Do People Just Not Want To Work Anymore?

[buystoys]

Bagging is why DH and I use self checkout.  He is picky about how things get bagged.  Like chiver78, he wants cold things all bagged together and meat bagged separately from other items.  It's not a hassle as he pulls things out of the cart in the order he's going to bag them.  It does make it so much easier to put things away when we get home.

[finnime]

Our county exacts a $.05/bag fee if you don't use your own reusables. I always pay the fee at Trader Joe's, which has the marvelous full-size paper bags. Early in Covid it was a pack-your-own deal at every grocery store. TJ's banned reusables for quite a while and also did not charge the nuisance fee, then that ended.

One local chain has you-scan-it devices for you to use as you go, packing things in your own bags if you like. For produce you bring it to a scale, enter the item number from the sticker on the product, and it spits out a bar coded sticker for you to scan. I use this more often than not for efficiency. I also most of the time scan my own selections at Costco. A worker will dive in with a scanner for the too-big items.

I really dislike lines, more so since Covid. And the nuisance fee of 5 cents is enough to make my rarely use store bags.

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2021 8:15:08 GMT -5 finnime said:

One local chain has you-scan-it devices for you to use as you go, packing things in your own bags if you like. For produce you bring it to a scale, enter the item number from the sticker on the product, and it spits out a bar coded sticker for you to scan. I use this more often than not for efficiency. I also most of the time scan my own selections at Costco. A worker will dive in with a scanner for the too-big items.

I really dislike lines, more so since Covid. And the nuisance fee of 5 cents is enough to make my rarely use store bags.

I might do the you-scan-it devices even though that's pretty much self-checkout but streamlined.  And I agree on lines.  I was in a Big Lots store once with a long, slow line and it was just too darn crowded the way you're herded into a "maze".  It looked like a 20-minute wait.  I put my merchandise back on the shelves and left.

This morning on NextDoor there was a discussion on people who don't tip.  The writer was in a restaurant where they saw other customers pay with cash, then take all the change and leave without tipping.    Many posts followed - one woman said her daughter's untipped wage was $5.15/hour.  Not only that- she has to "tip out" to the staff behind the scenes such as the cooks, as a % of her sales, even if she didn't get tipped at all by some customers.  How is that even legal?  Not to mention the huge imbalance of power- the server may end up complying with endless unreasonable demands for the customer and then it's perfectly legal for the customer not to leave a tip.

I can see why they might be having a hard time filling those jobs.  I did it when I was 16 and it was darned hard work.  I think I'd try and do just about anything else to make money instead.

[thyme4change]

Dec 2, 2021 13:06:18 GMT -5 apple 2 said:

Wal-Mart offends me on many levels. I do not shop there and I try very hard to buy local. 

Some people tell me they cannot live without Wal-Mart.  I wonder what they did pre Wal-Mart days.

It is hard to think about a world without Walmart. They changed the entire landscape of retail. Before there was Walmart there were thousands of Mom and Pop stores. People had places to get what they needed, it just wasn't a massive national chain. I can't imagine thinking I would literally die without any store. I know if there is a void it will be filled.

Also, before Walmart people didn't own so much useless junk.

[nidena]

Dec 4, 2021 9:12:51 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Dec 2, 2021 13:06:18 GMT -5 apple 2 said:

Wal-Mart offends me on many levels. I do not shop there and I try very hard to buy local. 

Some people tell me they cannot live without Wal-Mart.  I wonder what they did pre Wal-Mart days.

It is hard to think about a world without Walmart. They changed the entire landscape of retail. Before there was Walmart there were thousands of Mom and Pop stores. People had places to get what they needed, it just wasn't a massive national chain. I can't imagine thinking I would literally die without any store. I know if there is a void it will be filled.

Also, before Walmart people didn't own so much useless junk.

I don't think it was necessarily Walmart that brought the useless junk into our living rooms.  I think it was the invention of everything being made from plastic back in the 50s and 60s.  lol.

