We Have No Bananas Today

[abbey1227]

Sept 25, 2022 5:55:44 GMT merh said:

Fit-Rest-973•5 hr. ago
I got stopped by the cops on the way to work last year. They made me leave my car there. I was delighted to have an unscheduled day off. I called, and they sent someone to pick me up

No_3-14159_for_you•4 hr. ago
I was once so exhausted from working two jobs, that I honestly believed I could drive while sleeping. The crazy thing is I made it about 20 miles snoozing, waking up and correcting before I woke up just in time to see the very tall curb I couldn't avoid.

The curb broke my cars axle and sent me careening into the left lane where i came to a sudden stop and was rear ended by a Mac Tools truck. When everything came to a stop, I sobbed because I realized I was okay and didn't even get to go to the hospital where I might get to sleep. The cop took me to my office (which was just 1/2 mile away at that point) at my request.

I had told the police officer exactly what happened, and the tool truck driver was grateful since generally it would have been assumed as his fault for rear ending me. So the cop took pity on my and gave me a ticket for not using a signal instead of the big one that would put my license in jeopardy. But, didn't have the money to pay the ticket and couldn't miss work to go to court.

Finally after they issued a bench warrant for my arrest I went to court in the hope that I could get through it before I had to be there. About 20 minutes before I had to be at work, the judge still hadn't called me, so I went out to the lobby and called my boss from a payphone to tell him I was going to be late and he fired me.

The crazy thing is that almost as soon as I got back in the court they called me. I totally broke down in front of the judge and was pretty hysterical even babbling about how I was afraid I was going to get in trouble because the judge had been so adamant about not wearing shorts in his courtroom and though I was dressed up for work /court my suit had shorts not a skirt. (yes, dress shorts were a thing at the time).

In the end, the ticket was dismissed for court costs and I got a different 2nd minimum wage job that was much closer to my house, so it all worked out... I guess.

So strange telling that story in the context of this subreddit, though. I liked working at that point in my life, but neither job was ever going to let me work full time and earn benefits

Meme: And people say their evil bosses never do anything for them?

The story at the end? Yet another example of how estrogen and tears work in your favor so often. 

[abbey1227]

Sept 25, 2022 5:56:24 GMT merh said:

mrlt10•8 hr. ago
Give a corporation $2,000 and they’ll spend $1,000 on lobbyists so that in the next budget they get $4,000 and spend the remaining $1,000 on dividends and stock buybacks. All while calling their employees lazy for wanting a raise.

THE_HENTAI_LORD•2 hr. ago
Then cut their wages

Yes, Budweiser, Jack Daniels and the Chinese factories cranking out massive amounts of Fentanyl appreciate the poor instantly recirculating that money again. 

[merh]

Sept 25, 2022 17:01:08 GMT abbey1227 said:

Sept 25, 2022 5:56:24 GMT merh said:

Yes, Budweiser, Jack Daniels and the Chinese factories cranking out massive amounts of Fentanyl appreciate the poor instantly recirculating that money again. 

Dude, bought 2 cans of store brand corn for 64 cents each-clearance price half-off the $1.28 shelf price.

They finally after what, 6 weeks, had A&W zero sugar so I bought 4 at $1.99 @ because they haven't had it in so damned long.

But keep on about fentanyl 

[abbey1227]

Sept 25, 2022 19:58:34 GMT merh said:

Sept 25, 2022 17:01:08 GMT abbey1227 said:

Yes, Budweiser, Jack Daniels and the Chinese factories cranking out massive amounts of Fentanyl appreciate the poor instantly recirculating that money again. 

Dude, bought 2 cans of store brand corn for 64 cents each-clearance price half-off the $1.28 shelf price.

They finally after what, 6 weeks, had A&W zero sugar so I bought 4 at $1.99 @ because they haven't had it in so damned long.

But keep on about fentanyl

Rare win for soda these days. Good job

But inflation in the grocery store is still outta control.

And fentanyl ODs are taking out tens of thousands. It's so strange how lives do matter, lives don't matter depending on the focus at that moment.

[merh]

Sept 26, 2022 11:49:16 GMT abbey1227 said:

Sept 25, 2022 19:58:34 GMT merh said:

Dude, bought 2 cans of store brand corn for 64 cents each-clearance price half-off the $1.28 shelf price.

They finally after what, 6 weeks, had A&W zero sugar so I bought 4 at $1.99 @ because they haven't had it in so damned long.

