Economics eductor. Follow me @Wootenomics
Mateo has come down with an ear infection and everyone in the store has a way of curing it. While some recommendations are more appropriate than others, each believes that their method will cause Mateo’s ear infection to be cured. The problem? They’re mixing up correlation with causation. Each of them believe their method will cause the ear infection to diminish, but they may only be experiencing a correlation.
Structural unemployment occurs when the skills and trades are no longer in demand from the general population rather than market fluctuations. Adam’s girlfriend, Amy, quickly points out that his travel agency failed because people use the internet to book travel and no long need travel agents.
After a recent uptick in the amount of union activity in the store, the corporate office has decided to institute Employee Appreciation Day. Jonah is quick to point out that this particular day always seems to occur whenever they are trying to get people to sign union card. He advocates for the union instead and mentions that joining a union may provide more long-term benefits, but Amy and Dina work to convince the employees that a union is unnecessary.
It’s election day and Cloud 9 has placed pamphlets in the break room encouraging employees to vote for anti-union candidates. Cloud 9 knows that unionization could result in much higher labor costs, so they spend that money to encourage workers to not form a union. This form of managerial opposition is part of the explanation for the decline in unionization rates in the United States.
Teaching with Superstore