Many family members had rooms full of crap before Walmart, especially considering they didn't go full nationwide until the 1990s.

I know I had a huge DVD and CD collection long before the $5 bins at Walmart came to wherever I was living.  Thank you, BMG and Sony Music Club.

[NoNamePerson]

Dec 4, 2021 10:41:13 GMT -5 nidena said:

Dec 4, 2021 9:12:51 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

It is hard to think about a world without Walmart. They changed the entire landscape of retail. Before there was Walmart there were thousands of Mom and Pop stores. People had places to get what they needed, it just wasn't a massive national chain. I can't imagine thinking I would literally die without any store. I know if there is a void it will be filled.

Also, before Walmart people didn't own so much useless junk.

I don't think it was necessarily Walmart that brought the useless junk into our living rooms.  I think it was the invention of everything being made from plastic back in the 50s and 60s.  lol.

Many family members had rooms full of crap before Walmart, especially considering they didn't go full nationwide until the 1990s.

I know I had a huge DVD and CD collection long before the $5 bins at Walmart came to wherever I was living.  Thank you, BMG and Sony Music Club.

It was called bric a brac!! And when I was a kid it was mostly from Taiwan and Japan! I remember hearing "old" people remark that if we weren't careful we would have to learn to speak Japanese.   Everything was not Made In America though back in the dark ages it was mostly MIA. But it took the Japanese foresight to see what to do with some things like the transistor/vcr, etc.  I had a huge collection of Albums to thanks to the Columbia House.  I'll admit in public that I still have tons of albums stored plus CD and DVD. You don't get to my age and not have some leftover stuff - mine is mostly music stuff!! 

[Lizard Queen]

Dec 3, 2021 23:12:07 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Dec 3, 2021 20:11:37 GMT -5 nidena said:

At my local Kroger, I tell them to "Tetris the groceries in the bags" and most of them understand what I mean.

I wish. I have looked at them and said, please put meats in plastic (a different style of reusable bag that is a lot easier to clean if there's a spill) and load up the rest, and bag everything. nope, 5lb bag of carrots gets a paid sticker and thrown back in the carriage unbagged, cold stuff is split even though it went down the belt all together, it's such a PITA. I worked at a snooty grocery in HS, in floral and bakery, but we were all trained on bagging (legit, is bagging training still a thing??) and the first question we would ask was "would you like your perishables in plastic?" and go from there. where I'm at now, I want my meats together (and separate from anything else) in case of a leak, and the refrigerated cold shit all in one bag together, please. and maybe bag the stuff I put on the belt sorta together? I loaded the belt the way I did for a reason. 🤷‍♀️

just let me self-check, and get off my lawn while you're at it. 😝

That's my preferred bagging method, too. They're usually good about putting the meat in a separate bag, though, and then together with something else in yet another bag.

[minnesotapaintlady]

Dec 4, 2021 9:12:51 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Dec 2, 2021 13:06:18 GMT -5 apple 2 said:

Wal-Mart offends me on many levels. I do not shop there and I try very hard to buy local. 

Some people tell me they cannot live without Wal-Mart.  I wonder what they did pre Wal-Mart days.

It is hard to think about a world without Walmart. They changed the entire landscape of retail. Before there was Walmart there were thousands of Mom and Pop stores. People had places to get what they needed, it just wasn't a massive national chain. I can't imagine thinking I would literally die without any store. I know if there is a void it will be filled.

Also, before Walmart people didn't own so much useless junk.

I don't have to think too hard.  It's only been about 10 years our town has had a Walmart.  I was perfectly fine before it and almost never go there now because I hate everything about going there.  I might go in about 4X/year max when I've exhausted all other options. 

Of course, Walmart.com is where I scored both the PS5's...so there is that. 

