Before getting into the weeds on a CBS article warning of a “Looming Showdown” amid large numbers of critical workers who are refusing the mandated vaccination, it is worth setting up the accurate context for the details inside the discussion.
There are 205 million legally eligible U.S. workers between 15 and 74-years-old (census figures) with a workforce participation rate of 61% (BLS figures) which would equal 125 million legally eligible workers. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number of working Americans at 161 million workers (BLS figures). The majority of the difference between the two figures are most likely illegal alien workers (yeah, lots of them).
Approximately 40 percent of the eligible population are not working. Some people are single family income (wives or husbands who don’t work), and some are just people who choose not to work, cannot work or have not yet started to work (college etc). With somewhere between 125 million and 161 million workers doing the jobs that keep the country functioning, there are also approximately 10 million unfilled job openings.
According to the most recent statement from Joe Biden on October 14th: “We’re down to 66 million — it’s still an unacceptably high number — of unvaccinated people from almost 100 million in July.” Approximately 60 million of those are within the current U.S. workforce.
If we split the difference (census -vs- BLS) and take the mid-point at 140 million workers, then 60 million workers refusing the vaccine mandate represents about 40 percent of the entire population of eligible workers. Put another way, in the best case scenario, if 60 million people quit working or were fired, the national unemployment rate would be at least 35% !
What we call the United States doesn’t function with 35% unemployment; systems of commerce start to collapse, then government, then civil society.
The U.S. economy is currently functioning with 5% unemployment and 10 million unfilled jobs. Just imagine the economic impact of 35% unemployment and 70 million unfilled jobs.
Keep in mind, the vast majority of those 60 million jobs are the productive workforce that keep the entire machine of the U.S. functioning. This is the workforce that keeps the lights on, garbage picked-up, streets safe, shelves stocked, stuff fixed and facilitates everything that makes the entire system of society function.
We are also down to the hardened group who are not going to take that forced vaccination. In quantifiable terms, the increased pressure to force the jab into the arms of the American workforce has now crossed into “the law of diminishing returns.” More government pressure ain’t going to yield the previous level of compliance. This threshold crossed is also quantifiable in the 4.3 million Americans who quit working (242,000 of them in August alone).
There ain’t no way in heck that government or private industry can function with tens of millions of Americans in the workforce getting forcibly removed for refusing the vaccine. I believe that is why you are now hearing from companies saying they will not fire the unvaccinated workers (ex Delta Airlines).
Pontificating leftists and academics, without a bit of sense for what actually happens in the Main Street economy, have no concept of what it looks like if ten million people quit or are fired from working next month…. let alone five times that many. Bottom line: THIS IS A NON-ENFORCEABLE MANDATE, even if they wanted to do it.
The power of the American workforce is in the scale of dependency each person brings to the system when they are united. It might seem like a few thousand here/there, because that’s the way the media are framing it. However, if you add up all those few thousands together you end up with millions.
CBS – In Chicago, the union representing 13,000 police officers is advising members to ignore a mandate from Mayor Lori Lightfoot to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Friday. If officers don’t get vaccinated or agree to be tested twice a week at their own expense, the city says it’ll suspend them without pay.
[…] “All I can tell you is, if we suspect the numbers are true, and we get a large number of our members to stand firm on their beliefs that this is an overreach, and they are not going to supply the information in the portal, or submit to testing, then it’s safe to say the city of Chicago will have a police force at 50%, or less, for this weekend coming up,” Catanzara told his members.
[…] The Los Angeles police department has been a major source of vaccine resistance among the city’s tens of thousands of workers, although the city’s police chief last week reported nearly two-thirds, or 65%, of LAPD employees as vaccinated, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
[…] Nearly 900 Los Angeles fire personnel, mostly firefighters, have signed onto a notice of intent to sue the city if they are terminated for not being vaccinated by Tuesday’s deadline. That’s roughly a quarter of the department’s 3,700 employees.
And the L.A. County sheriff last week said he would not force his employees to get vaccinated. “I don’t want to be in a position to lose 5%, 10% of my workforce overnight on a vaccine mandate,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a Facebook Live event.
[…] Seattle’s police department is dispatching detectives and nonpatrol officers to handle emergency calls due to a shortage of patrol officers. The union representing Seattle police workers predicts staffing woes will worsen as city employees face an October 18 deadline to be vaccinated. About 200 of the 1,075 active police officers have not yet submitted their vaccine status, according to Fox News.
The issue is also flaring up on the East Coast, including in Massachusetts, where roughly 42,000 state workers face an October 17 deadline to be fully vaccinated or risk being fired.
[…] A federal judge in Worcester is now considering a bid to postpone Baker’s mandate by the union for 4,000 state prison guards. A similar legal challenge by the union representing 1,800 state troopers was rejected last month in Massachusetts Superior Court, according to CBS Boston.
[…] The Transportation Security Administration says four-in-10 of its employees — including screeners — are not vaccinated against COVID-19 as a federal deadline looms. Civilian federal government workers must be fully vaccinated by November 22, the Monday before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel times of the year.
“About 60% of our workforce has been vaccinated; that number needs to go quit a bit higher over the next few weeks,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske told CNN. (read more)
Notice all of those media examples are from Democrat friendly territories. The red regions are even stronger in determination to fight against federal mandates for forced medical procedures.
The system will not function if 50+ million American workers stand united against the vaccine mandate. It really is that simple.
From a commonsense and logistical perspective, regardless of the federal outlook, there’s no way they can pull it off. We are the quiet, and according to those who look down their noses – the “invisible” unwashed masses. However, when it comes to keeping the gears turning, we are the majority. We keep their shit working and just want to be left alone….
…. This is The Hill
