I typed out a longer post earlier, but didn't post because I didn't like the way it would have sounded, but one point from it was that the advocates of cutting the budget/small government have done a remarkable job over the last 30-40 (maybe longer?) years of making the general public dislike those of us that use gov't assistance and welfare programs. And they have done it effectively by creating concepts like "welfare queens," "lazy millenials," people that have iPhones or Nike sneakers but don't work or people that buy things that they shouldn't with food stamps. Easily identifiable stereotypes that make middle and lower-middle class people resent poor people for having things that they have to work for to obtain.

Getting middle and lower-middle class folks on board with that concept has made the strange bedfellows of aligning them with 'job creators' over improving their own wages and standards of living. It seems like most people are starting to realize that trickle-down economics may grow the economy but does not benefit the majority of the public and that it is more effective to get money into the hands of the poor and middle class, because they will spend it. At this point, there are two or three generations of Americans that no longer trust that government can be effective or useful and would rather see it cut down to bare bones than to see a well functioning government (whether small or large, or federal or state oriented).

Somehow, Chick-fil-a seems to hire competent employees, tend to over-staff shifts instead of under-staff, and serves good food at a reasonable price. It must be magic.

Seems relevant:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsbur...pen-roles.html

Biden Admin is supporting the waiving of IP rights for COVID vaccines

These extraordinary times and circumstances of call for extraordinary measures.

The US supports the waiver of IP protections on COVID-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic and we’ll actively participate in @WTO negotiations to make that happen. pic.twitter.com/96ERlboZS8

— Ambassador Katherine Tai (@AmbassadorTai) May 5, 2021

Can Biden do that himself or would that have to go through congress?

I agree. If you can't compete with temporary unemployment benefits, your job offer sucks. People want stable jobs. The idea that people won't work if they don't have to is a myth.

There are lots and lots of millionaires who don't need the money but continue to work. Pretty much every Fortune 500 CEO and member of Congress could live extremely comfortable lives without ever lifting a finger again by simply putting their current wealth into an index fund.

But they don't. Because people work for a sense of self-worth. And to get more money than they need to buy things they want, etc.

So when these politicians and business leaders get up and say that people need the threat of starvation to keep them working, what they are really saying is that poor people are morally inferior to them. Because good rich people have a work ethic.

dola

If you advertise a job that pays well and does not look like a shit show, you will get employees.

I just don't have much sympathy for companies that haven't raised wages since the great recession and are now acting like it someone else's fault that they can't keep their business open.

It's not a new book, but I'm finishing up Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, and there are some good examples of how low-wage workers get squeezed and are set up for failure. Too much to quote adequately here, but it's a short, worthwhile read.

It has been one of the greatest cons pulled off in history.

This book is fantastic. The woman eating hot dog buns for her lunch, ugh...

And the Walmart employee who couldn't afford to buy a clearance polo at Walmart (because she needed one to wear at her job at Walmart).

Or the union stuff with Walmart.

I worked at Wal-mart in the 90s. I was able to travel with my club rugby team, live in St. Louis proper and drink lots of beer, plus I had good insurance.

Im not sure why people cannot afford to live off a wal-mart pay check

Come on. You need an explanation for why comparisons to St Louis 25+ years ago aren't particularly relevant?


Edit: I guess it could be, depending on the age of the book you all are referencin.g

What was your rent? That is a key part of the equation in the book. If you can't find an affordable apartment, or don't have enough for a security deposit, you are probably going to spend more (there are many people living at motels because of the shortage of affordable housing). In one of the writer's jobs she was making $7/hr while paying $50 a day for a room. The math there...doesn't exactly work. And Walmart apparently withholds the first week of pay (as did The Maids). So unless you have, essentially, "startup" money, you're in a bit of a bind. And even if you do you may still be.

Considering minimum wage hasn't gone up since the mid 90s it isn't that hard to believe.

It's that Boomer mindset I don't get.

The reality is "Back when I was your age, I worked at what was considered a low wage job, and I could afford to pay for college and save up a house payment on that."

So they could say "That was nice, and it really helped me get a leg up. So we should make sure that wages are high enough that even low wage workers can afford what I could afford. It is both fair and good for the country overall."

Instead, they say "Well, if these kids can't make $20,000/yr. pay for college and a house and basic living expenses, I guess they are just lazy and entitled."

