It is not my intention to start a political discussion, so please do not take it there.  I am merely stating some observations I've made from my local area (Dallas/Fort Worth) and admitting my befuddlement over it all.  

We have local restaurants filled with empty tables, and yet customers will have to wait to be served due to lack of wait staff.  

I placed an Amazon order last weekend that has still not even shipped.  For years now Amazon would routinely get my orders to me the very same day.  

There is US Postal mail bin in my neighborhood that I've been using for years.  Every time I drop in an envelope I'll hear the "thud" of it hitting the bottom of the container since it gets emptied daily.  This week I went there on Monday, dropped an envelope and didn't hear the thud (i.e. the container was pretty full). I went by again Friday and could see the pile of mail inside the slit, so I know my Monday shipment was still sitting in the box Friday.  This has never happened in over 20 years of me living in this city.  I spent about 15 minutes trying to get hold of the local PO but no one ever picked up the phone.  

We have a local dollar store in the neighborhood that really comes in handy when we need a few small items.  They used to be open morning till evening.  For the last two weeks or so I've been going by there only to see a hand-written sign in the window stating that they closed at 2PM (due to lack of staff no doubt).  

I know that COVID happened, and that was supposed to magically explain anything and everything that went wrong in the world.  But all this stuff doesn't add up and I can't make sense of it.  Do people not need a job anymore?  Do students not want to wait tables for extra money?  Can the Postal Service not get people to handle the mail?  (This one in particular used to be a career-type job.  My wife's grandfather raised a family on a mail carrier's salary back in the 50s.)

Everywhere around here there are NOW HIRING or HELP WANTED signs in shop windows.  

Are things like this happening in your area?  

I'm very selective where I spend my money these days. Amazon lulled the public into trusting them, then they removed their human customer service, allowed countless scammers to sell refurbished and fake merchandise in their marketplace, and the "reviews" are worthless as the first thing you learn when becoming an Amazon seller is to seed your product with paid reviews. Not to mention, their pricing is rarely the best anymore. But, people have learned to just fill that Amazon cart without giving it a second thought. My friends and family are all this way.

Quote from: B0WIE on May 21, 2022, 09:21:25 AM
I'm very selective where I spend my money these days. Amazon lulled the public into trusting them, then they removed their human customer service, allowed countless scammers to sell refurbished and fake merchandise in their marketplace, and the "reviews" are worthless as the first thing you learn when becoming an Amazon seller is to seed your product with paid reviews. Not to mention, their pricing is rarely the best anymore. But, people have learned to just fill that Amazon cart without giving it a second thought. My friends and family are all this way.

I, too, am selective where I spend these days.  I do as much locally as I can, but it isn't possible for all things.  Most of my Amazon purchases are things that I would have needed to go to Walmart for anyway, which amounts to the same thing: feeding the big box machine.  When we dine out, it's usually a small, locally-owned restaurant as well. 

I used to sell quite a bit on Amazon and they've made that very hard for the individual.  A couple of customers complaining (legit or not) can pretty much get you booted off, no questions asked and also no means of defending yourself or telling your side of the story. 

No matter the issue here in Nova Scotia - blame Covid is the go-to!

It seems the working-from-home (WFH) epidemic has its costs and nobody seems to care - at least in my neck of the woods where our services industries IMO were always far inferior to what we would experience in the States.

I was last in the States in Nov. - Georgia and Carolinas - and still experienced great service. I surely hope the USA doesn't lose this too!

It appears many individuals are currently able to live comfortably enough to avoid work.  I'm  not sure that is sustainable, and increasing inflation may bring that a lifestyle to a close for many.

