Is capitalism imploding on itself

Some people say there’s a capitalism hunta coming. Not a hunta of a seizure per say, but a transition resulting from economics.
I spent the last five days trying to get my daughter back to New York City after a week’s stay with my family in Tennessee.
For the past four years, I felt like many national institutions including retail, health care, and legal institutions have been failing Americans. Not just me, but most people like me, or those that have taken similar paths.
Healthcare has become an institution of revenue, and only an institution of bonafide health care, when and if it makes sense, for the institution. Hospitals need to be run by legitimate doctors of people. Not former CFOs or bankers or hedge fund managers. Doctors.
But that’s just sour grapes, right?
How about an airline that refused to let a passenger on a flight who was at the ticket counter 45 minutes before the flight took off. This airline had ONE person at the counter to help her after the kiosk booking system was shut down 45 minutes before the flight took off.
We had one bag, and yeah, we were up against it. But they weren’t selling the seat (at least they weren’t supposed to have sold the seat). She had a ticket and we were willing to forget about the bag and just ship it ourselves.
This guy at the counter had his earbuds in and was talking on the phone while taking his sweet time helping the person in front of us. No conversation between the customer and the agent, just the agent talking to whomever was more important on his phone. After 15 minutes he told the customer in front of us, he was all set and sent him on his way, only asked us “wathcha need” and told Tay she would not make her flight. He said we could catch a standby and maybe get out by 5 or 6 p.m. We were there at 10 a.m.
Tay was trying to make a shift at her job and we should have left sooner. We admit that, but there was time to catch that flight and that airline had absolutely no sense of urgency in helping one passenger. There wasn’t anyone behind her and there was nothing else pressing on this agent other than whomever was on the phone in his ear.
We left, drove back to Fort Madison from St. Louis, and booked another flight at 5 p.m. on Friday. I got two more days with my kid, but lost about $400 in airline charges. The previous Sunday, she was to fly out of Knoxville, but that flight was delayed, delayed, and delayed again, then canceled. They offered her a hotel stay and flight out the next day into Newark, not LaGuardia. She roadtripped home with me and we booked the Wednesday crapshow out of St. Louis.
Traveling is almost not worth the effort anymore. Gas prices are prohibitive, the airline industry is a disaster. We found an article from June of this year that said the air traffic control industry is 3,000 employees short – 3,000. Heard of any close calls lately? Been to an airport and seen the flashing “DELAY” and “CANCELED” indicators all over the boards?
If the market is going to create difficulties in getting from point A to point B and it’s because highly profitable corporations won’t react appropriately to the minimum wage established under the pandemic, but the government, people are not going to want to go back to work.
The only way this works is for profit margins to reflect living wages that include health insurance and retirement benefits. Companies are going to have to see that employees are, as they always have been, the triggering resource to your profitability. Without them, you’re gonna get market slammed. In the meantime, the employees you do have are overworked, feel underpaid, under appreciated, and are certainly underperforming.
I ran businesses for 20 years. I’m not speaking out of turn. I got out of the business because I saw the quality of employees diminishing due to poor parenting at home. Throw a pandemic in there where everyone got paid for staying at home, and got paid well I might add, and you’ve got a serious problem.
Retail is getting bad because good employees are staying home. These are the low wage positions that won’t hold up to people’s demand for their own time. It is more important now than the wage because the wage isn’t attractive.
Some industries are starting to react and have abandoned minimum wage positions in favor of what the market is demanding. But those same companies are holding their profit margins by simply reducing the number of people on a shift. I sat in a drive thru two weeks ago for more than 10 minutes. I pulled around only to be told that they were behind and were doing the best they can. I said I’m sure you are, but here’s the good news, you don’t have to wait on me anymore. And I drove home.
That’s not being mean to that employee. I’ve been there and done that. He knew and I doubt very seriously he cared. I was right. He didn’t have to wait on me now. Not once did it enter his mind, as the main point of contact for that sale, that his team cost their employer money that night.
I really try to keep this weekly commentary lighter and put a smile on people’s faces when I can, but I’m frightened by where this country is headed. We are not the shining beacon on the hill. Conservatives will know what that means. And we stopped asking what we can do for our country. Liberals will know what that means.
Somebody has to take the first step. To sacrifice for the greater good. In lieu of that we can expect more debates like the one we had a couple weeks ago where we shake our heads and let them fall where our chins sit on our chest.  Wondering how the mighty have fallen.
The smile today comes from having two extra days with Tay, seeing a fairly large, black bear patrolling the property line at our cabin on a warm Saturday afternoon, and riding my first mountain roller coaster. I needed a ginger ale after the second trip down because I didn’t use the brakes and spun a little too fast for my equilibrium – But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at  Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.