Why Aren’t Texans Going Back to Work?
We've been hearing for months now that there are a lot of businesses short on employees because the unemployment benefits are better than the actual pay. However, an article over at Houston Public Media (a service of the University of Houston) claims that it's not just the unemployment benefits that are keeping people from returning to work.
The claim is that people aren't returning to work for a couple different reasons:
- Not enough people are vaccinated
- Parents don't have options to take care of their kids while they're at work
Ellis Winstanley, president of the company that owns Tex-Mex restaurant El Arroyo in Austin says it's more complex than just people not wanting to go back to work:
People have got little kids, they've got child care issues. And people have got medical concerns. They want to see that a significant portion of the population is vaccinated before they go back.
It's really easy to look at the situation and blame people for being lazy and not wanting to go back to work. But if you have someone who is high risk for COVID-19 or have a child that needs care, it's not so easy to jump right back into the work force.
Unfortunately for most, this issue will be politicized and nothing will ever actually be done to solve the issue. Because, well, that's where we are at this point. We argue a team, not an actual point. We don't care about the actual issue, we care about what each side is saying about that issue.