Yglesias looks at the "Great Resignation." He argues plausibly that this is not peopling opting out of working altogether, but people moving up the hiring food chain. Burger King will pay $14/HR, but the local pub will pay $12 plus pretty good tips. So you "quit" Burger King, but you are hired by the pub.
The last time we had a labor market like this was the '90s, and it was pretty good. It's empowering to people to be able to walk away from a shit job and get a better one.
However, life is all about trade offs, and right now there are sectors of the economy hurting for workers.
As Yglesias rightly notes, a sane immigration policy could react to this dynamic by letting in more workers. Even a guest worker program - like Bush proposed - would work.
Since a sane immigration policy requires both functional knowledge of making policy and would constitute a "win" for Biden and the Democrats, I think we can rule out Republicans doing anything but obstructing it. Because patriotism.
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