A shortage of workers is driving up wages: are we entering a new economic era?

For me the money given by governments for the pandemic allowing people to stay home has sort of become a proxy for UBI. Has allowed for the decrease in exploitation of workers. As workers are under the barrel when negotiating for pay either they except what they can get or they and their children go hungry. This allows them to negotiate a better pay.

In america, health insurance will make sure all workers come back under the thumb of the oligarchy.

But perhaps politics will change and universal healthcare will finally come to the US. Big if though.

I'm not so sure. It almost looks like the wages going up is getting "priced in" by businesses.

>In that context, the recent spectacle of the Brexiter founder of the Wetherspoons pub chain, Tim Martin, moaning about his sector’s recruitment headaches and demanding “some sort of preferential visa system for EU workers” was grimly hilarious

A lot of people are against immigration because they compete in the labor market and take their jobs. This fuels right wing parties or the Brexit referendum. The real problem weren't the immigrants, they are just a group of people you throw out of the country, i.e. it's a something where you can exert control on the supply side of the labor market. The actual problem is that there simply wasn't enough work for everyone because the upper class kept hoarding fiat tokens.