it's extremely possible to do this in a system where there's never been a larger disparity between the income of hourly workers and the income of owners/managers. they'll cry poverty if they can't buy a third vacation home while skilled workers are struggling to find a job that won't break their bodies and will still let them pay rent. add that into the refusal to invest in training or entry-level jobs for newer/younger workers and you've got a labor force that's retiring/dying out and no new takers because people have bills to pay and don't want to be treated like they're disposable. i'm a skilled tradesman and i deal with this as my day to day reality. places are desperate for skilled workers but won't pay us enough to live on, they'll brag about record profits but deny us raises because of "the economy", they overwork what small labor force they do have so we're all even more overextended and prone to injury while they refuse to hire or train up new people, and that penny wise dollar foolish attitude is gonna end up hurting them even more than it hurts us when that unsustainable cycle finally catches up to them.