[jerseygirl]

Town had only dusty seldom opened ‘antique’ stores s hardware store library and a smokes store.
Walmart store opened about half mile away snd the town was revitalized. Coffee shops restaurants doggie day care bakery etc

So for that town Walmart was a plus. Think it attracted shoppers to the area

[Lizard Queen]

We've had a Meijer since the 60's, so never had a need for a Walmart. Still don't, though there is one here now. The place just feels dumpy, though it's clean and newer.

[TheOtherMe]

Never been a Walmart shopper.

However, my parents' health insurance limited them to getting prescriptions at Walmart.  So from 2014 forward, I picked up a lot of prescriptions, adult diapers, etc. at Walmart.

Probably will never go there again.

[Deleted]

We haven't been back to Walmart since 2019 and don't miss it.  The selection of products we use a lot like fresh vegetables and fruit was sad, meat quality was awful, prices high and the parking lot risky.  Last couple of times we went back in 2019 there was some sort of thing going down, cops arresting a shoplifter or someone breaking into a car.  Or the whole store was shut down because someone robbed the bank in the store.  

[teen persuasion]

Dec 3, 2021 20:23:13 GMT -5 nidena said:

Okay, so while I'm not a fan of helping super wealthy people and their tax-loophole ways of staying that way, one thing that I DO enjoy about my job is helping our insurance customers maximize their premiums.  By this, I mean, I keep an eye out for policies of minor children who have or are turning 18 soon because then they can be submitted for reclass on their policies.  Most minors (in our company) are risk-classed as plain "non-tobacco" with the other options being Preferred NT, Select Pref NT, or Ultra Pref.  If the kiddo gets reclassed to a higher/better class, the dividends on the whole life policy are better.  I like knowing that I'm helping in that aspect.  Or if a regular adult client recently got a policy and was rated Ultra Pref, if they have a policy from a couple years ago that is less than that, I will submit to see if we can increase the rating (for the same reason as with the minor children). One client actually got an $1100 refund because their paid up policy got rated better and the reclass was requested to be backdated to whenever the Ultra Pref policy got put inforce.

So those parts are fun.

Whole life policy?
For kiddos?

[nidena]

Dec 4, 2021 22:17:41 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Dec 3, 2021 20:23:13 GMT -5 nidena said:

Okay, so while I'm not a fan of helping super wealthy people and their tax-loophole ways of staying that way, one thing that I DO enjoy about my job is helping our insurance customers maximize their premiums.  By this, I mean, I keep an eye out for policies of minor children who have or are turning 18 soon because then they can be submitted for reclass on their policies.  Most minors (in our company) are risk-classed as plain "non-tobacco" with the other options being Preferred NT, Select Pref NT, or Ultra Pref.  If the kiddo gets reclassed to a higher/better class, the dividends on the whole life policy are better.  I like knowing that I'm helping in that aspect.  Or if a regular adult client recently got a policy and was rated Ultra Pref, if they have a policy from a couple years ago that is less than that, I will submit to see if we can increase the rating (for the same reason as with the minor children). One client actually got an $1100 refund because their paid up policy got rated better and the reclass was requested to be backdated to whenever the Ultra Pref policy got put inforce.

So those parts are fun.

Whole life policy?
For kiddos?

Well, I do think there should be some insurance on kids, even if just a small amount because death is never foretold and these policies aren't expensive so why not have a policy that gets paid up in 10 years but continues to gain in cash value and pays out dividends which, if the policy isn't yet paid up, those can be used to pay the premium...
Not everyone has the discipline to save up a few thousand in case of a child's funeral.

[minnesotapaintlady]

Dec 5, 2021 0:04:51 GMT -5 nidena said:

Dec 4, 2021 22:17:41 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Whole life policy?
For kiddos?

Well, I do think there should be some insurance on kids, even if just a small amount because death is never foretold and these policies aren't expensive so why not have a policy that gets paid up in 10 years but continues to gain in cash value and pays out dividends which, if the policy isn't yet paid up, those can be used to pay the premium...
Not everyone has the discipline to save up a few thousand in case of a child's funeral.

