There are so many angles to debate with Joe Biden’s play to force every American company with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccines among its employees, but for the moment, think about how crazy it is economically.  The United States is in the position of having more jobs than people are willing to fill, at the moment, and here goes the occupant of the White House commanding the employers of more than half of the payroll of the workforce to pressure or lock out 46% of the population.  He’s announced this, by the way, the same month inflation at the wholesale record reaches its highest recorded year-over-year level.

The move may not be entirely a function of ideological stupidity.  As with every policy, some people do benefit.  Some portion of the motivation is likely, therefore, to be cynical. Note a contrast in this Reuters story; on one hand:

Big names in Corporate America including Amazon.com Inc cheered U.S. President Joe Biden as he mandated employees either get vaccinated or be tested regularly, but some mid-sized companies worried that the plan would be tough to carry out and unpopular with a slice of their workers.

But on the other hand:

… some mid-sized companies worried about losing employees at a time when they are trying to grow business.

Stephen Bullock, chief executive of Power Curbers Companies in Salisbury, North Carolina, said he was still reeling from the implications.

“We have encouraged, cajoled, and educated our staff,” he said, but only 40 percent of his workforce have received the shot. “We have a segment of our workforce that will not get the vaccine under any circumstance.”

This Big Government move, in other words, is a gift to oligarchs at the expense of their competition.

But the divisiveness is worse than that.  The Biden administration obviously believes unvaccinated Americans are more likely to be supporters of its political opposition, and it is working to make them unemployable.  Biden is creating two classes in such a way as to make one suffer.

I’ve been mystified at the refusal of vaccine-pushing government officials to make allowances for natural immunity, and this observation may provide a partial explanation.  Most people who catch COVID-19 have a relatively easy time of it, and almost all recover.  If natural immunity is counted alongside vaccination, then the employees in Stephen Bullock’s company who “will not get the vaccine under any circumstances” would only be locked out until they could show they had antibodies (which many probably already do).

Only by commanding that they follow a government mandate can Biden and his allies ensure that their social exclusion will be permanent.