Leave aside the lack of logic. The lack of empathy is chilling.

American empathy: I have mine. F* you..

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It's the same reason why I hate the "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?" phrasing for elections. That shouldn't be the standard. My life was way better in 2020 than it was in 2016, but the country as a whole was worse off. The question should be, "Is the country better off?"

A local business which I frequent has been complaining vocally on Facebook that they can’t get employees because no one wants to work and they have even stopped serving dinner Mon-Fri opting to close down instead. Today they I see them post a job opening.
EVENING SHIFT LINE COOK - $9/HR

I'm not sure what to do with a country where people are willing to lose their business for the sake of owning the libs.

I hope that the invisible hand does its thing and businesses run by people who care more about making money that making a political statement take their place.

Heard on the news today Atlantic City had a job fair, 9 casinos with 1800 openings. 20 people showed up.

Inflation is a bitch.

Places need to do a better job of clearly stating salary/benefits when they advertise jobs.

Did also add: "Must pay for in uniform and provide own hair net."

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I think a lot are just failing businesses and they're grasping for excuses instead of admitting their business is a failure.

France is experiencing the exact same problem right now under very different circumstances. I think the pandemic is more of a reason for labor shortages than we might have expected.

But I expect by the Fall things will find an equilibrium.

That's another anecdote in the book. Interviews at Menard's, where they say at the interview that the job is going to pay $10/hr, but don't actually formalize it. Later they are like "Wait what? Someone said that? It's more like $7.50 -- and 11 hour shifts."

And yeah, also you had to buy their tape measure and utility knife. But that's nothing new -- at BK I had my (awful polyester) pants, polo, and hat taken out of my first paycheck.

I don't get why small businesses are lionized compared to workers. Yes, it's a legit way of making a living. But...didn't you get into it because you didn't want to be a worker for someone else? Essentially, "fuck this, this sucks -- imma start my own business!" I mean, good for you, but it's not on the rest of us to support you just because.

I feel like we've been at a tipping point, and it's only become that much worse due to the pandemic, where many available jobs just aren't worth what people want in order to achieve the standard of living we all expect. Supply and demand isn't just relevant on the worker/employee side, it also matters on the consumer side. You don't just raise wages in a vacuum - someone's going to pay for that in the end. If restaurants jack their wages 50%, are we all going to run out to pay $15-20 for scrambled eggs?

Didn't we go through something very similar 20+ years ago, the small local grocer vs Wal-Mart thing? We should willingly pay more for less convenience to preserve and support our small communities. How did that work out?

So what you're saying is that the middle class probably doesn't have the resources to support everybody below them...so we need to look somewhere else? ;)

We should just force people into lower wage jobs they don't want to keep the price of "food" that is terrible for us as low as possible. Maybe we can just use inmates. Isn't like we don't have way too many of them.

It usually is the case. As I've mentioned, a lot of the companies I'm talking about don't have ridiculous executive packages.

I don't disagree with you that businesses that are run incompetently can fail. That's just the marketplace, though I do find it absurd that this same logic is not applied to people. We go out of our way to protect people from the consequences of their bad decisions. Why are companies different? I don't think we should be overly protecting anyone.

The fact that people keep bringing up the $8/hr. price point etc. shows that there's a big disconnect here. I'm not talking about businesses hiring at the minimum wage. If it was only the cheapskates getting hit, I would say 'pay up or get out'. Those companies have *always* had trouble finding enough workers, even in a great economy with no other issues.


I don't know how many there are, but these people *do* exist. They are not a myth. All I can verify is my own anecdotal experience from two decades in the food service industry, where I would peg the number of people who take this approach when it's available to them as being between a third and a half of the relevant group of employees. This is hard issue to study accurately on the larger scale one way or another, but it's rather amusing to hear people on this forum constantly tell me what I observed daily for years doesn't exist.


This is from somebody I worked with a couple of years ago, on my Facebook feed. It's a common attitude and didn't surprise me in the least. This is not someone who was working at anything close to minimium wage. I know for a fact they made at least $12 an hour, and I think it was more because wages for what they did (line cook) were rising in our area. An area which has lower cost of living than much of the country, I'm in the midwest. $12-$13 an hour here is more purchasing power than the oft-suggested $15/hour minimum wage in a lot of places. Many others are tipped employees who make quite a bit more than that.