It's a very rare situation that I need same day or next day delivery from amazon. That is what I thought to be unsustainable. Of course I am not a member of the instant gratification generation.
I certainly have witnessed the over-stuffed mail boxes. Even right there at the post office. And they've had HELP WANTED signs up there for really quite a long time. Mail carriers around here earn about $41,000/year. Not too bad but you won't be stepping up to that McMansion on a salary like that, and contractors aren't building any starter homes around me.
From what I've been reading,  it's not so much a case of folks being able to live comfortably enough to avoid work. So many baby boomers have recently and are retiring now. And the restaurant industry has been impacted  mostly by their employees quitting to take better paying jobs. As was pointed out- all businesses seem to be hiring these days.

I do think inflation has topped out now.
Home mortgage rates were pegged at 3% as recently as last December 2021. Today, just 5 months later, the 30 year fixed rate is 5.25%. The result is a 43% increase in the cost of servicing that mortgage, year on year.
Walmart and Target stock price tumbled hard this week due to decline in sales and their latest projections. Amazon stock is way off November's high. The WFH buying spree to trick out the home office is definitely over now. So the Fed's increase in interest rates seems to be having the desired effect, not without the anticipated pain. And Fed Chair Powell has strongly hinted that another .5 increase is coming in the next month or so.
These are difficult times. But we've weathered difficult times in the past.

This too shall pass.

Quote from: Queequeg on May 21, 2022, 10:50:08 AM
It's a very rare situation that I need same day or next day delivery from amazon. That is what I thought to be unsustainable. Of course I am not a member of the instant gratification generation.
I certainly have witnessed the over-stuffed mail boxes. Even right there at the post office. And they've had HELP WANTED signs up there for really quite a long time. Mail carriers around here earn about $41,000/year. Not too bad but you won't be stepping up to that McMansion on a salary like that, and contractors aren't building any starter homes around me.
From what I've been reading,  it's not so much a case of folks being able to live comfortably enough to avoid work. So many baby boomers have recently and are retiring now. And the restaurant industry has been impacted  mostly by their employees quitting to take better paying jobs. As was pointed out- all businesses seem to be hiring these days.

I do think inflation has topped out now.
Home mortgage rates were pegged at 3% as recently as last December 2021. Today, just 5 months later, the 30 year fixed rate is 5.25%. The result is a 43% increase in the cost of servicing that mortgage, year on year.
Walmart and Target stock price tumbled hard this week due to decline in sales and their latest projections. Amazon stock is way off November's high. The WFH buying spree to trick out the home office is definitely over now. So the Fed's increase in interest rates seems to be having the desired effect, not without the anticipated pain. And Fed Chair Powell has strongly hinted that another .5 increase is coming in the next month or so.
These are difficult times. But we've weathered difficult times in the past.

This too shall pass.

Great input here, and you've given me much to think about.  However, it is hard for me to understand how boomers have any effect on wait staff and lower-end jobs?  Boomers, as a demographic, haven't done these jobs in several decades.  It really just seems like a lot of younger people don't need or want to work for whatever reason.  I am Gen X and could hardly wait to get out and make my own way, because that meant having my own money and independence.  I do think that the younger generations generally have lower expectations than we had.  We wanted a good job with benefits, a house and family someday, etc, etc.  I remain befuddled. 

Quote from: Silence Dogood on May 21, 2022, 11:31:08 AM
Great input here, and you've given me much to think about.  However, it is hard for me to understand how boomers have any effect on wait staff and lower-end jobs?  Boomers, as a demographic, haven't done these jobs in several decades.  It really just seems like a lot of younger people don't need or want to work for whatever reason.  I am Gen X and could hardly wait to get out and make my own way, because that meant having my own money and independence.  I do think that the younger generations generally have lower expectations than we had.  We wanted a good job with benefits, a house and family someday, etc, etc.  I remain befuddled. 

Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that restaurant servers were retiring in large numbers.

But boomers are indeed retiring and the 'knock on' effect means those jobs become open and filled by Gen Xers and in turn, so on down the line.

Waiting tables is a difficult job, a (somewhat) dirty job, on your feet all day, dealing with the public who are not always considerate (to put it mildly) with few benefits and certainly not at the upper end of the pay scale. Is it any wonder that many people leave this line of work at their earliest opportunity? And today there are many opportunities.