Child rider on a term policy can be bought for a fraction of the cost of a whole life policy if a few thousand would be a financial hardship.  That's what I did when the kids were little.  I think I paid about $2/month for 10K each on all children.  Meanwhile I invested in their 529s instead.  Morbid as it is to think about, the college funds could be used to pay for a funeral. 

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2021 22:17:41 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Whole life policy?
For kiddos?

In addition to getting a policy that matures and pays an amount when they turn 18 (or some other age), a whole life policy can mean they've always got SOME life insurance even if they develop a health condition later that makes it hard to get life insurance.

Having said that- I never had any insurance on DS and I'm wary of any product combining life insurance and investment products.  Too many moving parts.

[TheOtherMe]

My parents bought one of those policies when I was a kid.  They turned it over to me when I was a kid and I kept paying in.

I finally realized I had paid in more than the value of the policy so I cashed it in.

[nidena]

Dec 5, 2021 9:31:16 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

My parents bought one of those policies when I was a kid.  They turned it over to me when I was a kid and I kept paying in.

I finally realized I had paid in more than the value of the policy so I cashed it in.

I think that's why 10-Pay and 20-Pay have become popular: you pay for that many years and then it's all paid up but still growing in net cash value.

We have some clients with $10k policies that were put inforce back in the 1960s but they don't surrender them because of the "income" tax implication if they were to do so.  Apparently, it's cheaper to just keep paying on them because the premium is low enough that they still haven't reached the situation that you described.

[nidena]

Dec 5, 2021 8:16:43 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Dec 4, 2021 22:17:41 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Whole life policy?
For kiddos?

In addition to getting a policy that matures and pays an amount when they turn 18 (or some other age), a whole life policy can mean they've always got SOME life insurance even if they develop a health condition later that makes it hard to get life insurance.

Having said that- I never had any insurance on DS and I'm wary of any product combining life insurance and investment products.  Too many moving parts.

I think that's what they're thinking is: the child has a "starter" policy right from the get.

[TheOtherMe]

Dec 5, 2021 10:37:34 GMT -5 nidena said:

Dec 5, 2021 9:31:16 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

My parents bought one of those policies when I was a kid.  They turned it over to me when I was a kid and I kept paying in.

I finally realized I had paid in more than the value of the policy so I cashed it in.

I think that's why 10-Pay and 20-Pay have become popular: you pay for that many years and then it's all paid up but still growing in net cash value.

We have some clients with $10k policies that were put inforce back in the 1960s but they don't surrender them because of the "income" tax implication if they were to do so.  Apparently, it's cheaper to just keep paying on them because the premium is low enough that they still haven't reached the situation that you described.

Mine was $1000, which would have buried me in the 1950's.  I never borrowed against it and still got less than $1000 when I cashed it in.  Not too much of a tax hit on an amount that size and there is basis in it.

[andi9899]

Dec 4, 2021 22:17:41 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Dec 3, 2021 20:23:13 GMT -5 nidena said:

Okay, so while I'm not a fan of helping super wealthy people and their tax-loophole ways of staying that way, one thing that I DO enjoy about my job is helping our insurance customers maximize their premiums.  By this, I mean, I keep an eye out for policies of minor children who have or are turning 18 soon because then they can be submitted for reclass on their policies.  Most minors (in our company) are risk-classed as plain "non-tobacco" with the other options being Preferred NT, Select Pref NT, or Ultra Pref.  If the kiddo gets reclassed to a higher/better class, the dividends on the whole life policy are better.  I like knowing that I'm helping in that aspect.  Or if a regular adult client recently got a policy and was rated Ultra Pref, if they have a policy from a couple years ago that is less than that, I will submit to see if we can increase the rating (for the same reason as with the minor children). One client actually got an $1100 refund because their paid up policy got rated better and the reclass was requested to be backdated to whenever the Ultra Pref policy got put inforce.

So those parts are fun.