These are the kinds of people who are choosing to stay on unemployment as long as it's available instead of work. They are largely not looking for other jobs, partly out of choice but partly because there's little out for them. They don't have other marketable skills. Most live paycheck-to-paycheck, and it makes a lot more sense to theme to just keep their money rather than use it to try to improve their value to an employer.

The retail business I don't know nearly as much about, but I know more than most do and I'm not hearing anything substantively different there other than there are fewer of the long-term employees choosing not to work. That's probably because they weren't shut down as much in the pandemic. They aren;'t having any more luck on the hiring front though.

Point is, this simply isn't a 'they're all just paying crap wages' problem.


I don't know enough about Chick-fil-a to comment intelligently much here. I do know their average wage for entry level is about $9.50, quite a bit less than what I mentioned above. But let's assume they are doing something super-smart that allows them to escape any labor crunch. Let's assume most of the rest of the business, and retail, and whatever other sector of the economy are all a bunch of incompetent morons. We still have a problem, because a whole heck of a lot of people work in and depend on those sectors.

Getting back to the question asked about what my solution is, I'll just repeat that some of the businesses should just go away and that's fine. I think we'd be better off if there were fewer fast-food establishments for example.

Some of this is tied up into how we train, educate, what I've said before about blue-collar work vs. college etc. If we were better at getting people into vocations that fit their talents and abilities, we'd have a better fit between labor and those sectors of the economy that require it. I also think any temporary increase in unemployment should have a corresponding temporary increase in the minimum wage, so that it is *never* financially incentivized to not work. Some still wouldn't because of working, conditions, pandemic, whatever but it wouldn't be nearly the issue we have now. Something on the order of 20% higher pay at least for working the most crap job compared to not working is appropriate IMO. In times of sufficient hardship, I think it's appropriate for government to foot that bill.

I also think we need to jettison this anti-business mindset. There are good and bad businesses, just like there are good and bad people. And as I've said earlier in the discussion, have a more nuanced view of the economy. There is a range that people are willing to pay for certain products, whether it's a vehicle, a household appliance, a game or console, or whatever it is. While automation has minimized the effect and will continue to do so, this also means there's a range of how much value can be extracted from a specific product, and a limit on the value of labor in any particular field. This is not something that can be hand-waved away. There will always be relatively low-paid people no matter if you raise the minimum wage to $1000/hour or whatever obscene amount you may imagine. Some sectors of the economy will always be more profitable than others. . We need to not have a governmental policy that encourages people not to work - and people who live paycheck-to-paycheck are going to choose the short-term cash almost every time. Their financial status isn't stable enough to give them the confidence that they can afford to think long-term, and a lot of them are in the position they are in because they aren't inclined to do so by nature.

One thing to keep in mind is that people are more important than businesses. In general, we need to do things that are life affirming and that work towards the greater good, rather than focusing solely on maximizing profit. Capitalism is fine, but it shouldn’t be our only priority. We don’t need to help the rich; they’re doing fine. We need to help people who aren’t doing fine.

If people are choosing not to work due to unemployment benefits at a level that is detrimental to the economy as a whole, we should have plenty of evidence of that. If nothing else, there should be a flood of people saying that's what they are doing.

I'm sure this is happening anecdotally, but where's the evidence it is happening in large scale?

Keisha Lance Bottoms sudden announcement that she not seek re-election as mayor of Atlanta is causing quite a stir. She had already turned down a cabinet position, and now this. You can't help but wonder why.

It isn't happening on a large scale.

Some business owners are speculating, and the media is running with it as "THIS IS VERY TRUE AND NOT AT ALL SPECULATION AND IT IS A BIG PROBLEM"

Recovery from a pandemic is unprecedented, and there's a lot of complexity involved.

But we don't do complexity well here.

Skeletons in the closet?

This is from the just-released AP article on the lower job growth this month and rise in unemployment:


On what planet is it sane to characterize money saved by people who are out of work as "extra cash" and to normalize spending that money on things that are luxuries?!

Still waiting on our $1400 checks. IRS is completely useless.

Never mind that we're talking about $1400. Sure, that's a nice check - I certainly didn't turn ours down. But if you're making $12 an hour and need to pay rent, that just staves off the landlord another month or two.

SI

Running for Governor? She sure got/still getting a lot of airtime on CNN to keep her in the public eye.

