Is there a kit supply shortage too?

[southwestforests]

2 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

A lot of Americans are getting more from lockdown payments than they would otherwise have if they were working.

Which brings to mind this from the Los Angeles Times,

Quote

 

Column: Employers, governors push myth that unemployment checks keep lazy workers home

By Michael HiltzikBusiness Columnist 

May 7, 2021 10:14 AM PT

In a rational world, employers desperate to fill jobs would do everything they could to make their workplaces seem attractive: They’d raise wages, offer bonuses and show themselves to be caring and respectful bosses.

In our world, just the opposite is happening. Wages are stagnant, especially in low-paying sectors, and employers are demonstrating utter contempt for employees they’re trying to lure back to work.

They’re casting blame for their difficulties elsewhere — especially the purportedly lavish unemployment benefits provided by the federal government. ...

 

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-07/unemployment-benefits-myth

 

And this,

Quote

 

No, unemployment benefits don’t stop people from returning to work

Study after study has debunked the myth that emergency benefits keep people out of the labor force.

By Adam Chandler

Adam Chandler is a New York-based writer and the author of “Drive-Thru Dreams,” a book about the fast-food industry.

May 13, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. EDT

Last week’s U.S. jobs report, which saw far fewer hires than expected, reignited an old, long-simmering debate about whether the social safety net creates a culture of dependence in American life. Too many American workers, the argument goes, would rather stay home, play video games and collect unemployment than go back to work. And the rest of us are suffering as a result. ... 

The main problem with this line of thinking is that it simply isn’t true and, perhaps, holds less water than it ever has. In the past year alone, study after study has debunked the myth that the emergency benefits and occasional payments provided by the government are disincentivizing people from returning to the labor force en masse. “We find no evidence that high UI [unemployment insurance] replacement rates drove job losses or slowed rehiring,” read one study by Yale economists last summer, back when enhanced federal unemployment benefits were $600 a week — or double the current amount. In a separate study of unemployed workers without a college degree last year, Arindrajit Dube at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, found no evidence that the additional pandemic compensation passed under the Cares Act last year “held back the labor market recovery.”

Then there is the reality that, even with help from the government, a large segment of jobless Americans aren’t receiving enough money from unemployment benefits to actually get by. According to a Census Bureau survey last month, nearly 1 in 3 Americans on unemployment said they were still failing to cover routine expenses such as food, housing and medical treatments. That’s not to say the rest of those on pandemic assistance rolls are coasting either. Of the recipients of jobless benefits with children, roughly 75 percent reported not having enough food for their children either sometimes or often. Meanwhile, despite the highly meme-able frivolity associated with stimulus payments on social media, a study of how Americans spent the first stimulus by the Federal Reserve of New York revealed that only 29 percent of payments went toward consumption while the rest either went directly into debt repayment or savings. ...

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/13/unemployment-benefits-minimum-wage-work/

 

and this, too,

 

Quote

Unemployment insurance, job search,
and spending during the pandemic
Fiona Greig, Daniel M. Sullivan, Max Liebeskind,
Peter Ganong, Pascal Noel, Joseph Vavra
February 2021
Congress enacted a $600-per-week unemployment insurance (UI) supplement beginning in April 2020, resulting
in jobless benefits which exceeded earnings for the typical jobless worker through the end of July 2020. Critics of

the policy have suggested that the $600 supplement may have discouraged unemployed workers from searching

for jobs. Proponents have argued that generous UI benefits allowed jobless workers to maintain their livelihoods

during the pandemic and helped prevent a deeper recession.
In this research brief and companion academic paper, we evaluate these claims by documenting the impact of
supplemental UI benefits on job finding, spending, and saving of jobless workers between April and July 2020.1
We find that the $600 supplement likely played little role in discouraging people from finding work. Rather,
expanded UI boosted the spending and saving among jobless workers, many of whom are facing extended or

repeated unemployment spells.

https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/institute/pdf/Institute-UI-Research-Brief-ADA.pdf

 

That bit in that last is a point of interest,

Quote

Growth in checking account balances was also larger among the unemployed (see Figure 4). However, the
eventual unemployed in 2020 started the year with fewer liquid assets ($1,475 versus $3,384), and in October, the median
level of checking account balances among the unemployed was also lower than that of the employed ($2,172 versus $4,184)

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by southwestforests

[ElectroSoldier]

On 11/18/2021 at 6:03 PM, southwestforests said:

Which brings to mind this from the Los Angeles Times,

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-07/unemployment-benefits-myth

 

And this,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/13/unemployment-benefits-minimum-wage-work/

 

and this, too,

 

https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/institute/pdf/Institute-UI-Research-Brief-ADA.pdf

 

That bit in that last is a point of interest,

 

You can spin it any way you want, dress it up any way you like. The jobs do need to be done and nobody is doing them. Thats why there are the problems there are.

 

Just because its written on the internet it doesnt mean its true.
It does put the question of hyper productivity to bed once and for all though. People would not be hyper productive just because you think they will be.

[Scott Smith]

My daughter was in college when it all hit.  Her place of employment was a small boutique for women's clothing.  It was in a college town that only thrives during football season.  Store owner shut it down.

 

Daughter got on the unemployment and stimulus program.  She didn't go back to work until she got a gig at a summer camp paying minimum wage and when that ended she took time to find her "big girl" job after graduation. Been employed about a month now. She has more cash piled up in savings now than she ever though she would at her age.

 

Youngest son, not so lucky.  He got fired for working on a car in the parking lot of the auto parts store he worked at (was doing a brake job for a friend) just before the pandemic and did not have a job to lose due to the pandemic. Then he couldn't find work for a while because every thing was shut down.

 

Wait!? What was this thread about???  Oh, kit shortages...

Anyone notice a lot of higher starting bids or BIN prices on eBay lately?   I'm looking for a few kits (yea, like I need more....) and doing a comparison of what's out for auction and previous sold prices, I see an uptick.

BTW, if anyone has a Star Trek D-7 space station kit or a Testors 1/32 YF-22 they want to sell, reach out to me!

[ElectroSoldier]

28 minutes ago, Scott Smith said:

My daughter was in college when it all hit.  Her place of employment was a small boutique for women's clothing.  It was in a college town that only thrives during football season.  Store owner shut it down.

 

Daughter got on the unemployment and stimulus program.  She didn't go back to work until she got a gig at a summer camp paying minimum wage and when that ended she took time to find her "big girl" job after graduation. Been employed about a month now. She has more cash piled up in savings now than she ever though she would at her age.

 

Youngest son, not so lucky.  He got fired for working on a car in the parking lot of the auto parts store he worked at (was doing a brake job for a friend) just before the pandemic and did not have a job to lose due to the pandemic. Then he couldn't find work for a while because every thing was shut down.

 

Wait!? What was this thread about???  Oh, kit shortages...

Anyone notice a lot of higher starting bids or BIN prices on eBay lately?   I'm looking for a few kits (yea, like I need more....) and doing a comparison of what's out for auction and previous sold prices, I see an uptick.

BTW, if anyone has a Star Trek D-7 space station kit or a Testors 1/32 YF-22 they want to sell, reach out to me!

 

One of a millions of similar stories...

Yeah the starting and or BiN prices have increased because the US government is causing inflation.
The dollar is worth less now than it was before.