesn’t seem so, per se. But, it’s a good culture wars flashpoint, so let’s roll with it. Personally I think there is a small subset of people who want to get paid weekly or monthly to sit around and smoke weed. Most people want something to do, because that’s the core of adulthood to many — some form of purpose or vocation or way to “earn your own keep.” The whole narrative is a dog whistle, and plus, the benefits being discussed are supposed to end in August/September, so we’ll see where the narrative goes from there.
Dog Whistle 2: “Everyone will quit if they can’t be remote.” This is just completely flawed logic. First, a lot of people want to work in-office — somewhere on the order of 33–40%. Why? It’s the easiest way to access decision-makers and get advanced yourself. So 4 in 10 people, this probably doesn’t apply to. Here’s the second tier: life is expensive. 11 million Americans spend more than 50% of…
