Where Did Everybody Go?

Did the Rapture¹ happen, and you, every pastor I know, and I just happened to have missed it?

I was in Las Vegas for the last few days. The hotel and casino I was in was short-staffed in the middle of July. Some tables on the casino floor couldn’t be opened because plenty of people were ready to gamble, but there weren’t enough dealers.

On the flight to Las Vegas, Delta had to call in a pilot on his off day and repurpose a co-pilot and flight attendants to get the flight off the ground.

On the way home yesterday, baggage in Atlanta took longer than normal. Usually, Atlanta has one of the fastest baggage claims in the country. Your bags are already there when you get to the carousel from the plane. But yesterday, like every summer trip, that was not the case. Plenty of passengers were ready to fly, and all the parking decks were full, but there were not enough airport workers.

The lots at Two Dead Mayors International Airport² were completely full on Thursday. The airport has a new parking deck to its west that is seven stories. It was full. The park-and-ride lots were all full. I had to park at something called the “Park-and-Ride Select” lot.

Returning on Sunday, the line for the shuttle busses at 6:10 pm stretched the length of the terminal on the south side. No shuttle bus arrived for 30 minutes. I timed it. When the shuttle bus arrived, it was only one bus. Thankfully, it was my bus. The driver apologized for the delay and their short staffing situation.

Driving home, I stopped at a local McDonalds. The sign on the drive-thru ordering sign read, “Please be patient. Only three of us are working today.”

Anecdote is not data. But everywhere, every business seems short-staffed. Where did all the people go? Some on the left claim they all died during COVID. That isn’t really true, though there is some truth there. Some on the right claim everyone was disincentivized to go back to work after COVID. That really isn’t true, though there is some truth there.

It is more complicated. To the extent the Democrats want Americans to feel like the economy is recovering, they need to ditch the idea that this is a new normal and get people into the workforce with every possible incentive that is not tied to massive wage hikes provoking more price increases on consumers.

Democrats, however, are not cut out for that. Their policies do not help maximize employment, and to the extent they take credit for it, they ignore people who are no longer looking for jobs. The picture at the bottom is the total labor participation. The decline around 2000 coincides with an economic downturn and retirement age setting in for many older workers. Our population is declining too, with fewer younger people and the policies of bureaucrats in Washington making it more burdensome and costly to have families. But a lot of people did drop out at COVID and never came back.

If you want Americans to feel better about the economy, you must stop telling them this is the new normal and get people back to work so we are not all spending our time waiting and rescheduling life.

Republicans, I would argue this issue is more important than Bud Light, and perhaps those in positions of economic success should tell their economic success stories more than rattling sabers about Bud Light. Let the reader understand

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1. I am from a theological tradition that doesn’t actually embrace the idea of the Rapture as presented by Tim LeHay. Please try to refrain from turning the comments into a theological debate. Yes, you who are now typing about the Rapture, I’m talking to you. Stop it. That’s not the point of this piece. I said stop it!

2. Hartsfield-Jackson