Wyoming stands up for coal with threat to sue states that refuse to buy it | Coal | The Guardian

I know literal socialists who have more respect for the free market than the current GOP does.

That's certainly a new plan. You don't want to buy my stuff because it is harmful to the environment? I'm suing you!

Can't wait for big Tobacco to jump on this bandwagon

I think this more a possibility than this:
There is zero chance she runs for governor if Abrams is. So, the only way this is what is going on is if Stacey told Bottoms she is not running.

Why not? They already fight fires.

(This post was not meant to be take seriously)

Sounds like we need to go back peasantry and feudal lords.

I'm always fascinated by timing for politicians. I think Abrams is in a difficult position. If she runs for Gov and loses again her political career might be over. She can't run for Senate for years, either.

There is still the possibility that Abrams doesn't run. Everyone expects she will, and she has more than hinted at it. But she has become almost a mythical creature at this point. She might decide she doesn't want to take a chance on tarnishing her image.

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That's already what we have economically.

Not even remotely.

I know anecdotally many people are choosing not to work due to unemployment benefits. This is happening at my workplace. We have had a lot of people that work for 6 weeks (the minimum time to work in Ohio between claims), stop showing up for work and then claim unemployment. Most of the time it is granted.

What is the job? Pre-covid folks that quit their job or were fired for good reason weren't able to collect unemployment benefits, but I know that's been relaxed for covid.....ostensibly folks should have to prove they quit/fired for health/covid related reasons in order to collect benefits, but I wouldn't be surprised to heard states aren't being super vigilant about that.

I know a couple people like this, too. Down from probably 10-15 at the peak of when things were bad. I also knew people that would do this prior to there being added benefits.

I also know 3 business owners that took SBA loans to the tune of more than $20K (one took $30K, absolutely was not in need but was able to “show” that they had one bad quarter, which is real easy to do if you are managing your own books, AND it has already been completely written off - another got more money, but I’m not sure if it has been written off, though I’d be surprised if most of it is not).

It is eye opening that folks are so bitter towards individuals gaming the system, but when companies do it in much greater quantities, we don’t bat an eye. The same politicians and business that are cool with their companies writing off tens and hundreds of thousands for hair/clothes/makeup/vehicles/personal travel/etc. like to keep the focus on the food and retail workers stealing pennies while they are stealing millions.

The outrage isn't mutually exclusive.

Exactly, I don't know why there is always sides to pick, I have no love for anyone that games the system, corporate or individual.

It's the same principal with BLM and Police, is it really unthinkable to people that you can't back both? Or that you do both the black community and police a disfavor by stereotyping both groups by the actions of those that get the most media (I.E bad) attention.

https://apnews.com/article/europe-ha...22274389b7e920

Another warning for our infrastructure and security of said infrastructure.

That must be one shitty job.

Closing the loop on this. Filed in the middle of February. Got our refund today. Not a bad addition to the vacation fund.

Checked mine, should be in my account in the next few days. Cherry on top of my work bonus I got this week! Going to put it all into Dogecoin and lose it all!

Hmmm...restaurants having a hard to filling positions because of low wages and bad working conditions....nah, got to be something else.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/10/econo...aps/index.html

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I had 11K Dogecoins at about 4 cents I sold at 8 cents a few months ago. Your post hurts.

A co-worker of mine was mining 33,000 Dogecoins per day a few years back and now can’t find the keys to his wallet. Hope that makes you feel better!

Gas shortage is real around here.

I think that the gas shortage is real everywhere (at least on the East coast).

Everyone panic filled their tanks on news of the pipeline hacking, which is understandable.

In a better world, this event would cause the GOP to get behind Biden's push for enhanced cybersecurity on our critical infrastructure. But Biden has a D behind his name, so they'll oppose it just to oppose it.

Here's hoping its not a baby food factory next time.

Electrical grid would be pretty darn bad.

Everybody here is just blaming Biden. It is all his fault, it would have never happened under Trump, etc. etc. I hear this crap all day.

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Speaking of, our local news has aired some "Spotlight on America" segments about the levels of heavy metals in baby food. Spotlight is of course produced by Sinclair. I have been trying to figure out exactly what their angle is. There has to be something, because I can't believe Sinclair wouldn't have some sort of angle. General concern is not believable.

