Sounds like the issue is that the "blue collar industries" employers need to offer higher salaries?
(The comment I originally replied to specifically referenced "lube and tire tech" as a role companies have trouble hiring for)
> I'm sure their customers will completely understand, pay the higher costs without complaint, and not at all go and find alternative suppliers.
The real issue may be that the investors won't understand, and won't take reduced profits without complaint.
I'll take the lower pension, will you pass on the message for me? For some reason, the fund managers won't take calls from individual participants.
I'm just noting there's multiple dials here, and it's weird that it's often totally forgotten that "less profits" is just as reasonable as "higher consumer prices." Also you'll note that there are some people who profit extraordinarily from capital and have extraordinary control, and there are some people who profit much less and have even less control than that (and have little choice but to participate in the system as it exists). It's a false equivalency to equate the two.
There's brands like Firestone and Jiffy Lube although I thought everyone knew that was a scam by now.