I completely understand the frustration.  I just want to say that I follow this forum to obsess about guitars and music. It's one way I try to escape the harsh realities of today.  :smile:   Maybe writing a song about restaurant service is a better way to vent?  :humour:

Maybe I don't know all the facts, but 3-4 years ago entry level jobs were easy to fill with young people. Not so now. I work in the fast food industry in Southern Illinois, and we struggle to find employees. People have been retiring all along, but that hasn't affected businesses to this degree. The birth rate in the USA has been below replacement for years though. Is it catching up on our society?

Get used to it. The powers that be, everywhere, have screwed up ... everything ... for your own good and the sake of the children, ya know.  

It's pretty tough to address most of those issues without bringing politics into the conversation.  It looks like even with the original "don't go there", and the forum rule #6 ( :donut :donut :donut  :coffee :donut2 :donut2 :coffee), a few folks already have, or at least skirted that area.

Frustrating indeed at times. Hopefully it will correct itself.

Ed

I went by my usual Mail Drop bin yesterday and it is still full.  It's not been picked up in a week.  I've got several eBay orders just sitting in there that should have been at their destinations by now. Insane. 

Quote from: eded on May 22, 2022, 11:40:14 AM
It's pretty tough to address most of those issues without bringing politics into the conversation.  It looks like even with the original "don't go there", and the forum rule #6 ( :donut :donut :donut  :coffee :donut2 :donut2 :coffee), a few folks already have, or at least skirted that area.

Frustrating indeed at times. Hopefully it will correct itself.

Ed

Nothing to do with politics, at least, not in the normal sense. Politicians of every stripe and flavor are all behaving the same. Regardless of what you call it, it's about power. Who's got it and who doesn't. What they're willing to do to keep it or get it. Period.  

The slow service with my local PO seems to have gotten better, and my Amazon orders are showing up in a more timely manner again.  I'm still seeing help wanted signs everywhere, and the restaurant industry seems to be in trouble. 

Now inflation is getting insane, though.  A dollar isn't stretching nearly as far as it did a short time ago.  Our grocery bill has gotten insanely high, as have our water and power bills.  I'm working extra hours not to put money in the bank, but to pay the reg bills.  No vacationing for us this year either just because of the price of things. 

Quote from: Silence Dogood on July 24, 2022, 09:01:00 AM
The slow service with my local PO seems to have gotten better, and my Amazon orders are showing up in a more timely manner again.  I'm still seeing help wanted signs everywhere, and the restaurant industry seems to be in trouble. 

Now inflation is getting insane, though.  A dollar isn't stretching nearly as far as it did a short time ago.  Our grocery bill has gotten insanely high, as have our water and power bills.  I'm working extra hours not to put money in the bank, but to pay the reg bills.  No vacationing for us this year either just because of the price of things. 

I'm old enough to recall the late 1970s when the inflation rate was much higher than it is today. Inflation rate (and mortgage rates, too) rose to 13%+ range.
Odds are (IMHO) the next BLS report will show something of a downturn in inflation.
There it is in writing so you can prove to me just how wrong I was on 07/24/2022.
And I promise to be contrite.

Sometimes I enjoy going back to old threads and rereading them after a couple years.  I remembered this discussion and wanted to chime back in with some observations. 

The PO situation has pretty much gotten back to normal around here.  I've not seen an over-stuffed postal bin for a long time, and our mail gets delivered faithfully: though sometimes we get the neighbors' mail (vice versa), and there is a much bigger turnover in the deliver staff than in yesteryear.  I also do lots of eBay business via USPS and overall they do a great job. 

Restaurant service, etc, seems to have leveled out as well: but service overall doesn't seem to be what it once was.  Younger people expect a tip for pretty much just showing up.  I went to a smoothie place not long ago in Dallas and got a frown from the girl when I refused the tip section on the screen.  I mean, do you really expect a tip for making a smoothie at a smoothie bar?  That's like tipping someone at McDonald's for bagging up your burger?  Makes no sense to me.   

