This is the free market working as intended. It is the way in which workers improve their conditions. A “worker shortage” is just workers voting with their feet and going someplace better.
My friend and his brother are electricians… they quote $600/hr for new customers and the response is “when can you start”. Often the timeframe isn’t acceptable, and they don’t overbook.
With trucking, it’s specific types of runs that you cannot fill. Nobody wants to take LTL loads to NYC at any price.
I'd go get a CDL and take LTL loads to NYC for $1M/pallet if enough people would pay that.
What does happen is that companies with local agent networks or partners will engage that local partner. NYC is large enough that all sorts of unusual capability exists. If you need to get a bunch of farm animals in midtown, there are in-region companies who can do that.
Companies that don’t have appropriate supply chain ops just aren’t going to effectively do business. If in-region to you means a DC in North Carolina, for example, you’re probably going to get eaten alive by the competition.
We do, in fact, live in an Economics 101 world. Sure, you also need Economics 102-499 to fully explain how it all works, but applying Economics 101 to any economic situation will yield a correct understanding 90% of the time.
That said, the poster you're referring to is 100% correct: every service has a price at which people will perform it.
I own companies. I’m on the wrong side. But it’s true.
What you may be thinking of is a “fluid market”, which corresponds to how loose or tight a labor market is.
Either way, there is no problem with saying that the free market is working as it should here…free markets are a concept and of course 2 words will never summarize the extremely complex world of supply and demand, and all the exceptions to the rules(neither will whatever 2 words you come up with).
Look, I know it's a handy phrase that we've all grown accustomed to, but when it doesn't fit, we shouldn't try and force it to fit, just because it's comfortable.
But I guess this is your hill to die on, not mine.
Sounds like you're the one that got conned.