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Comment by jrnichols | Hacker News Reader

I'm inclined to agree, and the replies I see here are seeming to focus on the 2 stimulus checks. There were many months of extra unemployment benefits. People were in many cases making more on unemployment than they were their regular jobs.

What we saw was rents going up first, real estate prices, and now inflation across the board.

it was a whole lot more than the stimulus checks.

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My anecdotal evidence: I needed to get a new AC unit for my house last year (summer 2021). I finally was able to get a reputable HVAC company to come and replace the unit. Talking with the owner, he told me (very frankly) he could not get reliable help anymore because the weekly govt checks were higher than he could could pay for a full-time HVAC person in our small community.

And before anyone says, "he should pay them more"; no. If he payed more, he would have to take a paycut for himself because his prices would not be competitive. Especially in a rural community...

> And before anyone says, "he should pay them more"; no. If he payed more, he would have to take a paycut for himself because his prices would not be competitive.

Well that would not do at all. A business owner choosing to profit less so that his business could continue operating and his workers got a market wage? Get out of here with that crazy talk!

The real "market wage" was set prior to COVID - not during COVID with the tons of weekly unemployment checks handed out like candy. How can a small business owner even compete with the unlimited funding of the govt?

Furthermore, why should a business owner profit less simply because able-bodied people were greedy and wanted free govt money over working a job? That is the real crazy talk.

It’s quite likely that he could not afford to take a pay cut. I never understand why people seem to automatically believe that small business owners (especially in rural communities) are just so damned wealthy that they can afford to just pay themselves less.

Most small business owners make significantly less than the average software developers commenting on HN.

^This - 100%

I don't think it was the stimulus checks and unemployment benefits but the Fed increasing the US money supply by more than 45% in 2 years.

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