Mostly I have noticed since Covid a lowering of standards everywhere and in general. I see places of business not keeping up with the grounds and landscaping.  I see scattered trash outside businesses, and even some homes in middle-class neighborhoods.  I also regularly see people out and about shopping and going about daily business, etc, wearing bed clothes. This is very strange and seems to be an indicator of society as a whole lowering.  How we dress matters and is a reflection on our attitude toward other things.  I've even noticed our CEO giving official addresses in a t-shirt and jeans.  When I hired on back in the day, all the brass wore suits (even on Fridays).   

But the thing hardest for me to get used to is the ubiquitous pot-smoking.  Almost daily I smell pot in traffic (nice to know someone on the road near me is high while driving), and I smell it on glassy-eyed people in stores, etc. Many times at night while I'm taking my trash to the curb, the air of my old neighborhood is filled with the scent of pot (this never happened when I first moved into my home 25 years ago).

Not long ago I was coming out of a local market and pot smoke came pouring out of a car as both passenger and driver got out (both morbidly obese and parked in the handicapped zone). Then I noticed them take two babies out of the back seat. 
:?

But the best was a fellow I saw in a Walmart sometime last year.  He was about 6' 8" (again morbidly obese and also in bed clothes) and was smoking pot as he shopped.  No one said anything or called the police.   

To be clear, I live in the suburbs and can only imagine what it must be like in the major cities.  Just before Covid hit I took my family to Boston.  While walking through Boston Commons I saw people openly selling drugs, smoking pot, etc.  I asked one of the tour guide girls about it and she looked at me like I was from Mars.  It's just the norm there and has been for years.  I see the same things when I have to go to Dallas sometimes. 

Brave new world, indeed!
 :wave

(And where is ducktrapper when you need him?)

Reminds me of a quote I once read: what we gain in technology, we lose in humanity.

It is dismaying to see society lowering its standards on everything. It feels like we are reverting to a primal state based on urges and wants. No one wants to act/dress/behave as a lady or gentleman anymore. However, it's never been easier to stand out from the crowd as an upright citizen of the world. Take the moral high ground, people will be inspired and impressed!

Quote from: StringPicker6 on October 16, 2024, 02:12:01 PMHowever, it's never been easier to stand out from the crowd as an upright citizen of the world. Take the moral high ground, people will be inspired and impressed!

This is absolutely true.  I always tell my kids that just showing up at work on time, everyday, and simply doing the job, will set them apart from the crowd.  The bar has never been lower. 

Quote from: Silence Dogood on October 16, 2024, 10:44:50 AMSometimes I enjoy going back to old threads and rereading them after a couple years.  I remembered this discussion and wanted to chime back in with some observations. 

The PO situation has pretty much gotten back to normal around here.  I've not seen an over-stuffed postal bin for a long time, and our mail gets delivered faithfully: though sometimes we get the neighbors' mail (vice versa), and there is a much bigger turnover in the deliver staff than in yesteryear.  I also do lots of eBay business via USPS and overall they do a great job. 

Restaurant service, etc, seems to have leveled out as well: but service overall doesn't seem to be what it once was.  Younger people expect a tip for pretty much just showing up.  I went to a smoothie place not long ago in Dallas and got a frown from the girl when I refused the tip section on the screen.  I mean, do you really expect a tip for making a smoothie at a smoothie bar?  That's like tipping someone at McDonald's for bagging up your burger?  Makes no sense to me.   

Mostly I have noticed since Covid a lowering of standards everywhere and in general. I see places of business not keeping up with the grounds and landscaping.  I see scattered trash outside businesses, and even some homes in middle-class neighborhoods.  I also regularly see people out and about shopping and going about daily business, etc, wearing bed clothes. This is very strange and seems to be an indicator of society as a whole lowering.  How we dress matters and is a reflection on our attitude toward other things.  I've even noticed our CEO giving official addresses in a t-shirt and jeans.  When I hired on back in the day, all the brass wore suits (even on Fridays).   