But keep on about fentanyl

Rare win for soda these days. Good job

But inflation in the grocery store is still outta control.

And fentanyl ODs are taking out tens of thousands. It's so strange how lives do matter, lives don't matter depending on the focus at that moment.

Inflation is something I have seen several times in my life.
It is something we live with.
I don't believe my folks blamed Nixon. 

Drug deaths?
LIke the line from War Games says 
The only way to win is to not play.

Yet there is an endless line of people willing to play.
With drugs
With alcohol.
With junk food.

I can't get worked up like you & blame the cartels or China or whoever because THE USERS ARE KILLING THEMSELVES. 

And you want drugs legal so I don't know why the hell you care that idiots are killing themselves

[abbey1227]

Sept 26, 2022 16:04:07 GMT merh said:

Inflation is something I have seen several times in my life.
It is something we live with.
I don't believe my folks blamed Nixon. 

Drug deaths?
LIke the line from War Games says 
The only way to win is to not play.

Yet there is an endless line of people willing to play.
With drugs
With alcohol.
With junk food.

I can't get worked up like you & blame the cartels or China or whoever because THE USERS ARE KILLING THEMSELVES. 

And you want drugs legal so I don't know why the hell you care that idiots are killing themselves

Have you seen it enough to know it's a problem? And who creates the majority of the problem?

You and I are of the same opinion on drug users........unfortunately we're vastly outnumbered BY the drug users. AND, even worse, they expect US to pay for their repeated care and salvation.

Excellent. I can finally see a subject where you blame the actual End User......as opposed to letting them get away with calling themselves 'victims'. 

Ask yourself WHY do I want drugs to be legal? It's the same reason for most of my political beliefs.

[merh]

STDs, drunk driving and quiet quitting: The pandemic's end is revealing an America that's acting out
Steve Mollman
Sun, September 25, 2022 at 8:05 AM
Scroll back up to restore default view.
Not only did Joe Biden say “the pandemic is over” a week ago, but Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair whose hawkishness is roiling markets, said shortly afterward that the economy is now moving towards a “new normal.”

If you grant that the pandemic is ending and that a new normal is here, what does that look like? The early signs are: not very good.

The pandemic forced many Americans into constrained ways of working and socializing. Interactions generally became more limited, outside of Zoom and occasional confrontations over mask policies. Americans now really are interacting more and holding back less, proving both Biden’s and Powell’s words true, and the results aren’t so pretty. From the remote-work wars to “crisis” levels of automotive violence and new STD infections to the well-documented sense of “burnout” inside and outside the workplace, the pandemic is pulling back to reveal an America rife with bad behavior, coming apart at the seams.

In the workplace, bosses and employees increasingly spar over what the “place” should be. CEOs, often from the boomer generation, tend to demand workers return to the office—if not straight back to pre-pandemic routines then at least clocking in a few days a week. The “hybrid” approach draws complaints, too, with Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in June calling it “the hell of half measures” and the “worst of three options.”

Many workers, led by the vocal Gen Z, demand fully remote work in response, countering that they're more productive at home without the office distractions and time-consuming commutes (and much of the working portion of Gen Z only knows a remote work world of work). Middle managers, for their part, resent getting hit by the crossfire.

Trying to be heard over the fray are public health officials worried about the possible emergence of new, dangerous COVID variants. “We have so little experience with coronaviruses and how they play out,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told Fortune this week. “We’re kind of in limbo land right now.”

Meanwhile headline-grabbing clashes between corporate bosses and union organizers, including at Amazon and Starbucks, enhance the sense of confrontation. In some cases, unions are helping to fight return-to-office mandates, and Americans increasingly view them in a favorable light.

This week, federal labor regulators accused Amazon of singling out union organizers for discipline, while the company called the allegations “completely without merit.” And an employee who helped lead a union campaign at Starbucks accused the coffee giant of forcing her out in retaliation. Workers United accused the company, which denied the charge, of applying scheduling and availability policies in a discriminatory manner against Jaz Brisack, leading to her separation from the company.

Americans are free to move about the country again: Be afraid
Outside of work, Americans are letting loose more. One upshot is an uptick in sexually transmitted diseases.

“People are feeling more liberated,” Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the Associated Press this week.

That followed a speech Monday by Leandro Mena of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in which he called expanding STD prevention in America “imperative,” with the rate of syphilis cases last year reaching its highest since 1991. A surge in monkeypox cases further highlighted the worsening problem of diseases spread mostly through sex.



The situation is “out of control,” David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told the AP.