Hell, it probably happened because Trump gave some FSB agent his government phone in 2017 to show him his electoral college map.

dola

Short term gas shortage is like manna from heaven for local news stations.

There's one local reporter who, from what I can tell, is just going with a camera crew to each gas station to report on whether they still have gas or not.

This was fascinating to me: I went to a QT in Decatur, which was out of all grades of gas. What it was not out of is No Ethanol gas which was also selling for $2.88, cheaper than gas is going at stations that have it. I was able to pull straight up and fill. My wife started freaking out. "Can your car use that?" I had to explain what No Ethanol meant. I imagine it was why no one was getting it. They had no idea.

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I drove up to Blue Ridge last night after filling my tank near Brookhaven. Today when I left, all gas stations in the area were either out of gas, or had one nozzle open with lines going down the street. This was from Blue Ridge, all the way back to my house near Brookhaven. The QT and Racetrac near me were all out, and gasbuddy shows almost no gas in the perimeter. I also heard of people filling huge tanks with gas this morning.

I thought private companies and capitalism were going to save the world?

Adding on to the whole 'only shitty jobs can't find workers' thread, for the first time I've ever seen it a local haircut establishment is reducing their hours because they can't find people to work there. Suffice to say they pay a lot more than fast food does for their hairdressers/stylists/whatever the right term is.

Since hairstylist/barber is a licensed profession where a good percentage of the licensed professionals had to find other work since their shops were closed, it could be that it will take time to get qualified people into the shops. Also, how many shops lost customers since people learned to do their own hair at home? I know I'm not going back anytime soon. I can cut mine and my boys hair well enough for now.

At the risk of stereotyping, I would imagine the majority of employees there are women. The latest job numbers show overwhelmingly it was men returning back to work. If you can't send your kid to school or daycare generally the woman stays home instead of working, not factoring in single moms as well.

One thing I haven't seen discussed (with good reason b/c it's pretty morbid) is the extent to which 500,000+ dead people--disproportionately focused on the poor and working class--has affected the employment market.

Is part of the reason that we can't fill low wage jobs the fact that some of the people who would be filling those jobs are no longer with us?

I know a hairdresser that continues to refuse to work. It definitely pays better than fast food, but it also requires hours of continuous physical contact with a parade of strangers in the middle of a pandemic.

Very good point. Also, I know a few hairstylists that started to do hair exclusively in their client's home or in their own home since shops were closed. How many keep doing that?

For my entire childhood, my mom's hairdresser worked out of her home for cash.

I doubt that woman ever paid a dime of taxes :-)

Growing up, our neighbor across the street did the same thing.

My dad cut hair as a side gig. Mostly for fellow firefighters, but for some friends and family as well. He was a licensed barber before becoming a firefighter.

This is very true, although there's no lack of women working where I live.


The establishment in question actually has more business than they did before. As ever, I can't speak to greater trends but they definitely didn't lose a bunch of customers.

People haven't seemed to connect that the same people that are still exceedingly cautious about masking and indoor activities are also a part of the labor pool. I think COVID fear is still a big issue for a lot of people.

It also took like all of 2 weeks of the pandemic before thee most suspect people in the country were yelling particularly about not being able to get their hair done. Personally, I can understand why folks might be hesitant to jump back into a gig that literally requires getting as close a physically possible to folks that are seeking out a non-essential service.

It's weird that people think professionals just sat on their hands waiting patiently for people to tell them they were allowed to go back to their profession. If your profession was eliminated during the pandemic, you went and found another one to pay the bills. I am friends with a theater lighting expert (she went to school and everything for it). But with those closed down, she switched career paths and likely won't go back.

I haven't heard about this shortage anywhere though. Delays in appointments are likely due to so many people who held out till they were vaccinated flooding the market. Sounds more like a class of people who feel entitled to others skills whenever they want it and whatever price they want to pay.

Also hairdressers rely heavily on word-of-mouth and repeat business. Every day they aren't working is another day that a competitor takes their customers. To think that people in that hyper-competitive profession are sitting home over some measly unemployment benefits is comical.

I would wager a not insignificant number are doing in home cash only while collecting unemployment.

So far it seems Biden is somewhat hands off the Israeli-Gaza situation. I'm sure there are some level of talks behind the scenes. One article said Israel passed on a mutual ceasefire offer and likely going to invade Gaza (haven't read that in US MSM but can easily believe this).