But the thing hardest for me to get used to is the ubiquitous pot-smoking.  Almost daily I smell pot in traffic (nice to know someone on the road near me is high while driving), and I smell it on glassy-eyed people in stores, etc. Many times at night while I'm taking my trash to the curb, the air of my old neighborhood is filled with the scent of pot (this never happened when I first moved into my home 25 years ago).

Not long ago I was coming out of a local market and pot smoke came pouring out of a car as both passenger and driver got out (both morbidly obese and parked in the handicapped zone). Then I noticed them take two babies out of the back seat. 
:?

But the best was a fellow I saw in a Walmart sometime last year.  He was about 6' 8" (again morbidly obese and also in bed clothes) and was smoking pot as he shopped.  No one said anything or called the police.   

To be clear, I live in the suburbs and can only imagine what it must be like in the major cities.  Just before Covid hit I took my family to Boston.  While walking through Boston Commons I saw people openly selling drugs, smoking pot, etc.  I asked one of the tour guide girls about it and she looked at me like I was from Mars.  It's just the norm there and has been for years.  I see the same things when I have to go to Dallas sometimes. 

Brave new world, indeed!
 :wave

(And where is ducktrapper when you need him?)

Economic and cultural decline of the US?  History shows that every "empire" lasts 200-250 years and we're long overdue.  Globalization has lowered our standard of living and I doubt if any politician can change things.  The Asian Tiger is hungry while we ponder what bathroom to use.   It was good while it lasted.

I did raise an eyebrow seeing this post as I'd forgotten we had a "public square" type subforum and I had to laugh seeing it was a 2 year post-Covid thread. As folks are chiming in I'll add my own 4¢ (inflation . . .)

Covid was such a dramatic event in the lives of every single person on the planet that it's effects are still reverberating and will for a while. So eager to prevent the economy from seizing, our Federal debt skyrocketed past the point where even the supposed fiscal conservative party have no practical ideas on how to even start addressing. We've gotten away with it this long because the US dollar is the world's reserve currency, there is no shortage of demand for US debt.

Prior to 2020, corporate CEO's were specializing in off-shoring manufacturing and "just in time" inventory management, and boy did that not work out well due to supply line seizures. Many of the issues we have now spring from the Covid era, inflation, heightened political drama, work from home, loss of confidence in medical science, a flood of questionable sources of "news" etc.

For an event dramatic enough to have stopped all economic commerce for weeks Covid bears little discussion now, - possibly because what's there to say? And who would be a position to say it since all our former respected institutions are no longer. This would be the opportunity for a wise charismatic political leader to rise from the ashes to unify us and get us all on the same page to work together to fix what's broken. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

On raising an eyebrow, etc...  It is never my intent to stir the pot or try and get political, etc. 

As far as someone "uniting people" goes,  I don't believe that's possible in this cultural climate at this point.  There are too many trigger issues that make people stop (or start) listening anytime they are broached.  The media has done such a truly wonderful job (on both sides) overly sensitizing people that I'm not sure the average person would even want to "unite." We are at the place now where people with another viewpoint aren't just different, they are seen as evil.

I'll give you a personal story to show how nuts all this can get.  My wife and I were at a local microbrew a while back, just sitting there minding our own with some friends.  My wife had on a t-shirt with the names of some podcast hosts on it, but it was made to look like one of those candidate shirts.  A young women down from us finally chimed in and said, "I just have to know what's on your t-shirt..."  My wife stretched out the front and showed her.  The woman then said, "Oh, ok!  I thought it said (you can guess whose name she said), and if it did I was going to move to another table..."  So if my wife had this fellow's name on her shirt, it was going to bother this woman to the point of moving to another table (this place has large picnic tables).  That's where we are at.  Good luck "uniting" people like that. 
 :wave   

As long as people choose to get their news from social media, and as long as Russia, China and Iran keep up their psychological operations in social media, I don't things can improve much. We need Walter Cronkite back!