Whole life policy?
For kiddos?

Whole life is a great option to put on kids. It builds cash value, since they're young the premium is cheap. You have the option to put a guaranteed insurability option one as well. Whole life is usually all I would suggest for kids. I have it on both my kids.

[andi9899]

Dec 5, 2021 9:31:16 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

My parents bought one of those policies when I was a kid.  They turned it over to me when I was a kid and I kept paying in.

I finally realized I had paid in more than the value of the policy so I cashed it in.

You probably had a universal life then. Whole life premium is guaranteed and will never be more than the death benefit. If you don't fund your universal life right, you can run into problems like that.

[minnesotapaintlady]

It just doesn't make sense to me to pay more for life insurance so a portion of it can go into an investment that I wouldn't buy normally due to the high fees.  Seems more logical to just buy cheap term and invest on my own.  My son had $200/month put away from birth to age 18 and then stopped.  It was 43K invested and it's worth over 100K now.  Money he can use for school and/or a house down payment. 

[nidena]

Dec 5, 2021 18:09:13 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

It just doesn't make sense to me to pay more for life insurance so a portion of it can go into an investment that I wouldn't buy normally due to the high fees.  Seems more logical to just buy cheap term and invest on my own.  My son had $200/month put away from birth to age 18 and then stopped.  It was 43K invested and it's worth over 100K now.  Money he can use for school and/or a house down payment. 

In many cases, it's another tool in the arsenal of tax avoidance for the wealthy.

[andi9899]

Term is a good option to meet a big need with a little bit of money. At some point the term runs out. If you're ineligible or have health issues you could either have a much higher premium for the next term you write or not be able to get another term. Why not lock in a fixed rate for the life of the insured? Term policies only run to age 85 also, lots of people live to be older than 85.

[nidena]

In this NY Times article about Public Displays of Resignation, they mention a sub on reddit antiwork.  There are some interesting stories in there.

[Lizard Queen]

Dec 5, 2021 18:09:13 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

It just doesn't make sense to me to pay more for life insurance so a portion of it can go into an investment that I wouldn't buy normally due to the high fees.  Seems more logical to just buy cheap term and invest on my own.  My son had $200/month put away from birth to age 18 and then stopped.  It was 43K invested and it's worth over 100K now.  Money he can use for school and/or a house down payment. 

That's exactly what my finance Prof--the one who owned a side business selling insurance along with financial advising--said.

[nidena]

Whole Life insurance can also, in time, provide an opportunity to take out a loan with the only requirement being filling out the request form.  You're not required to pay it back.  The only real penalty is that the face value is reduced by the amount of the loan if it isn't paid back before the Insured dies.

[minnesotapaintlady]

Dec 5, 2021 18:34:40 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

Term is a good option to meet a big need with a little bit of money. At some point the term runs out. If you're ineligible or have health issues you could either have a much higher premium for the next term you write or not be able to get another term. Why not lock in a fixed rate for the life of the insured? Term policies only run to age 85 also, lots of people live to be older than 85.

But, not everyone needs life insurance.  Young people with no kids probably don't and neither do a lot of older established folks with lots of assets.  I don't need life insurance.  If I got hit by a bus tomorrow my kids would be set.  It's the 20-30 years in between there that the term fills the void.  Plus the amount of whole life you get might seem like a lot when the kid is 3, but at the rate inflation has been going the past 10 years, a 100K policy will only have the spending power of 40K when they're 33.  My 74 year old dad has a policy his parents bought him when he was little.  It's $500 and the insurance company doesn't even exist anymore.  If they would have just stuck $100 in GE stock for his high school graduation that would be worth over a million! 

As a disclaimer I do still have a term policy that I keep paying on because it's so cheap.  $300/year for 400K of coverage.  My work also provides something like 2X my annual income for free, so another 100K there.  

[nidena]

I don't have any insurance.  There's no need.  My cremation is already paid for.  And I have nobody depending upon my income except that furbabies.