Also out of control, the National Transportation Safety Board said this week, are roadway deaths in the U.S., which it said are at crisis levels despite a slight second-quarter drop. Nearly 43,000 people were killed last year, the greatest number in 16 years, as Americans returned to roads after pandemic stay-at-home orders.

The agency recommended Tuesday that all new vehicles in the U.S. be equipped with blood alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. A significant portion of roadway deaths are alcohol related—about 30% in 2020, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “We need to make sure that we’re doing all we can to save lives,” said NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy.

Accidents surged during the pandemic as less-congested roads spurred riskier driving. Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, told the Associated Press this week: “What it may be is that we’re seeing an easing of some of the issues that were caused by the pandemic—speeding, open roads, risky driving issues. Traffic is returning to normal (but) the fatality rate is still very, very high.”

A mental health “time bomb”
Meanwhile, after years of prioritizing workers’ well-being during the pandemic, some corporate leaders are suffering from “do-gooder fatigue,” as one executive headhunter described it to the Financial Times, adding, “The feeling is, we need to get back to business.”

But overlooking burnout and mental health among employees could backfire. While remote work became the norm during the recession, it also blurred the lines between home and work life, leading to burnout as employees juggled their workload with childcare and other challenges.

Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn’s chief people officer, warned earlier this year that organizations need to make mental health a top priority as employee burnout reaches “historic levels” and the “Great Reshuffle”—workers “reconsidering not just how they work but where and why”—transforms the workplace.

According to research from global recruiter Robert Walters, three major “living crises” will further drive the Great Reshuffle: the rising cost of living, a post-pandemic mental health “time bomb,” and the prioritizing of purpose over profession.

“The crucial act here is for employers to listen and play an active role in alleviating some of the personal issues in employees’ lives before they reach that irreversible crisis point,” said Chris Hickey, CEO of Robert Walters North America. “Companies need to be more in tune with the issues impacting their employees if they want to avoid the Great Reshuffle.”

Detecting those issues isn’t always easy. Lime Group, a health insurance firm, has warned about “pleasanteeism,” a phenomenon in which workers, when returning to the workplace, put on a brave face and present the very best versions of themselves. That, says the company, can undermine efforts to promote an open dialogue about mental health in a work setting.

“Businesses are sleepwalking into a mental health crisis,” the firm warned.

“The well-being of employees is central to the bottom line,” Arianna Huffington, CEO of consulting agency Thrive Global, said during Fortune’s Reimagine Work Summit earlier this year. Companies need to be more flexible with not just where, but also when employees work, she said: “We are now beginning to realize that the human operating system is different. Downtime for the human operating system is not a bug, it’s a feature.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

[merh]

Sept 26, 2022 16:24:37 GMT abbey1227 said:

Sept 26, 2022 16:04:07 GMT merh said:

Inflation is something I have seen several times in my life.
It is something we live with.
I don't believe my folks blamed Nixon. 

Drug deaths?
LIke the line from War Games says 
The only way to win is to not play.

Yet there is an endless line of people willing to play.
With drugs
With alcohol.
With junk food.

I can't get worked up like you & blame the cartels or China or whoever because THE USERS ARE KILLING THEMSELVES. 

And you want drugs legal so I don't know why the hell you care that idiots are killing themselves

Have you seen it enough to know it's a problem? And who creates the majority of the problem?

You and I are of the same opinion on drug users........unfortunately we're vastly outnumbered BY the drug users. AND, even worse, they expect US to pay for their repeated care and salvation.

Excellent. I can finally see a subject where you blame the actual End User......as opposed to letting them get away with calling themselves 'victims'. 

Ask yourself WHY do I want drugs to be legal? It's the same reason for most of my political beliefs.

So Friedman says lack of tax increases causes inflation?
LIke Trump’s tax cut without reducing spending?

The US causes inflation around the world?

What Are the Major Causes of Inflation?
Cost-push and demand-pull explained
BY KIMBERLY AMADEO Updated September 09, 2022
REVIEWED BY ERIKA RASURE

Inflation often feels like a mysterious economic force—one that affects everyone but seems difficult to predict. In reality, however, inflation is a response to a few key factors in the economy.

There are two main causes of inflation: demand-pull and cost-push. Both are responsible for a general rise in prices in an economy, but each works differently to put pressure on prices. Demand-pull conditions occur when demand from consumers pulls prices up, while cost-push occurs when supply costs force prices higher.

