Trevor Noah: ‘Unemployment checks are not subsidizing laziness’ | Late-night TV roundup

Trevor Noah

On Tuesday’s Daily Show, Trevor Noah discussed the difficulties restaurants across the country are facing to recruit enough workers when business returns to pre-pandemic pace. The lack of applications is largely due to workers finding better wages, hours and benefits in other occupations.

But that hasn’t stopped numerous commentators on Fox News and elsewhere from blaming the lack of applicants to laziness and government benefits. To quote former Bush employee Karl Rove on Fox New Sunday and paraphrase the whole mindset: “Why work when you get so much money and stay at home and Netflick?”

It turns out that when restaurants say, “Nobody wants to work” they are actually saying, “Nobody wants to work for the starvation wages we are willing to pay them.”

Here’s why workers are demanding more than enough to get around. pic.twitter.com/d2xBvQfDna

– The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 19, 2021

“I understand where these experts come from,” hesitated Noah. “If the average person could have their jobs, phew, they’d be crazy not to take them. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sit in a chair for 10 minutes a day complaining that other people don’t want to work? It’s a great gig.

“These Republicans might be right about one thing,” Noah added. “Generous unemployment benefits could really be a reason people are not going back to their old jobs. But that doesn’t mean they’re just sitting around ‘Netflicking’ – first, it’s been over a year. You have already finished Netflix. “

Second, many workers have used unemployment benefits as an infrequent respite to look for better-paying jobs with more manageable hours and childcare options in other industries such as warehousing, shipping, or medical marijuana production. “These unemployment controls don’t subsidize laziness,” Noah said. “They give workers the rare opportunity to look for a job that is more than just a way to survive until their next paycheck.”

The benefits have also had a critical impact on restaurant chains that finally need to change below par pay policies in order to retain workers. The Texan chain Whataburger, for example, has created 50,000 jobs with emergency funds and increased matchings by 401,000. Taco Bell began offering paid vacations to families, and Chipotle raised wages with additional mental health benefits.

The policy changes show, Noah concluded, that “when they said” no one wants to work, “they actually meant” no one wants to work for the starvation wages we were willing to pay them “”.

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert recorded the Late Show from his pandemic-standard closet at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater – “but that closet itself is in a larger area that I like to call reality,” he added, “a place our Republicans call Brothers and sisters have chosen not to live anymore, especially when it comes to the 2020 election, their lie that it was stolen and the inevitable aftermath of the January 6th uprising in the Capitol. “

Colbert focused on leading “fugitive from reality” Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, who this week dismissed the House bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack after calling for full GOP representation and had received.

Make no mistake, McCarthy is rejecting this commission because he knows what you will find: the Capitol uprising was committed by his party’s supporters at the behest of a president he supported, based on an election lie spread by McCarthy himself . ” Said Colbert. “It’s the same reason I spoke out against my wife’s bipartisan commission over who ate the last slice of pizza.”

McCarthy’s refusal to call the riot what it was doesn’t match his response on Jan. 6 when he reportedly got into a screaming match with Trump on the phone. “Even so, McCarthy is still defending him. Forget the insurrection; We need a non-partisan commission to find Kevin’s balls, ”joked Colbert. “Of course, McCarthy can’t just make an official statement that says, ‘I <3 the coup'. Instead, he came up with a series of false excuses as to why his opposition was Nancy Pelosi's fault, ”and accused the spokesman of playing“ political games ”.

“Yes, political games,” Colbert mused. “Pelosi is playing chess while the GOP is playing a dangerous seaman game!”

Jimmy Kimmel

And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel addressed a big Hollywood rumor: Amazon was in talks to buy the MGM film studio. The sale “shouldn’t come as a surprise – Amazon is in talks about buying anything,” said Kimmel. “It won’t be long before you say, ‘Oh, what happened to my cousin Tim? ‘”Oh, Amazon bought it.”

“If this deal goes through, Jeff Bezos will own James Bond,” he added. “Why didn’t any of the other bad guys think of owning James Bond?”

The deal is said to be valued at $ 9 billion, “which adds up to … $ 9 billion after tax for Jeff Bezos,” Kimmel quipped. “What Amazon is going to do is have them slide down a tree, wrap themselves tightly around MGM, and then squeeze. And then in phase two they will stretch their jaws very far and swallow [MGM] whole.”