@rbreich There's a shortage of service industry workers. 78% of COVID deaths in 2020 we're active workers in the service industry. Laid-off service workers jumped on the opportunity of free time with pay to acquire skills necessary for jobs outside the industry that had long abused and trapped them. Gig work platforms like DoorDash gained literally millions of new workers, and people came to depend on these services, creating demand that has outlasted any pandemic countermeasures.

When the service industry reopened they found that they had lost a significant portion of their workforce, and they won't be getting it back. Instead of making it more attractive, they've resorted to forcing workers still trapped in the industry to do more with less, while throwing a pity for themselves that their gravy train is no longer running smoothly on the rails of human misery.

@rbreich The myth of the "wage-price" spiral is based on the lie we're all told in Economics 101 that Price = Cost + Reasonable Margin. This is how most people think prices work.

But anyone who's ever been involved in the process of setting prices knows that prices are always set at the maximum people are willing (in the case of wants) or able (in the case of needs) to pay. So of course anytime wages rise, hoarders of both jack up prices accordingly.