Some sources cite a third cause of inflation: expansion of the money supply. However, the Federal Reserve explains that the relationship of money supply to inflation has decreased over time, and is not a separate cause of its own. Let's look at the two main causes of inflation in depth to gain a deeper understanding of this important and complex economic issue.

Key Takeaways
There are two major types of inflation: demand-pull and cost-push.
Demand-pull inflation occurs when consumers have more money to spend or are otherwise encouraged to purchase products and services.
Cost-pull inflation happens when supply decreases and producers raise prices to offset their costs of production.
Demand-Pull Inflation
Demand-pull inflation is the most common cause of rising prices. It occurs when consumer demand for goods and services increases so much that it outstrips supply. Producers, meanwhile, can't make enough to meet demand and may not have time to build the manufacturing needed to boost supply. They also may not have enough skilled workers to make it, or the raw materials might be scarce

If sellers don't raise the price, they will sell out and eventually come to realize they now have the luxury of hiking up prices. If enough sellers do this, they create inflation.

There are several circumstances that create demand-pull inflation. For example, a growing economy affects inflation because when people get better jobs and become more confident, they spend more.

As prices rise, people start to expect inflation. That expectation motivates consumers to spend more now to avoid future price increases. That further boosts growth. For this reason, a little inflation is good. Most central banks recognize this. They set an inflation target to manage the public's expectation of inflation. The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has set a target of 2% as measured by the core inflation rate. The core rate removes the effect of seasonal food and energy cost increases.

Another circumstance is discretionary fiscal policy, which is when the government either spends more or taxes less. Putting extra money in people's pockets increases demand and spurs inflation.

Factors of Demand-Pull
There are a few key factors that can play roles in causing demand-pull inflation, as outlined below.

Marketing and New Technology
These factors create demand-pull inflation for specific products or asset classes. The asset inflation that results can drive widespread price increases. For example, Apple uses branding to create demand for its products, which allows it to command higher prices than the competition.

Asset inflation also helped spark the housing market crisis. New technology had become popular, leading to a rise in the sale of financial derivatives. These new products created a boom-and-bust cycle in the housing market in 2005. As demand for housing was spurred on by a sudden surge in these products, housing construction labor inflated quickly, setting up a crash in construction labor when the asset bubble burst and housing demand plummeted.

Expansionary Fiscal Policy
Expanding the money supply can also create demand-pull inflation. When the money supply expands, it lowers the value of the dollar. When the dollar declines relative to the value of foreign currencies, the prices of imports rise. That increases prices in the general economy.

The money supply can increase through expansionary fiscal policy, which is enacted by the federal government. These policies expand the money supply by pumping money into certain segments of the economy, creating demand-pull inflation in those areas.

The government stimulus programs enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic are good examples of expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. As inflation began to rise rapidly in 2021 and 2022, many economists agreed that these expansionary policies, which put a significant amount of cash in Americans' pockets, had played at least a partial role in driving up prices.

Occasionally, the government can create inflation simply by printing more cash. Venezuela did this between 2013 and 2019, creating hyperinflation, and its money effectively became worthless.

Expansionary Monetary Policy
The Federal Reserve controls expansionary monetary policy, which is another way to increase the money supply. The Fed expands the money flowing through the economy by creating more credit with the use of its many tools.

One tool is lowering the fed funds rate, which is what banks charge each other to borrow funds. This action also lowers all interest rates, which allows borrowers to take out bigger loans for the same cost. When loans become too cheap, too much money chases too few goods and creates inflation. Prices increase across the board, even though neither demand nor supply has changed.6

It's important to note that changes in fiscal or monetary policy don't automatically cause inflation. Ultimately, demand-pull inflation results from a complex interplay of many factors, and these policies are usually meant to interact with those factors to control inflation. This worked fairly well to keep inflation at bay during the Great Recession but did not work as well in response to COVID-19. This is likely due to the unique cost-push factors at play during the pandemic.

Cost-Push Inflation
The second cause is cost-push inflation. It only occurs when there is a supply shortage combined with enough demand to allow the producer to raise prices.

There are several contributors to inflation on the supply side. For example, global supply chain disruptions, like the one caused by the pandemic in 2020, can lead to cost-push inflation.

In November 2021, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which covers gas, food, and rent among other costs, soared 6.8% from the year prior, the highest increase in over 30 years, and continued to rise in 2022. This was due in large part to ongoing supply chain issues.

Monopolies can also contribute to cost-push inflation because a monopoly controls the entire supply of a good or service. That's why the Sherman Anti-Trust Act outlawed monopolies in 1890.

