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Comment by Loughla | Hacker News Reader

Higher education is my main job - we're not seeing an influx like we expected of people returning to college, but we are seeing an increase in non-traditional (24y.o.+) students.

They are, to paint with a very broad brush, folks who all worked in food service, retail, or other front-line sales industries. The forced time off last year made them realize they were killing themselves for not very much money, and they're refusing to go back to those employers.

But it's the $300 in weekly payments that is stopping people from returning to work, if you ask business owners in the area.

There is currently a wild and IMMENSE disconnect from worker attitudes to beliefs about worker attitudes, and I don't know why.

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A lot of people were told their jobs are nonessential and the public debate was about whether or not they deserve assistance with basic survival needs. If it were me, I’d be doing everything in my power to never be in that position again. I suspect that’s part of what’s happening.

There is currently a wild and IMMENSE disconnect from worker attitudes to beliefs about worker attitudes, and I don't know why.

Largely because business owners are pushing the "$300/month is making everybody lazy" narrative. There doesn't appear to be much evidence it's true, at least not to the extend business owners would have us believe.

Because they've never been on unemployment and small business owners largely have a poor opinion of UI in general.

My MIL was laid off from a university job at the beginning of the pandemic and her UI ran out a looong time ago. The only reason she even collected it for as long as she did was because nobody is hiring elderly women.

It also doesn't help that it takes forever to get it, at least in CA. There is no one you can call at the EDD, it is so ironic that the unemployment office needs to hire more in the richest state in the richest nation on earth. It took someone I knew two months to get their EDD debit card. Bills don't stop just because you lose your job.

Call your representative.

If they are worth their salt they should be fighting for you.

Everytime my family or friends have trouble with federal or state government we contact our representative and let his office go fight on our behalf. It's part of what they're elected for. Hopefully your experience with your representative is a good one.

Its $300 a week not a month. $300 a week is $7.50 an hour at 40 hours a week. People are getting this on top of normal unemployment. So it very well may be more than what some people were getting paid to work.

Free money is a disincentive to work. But the effect is strongest on jobs that pay <$15/hr or don't include health insurance.

I wonder if there will be a sharp downward trend in per-worker productivity in those “$300/mo makes you lazy” jobs once everyone goes back to work. Boss makes a dollar, you make a dime and all that.

I've considered going back and getting a new degree but the cost is so insane that it's just not worth it.

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