Quote from: StringPicker6 on October 19, 2024, 06:29:04 PMAs long as people choose to get their news from social media,

Just curious.... where do you choose to get your news? Please let us know, so we can avail ourselves from those sources as well as all the others that are available.
Mike

One place I've found that seems to have the most unbiased news reporting is www.reuters.com

British, I believe, and good world news coverage without a political party slant.

Quote from: StringPicker6 on October 19, 2024, 10:37:42 PMOne place I've found that seems to have the most unbiased news reporting is www.reuters.com

British, I believe, and good world news coverage without a political party slant.

I'll offer the following link for two charts that rate media bias of many large news outlets

https://www.mediabiasmap.com

I kinda favor the "Ad Fontes" chart on the left that shows AP and Reuters dead center as well as WSJ slightly right. "Allsides" has the WSJ news dead center which I'd call arguable. Certainly the WSJ editorial page isn't dead center but I can't help but suspect the editors have a conservative bias concerning news.

I often ponder if the lack of a shared narrative of how the society works is worse now than it ever has been, but then we had a civil war a century ago where no one was on the same page then either.

Quote from: Silence Dogood on October 19, 2024, 09:56:35 AMOn raising an eyebrow, etc...  It is never my intent to stir the pot or try and get political, etc.

LOL (as the kids say) you write that as if it were a bad thing. Flip that up side down and perhaps it's that no one's views being challenged might be the bad thing. I can't help but think that if the most vigorous supporters of either candidate were fact-checked on why they support their candidate they would get quite a few "facts" wrong.

But your second point got me thinking about an online article I came across that made the argument that the post WW2 era of politicians were the most sober and conscientious in recent history as many had observed or experienced the trauma of a World War with so many deaths at the hands of lunatic foreign leaders. There was a greater level of responsibility and mutual respect in Congress then that we'll never have again as those politicians have aged out.

"The news" has been mentioned. 

I realize I'm likely in the minority, but I don't read/watch/listen to/consume "the news" anymore and haven't in well over a decade.  No matter what happens, I still end up finding out (even if I didn't want to) and it turns out I haven't missed a thing. 

I have made some observations about this and concluded that I still ended up knowing "what's going on" but without the anxiety/angst/frustration that often accompanied reading the news.  So much of the news is about what might/could/very well may happen vs. what actually has happened.  The might/could stuff is the part that stresses people out (and what gets them hooked and keeps them coming back).

Example: "the pandemic" breaks out and it's not enough to report about the thing itself, because that's not really want people wanted to know.  They wanted to know what might/could/will likely happen.  So then the news folks start talking about how many might die, get seriously ill, who is more at risk, etc, etc, etc.  And when most of that turns out to be hogwash, we are already onto the next "thing." 

Another topic: some war breaks out.  It's not enough to say what happened, but people want to know what will happen next and that's where the news folks really do their thing again.  On and on it goes, and on any given topic. 

So over the years, I have ended up just seeing what's happening and how I am to face it, rather than endlessly speculating on what's coming up next, etc. 

"Hey, there's no TP in the store."  "Ok, we will figure it out." "Hey, so and so just bombed so and so, and thus WWIII is about to begin."  "OK, I guess I'll wait and see."  Etc, etc.  There is really nothing for me to do about any of these things save just deal with them if they land in my lap. And that has always and ever been the truth.  So why should I worry over some future trouble or disaster scenario, which is really what fuels the entire industry of the news? 

Someone will likely chime in there (here I go prognosticating too!) and talk about the value of being prepared, "informed," etc.  Ok, I'll give you that, and if that's what you enjoy doing, I'd be the last person to stop you from doing it.  But for me it has proved to have mostly no value.  Life just ends up being life, and always has.   

The bottom line for me with the news is: Who gets to decide what is "the news?" Who gets to direct everyone's gaze to this or that story?  And why should I care about most of that (because most times I don't)?