Labor Shortage Quotes
Plantng tobacco was a much more lucrative endeavour than fixing guns so many gunsmiths abandned that trade for tobacco farming.
With most of the able bodied males in the military, women were the mainstay of American industry. Therefore the recruiting campaigns were targeted to them. And women tended to value health care and insurance more so than men. Therefore it was offered and maintained. The labor unions and many workers themselves realized that health insurance was a tax free benefit and so the returning male veterans not only entered the workforce where health insurance was a part of compensation, but where it was not, it was a collective bargaining objective as it was worth more than the cash raise of wages. More health insurance should be provided than the employees could be after paying his taxes.
Ever since the Civil War, there has been an imbalance between the areas of the country with large unemployed populations and those areas where jobs were available. Even in 1870, the authorities were trying to get the unemployed to relocate but this was a hard thing to do at the time—physically, economically, and psychologically. It was not until the 2nd World War when huge numbers of Blacks migrated from areas of poor economic prospects in the South to areas of opportunity in the North. Also, note the classic welfare dilemma expressed whereby if humanitarian assistance is provided, people will not be desperate enough to move to areas with better opportunities.
The spelling was the original the in legislation passed by the Virginia Assembly Gunsmiths were ery few at the time. The South Carolina Province had only as single gunsmith and he was not very skilled. Planting tobacco was a much more lucrative endeavour, so many of the few gunsmiths abandned that trade for tobacco farming.
The demographics to which he referred was the low fertility rate and the large proportion of elderly.
At the time there was great demand for skilled computer programmers and other technical skills. But there was insufficient demand for many of the skills that the American Workforce such as airplane mechanics, or TV Camera people for example.
