Surely there is a more scientific term and more detailed diagnosis than simply “I’m full of my helmet!” » or « Cursed winter to m…! “, to which is added every day a new litany of insults towards the pandemic.
We’ve always heard it, but this year the complaint is amplified by truckers’ horns. What does not change reality: this cry from the heart has the innate defect of being purely irrational.
Take the Ambassador Bridge blockade between Windsor and Detroit: This so-called operation in support of “vaccine-free freedom fighters” hurts drivers who want to deliver their goods, get paid, and get home. It delays, even paralyzes the production of the automobile industry, and the consequences, it is other workers who must assume them.
Forced vaccination? The Canadian Trucking Alliance repeats that 85% to 90% of the 120,000 truckers working on cross-border routes are already vaccinated. And the few thousand who are not, anyway, could not enter the United States since the same obligation is in force.
The triumph of inconsistency
U.S. inflation figures, released at the end of the week, felt like another slap in the face for many: an unprecedented 7.5% year-on-year rise in prices in forty years. Everyone has their story of products and foodstuffs that have become more expensive.
People rage and lament, which Gallup documented when asking Americans if they thought the country was on the right track: 82% say no! However, everything is far from going so badly. After two years of the pandemic, the US economy has recovered better than that of most other developed countries.
At 5.7% in 2021, the United States has not experienced such economic growth since 1984. As for unemployment, at 4% in January, the country continues to flirt with full employment. In some states, where the mood is apparently grim and discontent with the Biden administration is at an all-time high, the unemployment rate is less than 2%.
The colors of the essential
You have to get used to the idea, many people are not reacting rationally at the moment to the basic information or the objective data that is transmitted to them.
A great culprit, the damned pandemic! In a CNN poll released last Thursday, three-quarters of Americans describe themselves as exhausted, 60% admit to being angry and 58% worried. Not strong, morale.
I met, earlier this week, a man who has an idea to tear himself away from this lethargy. Mark Chatoff, the CEO of one of the largest flower markets in Los Angeles, described to me the ups and downs of his industry for two years, until the city’s mayor and the governor of California decreed that flowers are an essential service.
Courtesy picture
Meeting with Mark Chatoff, the CEO of one of the largest flower markets in Los Angeles.
Surprised by my skepticism, he lectured me on the emotional value of colors and smells. “Think about personal contact; you choose something beautiful and give it to someone. It feels good! Irrational for sure, but oh so gratifying!
THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN
Certainly…
- Inflation rate at 7.5% (highest since 1982)
Corn…
- GDP growth at 5.7% (highest since 1984)
Unemployment rate at 4% with several states doing much better:
- Nebraska 1.7%
- Utah 1.9%
- Oklahoma 2.3%
- Vermont 2.5%
- New Hampshire 2.6%
Salary increase over one year at 5%
(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, January-February 2022)
And yet…
- 58% of Americans disapprove of President Biden’s work.
- 57% consider that the first year of his presidency was a failure.
(Source: CNN / SSRS, January-February 2022)