Natural disasters create temporary cost-push inflation by damaging production facilities. That's what happened to oil refineries after Hurricane Katrina. In general, the depletion of natural resources is a growing cause of cost-push inflation. For example, overfishing has reduced the supply of seafood and driven up prices.

Government regulation and taxation can also reduce supplies. For instance, in 2018, U.S. tariffs reduced supplies of imported steel. That created shortages in manufactured parts, with some producers raising prices. In 2008, subsidies to produce corn ethanol reduced the amount of corn available for food. This shortage created food price inflation

When a country lowers its currency's exchange rates, this can also create cost-push inflation in imports. That makes foreign goods more expensive compared to locally produced goods.

Some economists point to rising wages as another factor that can cause supply-push inflation. This theory states that as companies feel pressure to raise employee pay, they will usually respond by raising prices to absorb these costs. It's important to note that there isn't strong support for this as a major source of inflationary pressure.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is inflation?
Inflation happens when prices for goods and services that people buy on a regular basis go up. This lowers the value of the dollar and decreases your purchasing power.

What is the difference between inflation and deflation?
Inflation happens when prices go up, and deflation happens when prices go down. Although prices dropping may sound appealing, this can signal a recession when it persists for too long.

How high is inflation?
As of June 2022, inflation was at its highest level since November 1981. For the 12-month period from July 2021 through June 2022, prices rose by 9.1%.

[merh]

fortune.com/2022/09/23/billionaire-investor-bill-ackman-inflation-cure-russian-immigrants/

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has the cure to tame high inflation: A massive wave of Russian immigration
BY WILL DANIEL
September 23, 2022

[merh]

[abbey1227]

Oct 5, 2022 14:27:38 GMT merh said:

Just like most of politics, it's amazing to me how differently people see things. This massively spending Govt is a a sign of capitalism at play? And not socialism?

All that spying and privacy and disappearing middle class is because of capitalism? And not that huge govt and it's every day business of selling out the US?

Check out this chart and NOTE the approximate DATE when the line starts soaring UPWARD. Right around the late 1700s. Coincidence? I don't think so.

www.visualcapitalist.com/2000-years-economic-history-one-chart/

Caveats aside, there are many stories that materialize from this simple chart. They include the colossal impact of the Industrial Revolution on the West, as well as the momentum behind the re-emergence of Asia.

But there’s one other story that ties it all together: the exponential rate of human economic growth that occurred over the last century.

World GDP per capita over time

For thousands of years, economic progress was largely linear and linked to population growth. Without machines or technological innovations, one person could only produce so much with their time and resources.

More recently, innovations in technology and energy allowed the “hockey stick” effect to come into play.

It happened in Western Europe and North America first, and now it’s happening in other parts of the world. As this technological playing field evens, economies like China and India – traditionally some of the largest economies throughout history – are now making their big comeback.

[merh]

Last night, managers at an Amazon warehouse tried to force employees back to work in the aftermath of a fire. The building was flooded and filled with smoke. Hundreds of workers felt unsafe & demanded to be sent home. (via Amazon Labor Union)

[merh]

[merh]

[abbey1227]

Oct 5, 2022 21:12:15 GMT merh said:

Last night, managers at an Amazon warehouse tried to force employees back to work in the aftermath of a fire. The building was flooded and filled with smoke. Hundreds of workers felt unsafe & demanded to be sent home. (via Amazon Labor Union)

So they were unsuccessful?

All it takes is to say 'No'

[abbey1227]

Oct 5, 2022 21:17:46 GMT merh said:

Weird how so many who do NOT work receive so much of that redistributed wealth, huh?

[abbey1227]

Oct 5, 2022 21:32:49 GMT merh said:

What a time it musta been........after having destroyed pretty much the rest of the planet.

[merh]

Oct 6, 2022 1:36:31 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 5, 2022 21:12:15 GMT merh said:

So they were unsuccessful?

All it takes is to say 'No'

Why would you order people to work in those conditions?
Wouldny you just "See you tomorrow"?

[merh]

Oct 6, 2022 1:37:31 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 5, 2022 21:17:46 GMT merh said:

Weird how so many who do NOT work receive so much of that redistributed wealth, huh?

How much elbowgrease did those 10 men put in?

Money?
That they maybe inherited?

[merh]

Oct 6, 2022 1:38:35 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 5, 2022 21:32:49 GMT merh said:

What a time it musta been........after having destroyed pretty much the rest of the planet.

Just more evidence the parties shifted