EDITOR:

Judging by the half page article from “The Conversation”, whoever that is, it is obvious you have an anti-Republican bias. Big time! The article was saying that the additional benefits for unemployed people was still needed. By cutting those benefits, people will suffer. The employment situation, or more like, the lack of employees, was not connected to the additional benefits. I know of one couple that got nearly $20,000 in direct cash last year. That is nearly $10 an hour, plus that doesn’t include the food benefits and the additional $300 in child tax credits every month. Why would they work a real job? They can do odd jobs under the table and not commit to anything. The article went on to chastise the GOP for “allowing” the benefits to expire. At last count, there is a Democrat president, House, and Senate. If they wanted the benefits to continue, they could have done it.

As far as people staying home instead of working; what else could account for the lack of employees? Before the pandemic, we had 24 hour stores, restaurants stayed open seven days a week. Drifters never closed at 3 p.m., Taco Bell never ran out of food. KFC ran out of chicken. Why? Because the distributors can’t find anyone to work. Nobody to work the warehouses and drive the trucks. This is nationwide. The car companies, phone companies, the computer companies and everything else that uses microchips, can’t get them. You would think that companies could just re-hire those that were employees two years ago. I run a company. Half of our business deals with the people who are staying home collecting benefits. In a couple of weeks, maybe some of them will start to look for work.

Tom Grant

Escanaba