Haven't read about the West Bank getting involved. Don't know what it would take but if I was a Palestinian in Gaza, I'd "immigrate" to the West Bank. What a miserable place to live in.

Just coming back to this thread after a few days away.

I would say that we don't really have a true middle class anymore - at least, not in the numbers we used to have. And things like doubling/tripling the minimum wage and UBI are only going to cause prices to go up, which are going to have the effect of bringing more people on the edges of lower/middle class down, not lifting more people in poverty up. Or, to put it a different way, we're just going to increase the number of struggling people - kinda like taking 100 10s and 100 50s and creating a pool of 200 30s.

There's a disconnect between the value of many available jobs, the wages they are paid, and the standard of living expected in our society today. I understand that everyone wants to make enough to buy Starbucks every day, eat $12 lunches 2-3 times a week, have a brand new car, pay for Netflix and a smartphone, etc., but there's a limit to the value in some of these jobs that people seem to think should be paid at a wage where they can make a long-term job out of it.

There's certainly a management path in things like grocery stores and fast food chains - great. But jobs like bagging groceries and flipping burgers are what high school/college kids did to make some money before they got on a more sustainable path to higher-paying jobs. They are not valuable jobs that someone should be able to make a comfortable living at as a career.

I don't really have an answer for that disconnect, but I would like to see more of a true middle class rebuilt. I just don't know that artificially inflating the value of minimum wage jobs is the answer. Well, it's AN answer, but it seems like the easiest, less thoughtful response to a complex problem.

I'm actually in favor of raising taxes - although mostly because of the debt load. What we do with that money is another discussion altogether, but I think I saw that Biden's proposed income tax hike on people making $400K+ a year would cost someone who makes $800K about an extra $5K a year. That's not much, all things considered.

To get a sense of how much things have changed, Ramona and Her Father was published in 1977, and the major plot tension (Ramona's father having lost his job) was resolved when he got a job as a grocery store checker, with which he was then able to support his family.

This is still true today. Only you work two more jobs too.

I was just saying to myself that it's frustrating as a Jewish guy with a ton of Arabic friends that I can't support both sides in a vein of can't we work this out finally to make everyone happy (or mutually unhappy)? If I say anything at all to one side about it and it isn't totally falling in line with their most extreme positions then much like, the Right v Left issues in our country, I'm an extremist of the other side. That sucks.

1977 was 44 years ago. If this were 1980, this would be the equivalent of saying "economic conditions sure have changed since 1936!" The conditions change over time continually. We have to adapt both as a society and as individuals. Part of changing as individuals is adjusting to the new reality that those jobs no longer can support a family. Part of changing as a society is helping create conditions where people can flourish. It's not as simply as raising the wage floor, nor is it as simple as telling people to get a better job. As someone has said here, we don't do complexity and nuance well.

I don't know what the trickle down would be to lower wage earners, but the pay structure of executives in public companies has gotten out of control. It's one thing to compensate people for creating value (this is good and should be encouraged and highly compensated!), but it seems like CEO positions (and the people/friends they then hire for supporting positions in their companies) are more often just getting passed around to friends for the express purpose of giving them golden parachutes regardless of how well they do. It's the corporate CEO equivalent to the NBA/NFL retread hiring of the Kevin Loughery's/Jeff Fisher's of the world to tread water, get fired, and collect the best unemployment insurance in the world.

The issue is, of course, that we have no ability to do anything about it given our political/economic structure. And I'm not sure exactly what it would accomplish for the people at the bottom - that money would likely go elsewhere before it made it all the way to them.

What about retail jobs? Is everyone working at Walmart at 10AM on a Tuesday in high school? Are they all managers? Maid services were another example from Nickel and Dimed. Yes, that's an upper-middle class thing, but it's more common than it used to be (/waves at Ben). Now that the real upper-middle doesn't have servants living with them, anyway. That job was starting at just above minimum wage too. There was one "manager" for that outfit. These jobs were making the same as flipping burgers. (Burgers aren't really a "treat" as far as lunches go either. How many people pack their lunches these days? How many high schoolers are available in March for a 12PM rush?)

(Aside: does any place have kids bagging groceries anymore? At any store I go to the person running the register also does the bagging. If there IS a person running the register, that is.)

What percentage of society actually wants this?