Everything is Shit: Tracking the Great Enshittening

[Guest]

The zombie CVS, a late-capitalism horror story

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-zombie-cvs-a-late-capitalism-horror-story/ar-BB1j9XFe

 

There is almost nothing left to steal at the CVS in Columbia Heights, and that gives you an idea of which items have actual value.

Blank CDs, for example — the thieves don’t even bother with them. The greeting card section has been left alone. The good magazines like Vogue and GQ and Sports Illustrated are gone, but there are still a few copies of Traditional Home, some special issues of Life devoted to Willie Nelson, and a Woman’s World that declares: “Bye bye, jiggly fat!” No soft drinks, but three gallon-sized jugs of Arizona green tea are still on the shelves on one recent visit.

Everything else that remains in the store in Northwest D.C., which is not much, is under plexiglass: Dawn dish soap, L’Oreal shampoo, MiraLax, a handful of Clairol root touch-up hair dye kits, flu season combo packs of DayQuil and NyQuil. The diapers are behind the counter. The Cetaphil and Neutrogena face washes are under lock and key.
Other shelves, stretching entire aisles, are totally empty.

[52-80 19066]

‘Dudes used to shovel a ton of gravel from a quarry and afford a 5 bedroom house and annual trips to Paris, and now they cant’
 

Like, maybe, todays market demands another job that is as or more economically productive and pays the dude commensurately and having fewer dudes shoveling gravel is a good thing.

[MissingInAction 24765]

1 hour ago, Covri said:

Just to clear up the numbers being thrown around $15 an hour is 31k a year not 41k. 10k is a big difference at that level of pay.

Can confirm.

[Incredulity 11532]

15 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

There is almost nothing left to steal at the CVS in Columbia Heights, and that gives you an idea of which items have actual value.

During the COVID grocery chaos I would always joke that whatever was left on the store shelf must really be awful.  30 ft of nothing and 4 SKU's just sitting there.

[Incredulity 11532]

On 2/22/2024 at 5:48 AM, Captainant said:

Shit, on an expensive ticket you're looking at $150-200 on fees that are not part of the listed price of the ticket. Shit should be illegal, but regulating business is unfortunately communism so we just get to bend over and enjoy it

 

On 2/24/2024 at 8:49 AM, Captainant said:

The enshittening is that telco providers have the solution to the spam and scam calling - add fucking authentication like the STIR/SHAKEN framework so that some dudes in in office in Chennai can't call me from my own cell number to tell me about my cars extended warranty. 

But the telcos won't, because it would take away a significant revenue stream from the number spoofing service for outbound calls that is used by legitimate businesses, and abused by scammers. Plus, implementing that authentication framework would finally push the telcos to upgrade the 60 year old systems that they've been taking money for to upgrade for decades. The executives don't want to spend the money because it would mean less payout to shareholders. 

 

On 2/23/2024 at 5:30 AM, Captainant said:

You will pay 30 to 50% more for all goods and you will be happy about it. Can't be harming profit margins for JORB CREATORZ!

 

 

Just a veritable fountain of "agreed upon facts".  Certainly not a never-ending spew of anti-capitalist bullshit.   The best part is the, "citations" provided to verify all these, "facts".

 

 

[aggie08 21379]

40 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

‘Dudes used to shovel a ton of gravel from a quarry and afford a 5 bedroom house and annual trips to Paris, and now they cant’
 

Like, maybe, todays market demands another job that is as or more economically productive and pays the dude commensurately and having fewer dudes shoveling gravel is a good thing.

By definition, half of the population is below median intelligence. And median work ethic. And median opportunity for advancement. Those medians are already pretty low. Many above those median levels value other things in life/careers above future salary potential.

We can't all be lawyers and professional cyclists who work weekends at their local P5 University as their offensive coordinator like your average Surly member. And, if we could, then those jobs would no longer be in the 1%.

Yes, people should live within their means and not except to fly first class to the coast of Spain on a whim. But they should still be entitled to decent healthcare that doesn't scare them away from seeing their doctor for fear of unexpected charges and a complete lack of billing transparency. "I should find a better job, so I can finally have reasonable healthcare" is a shitty thing to have to consider in this country.

My wife works in biotech--well known for their excellent employee healthcare plans--and just got charged $1300 for a mammogram. We'll pay it if we can't win the "uh, isn't that preventative?" argument with insurance because it's ultimately worth it for piece of mind to know she's healthy. But how many people would get that bill one time, then avoid the hospital at all costs until something truly serious arose? Just a terrible system for most Americans.

Edited March 1 by aggie08

[Captainant 27309]

10 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Just a veritable fountain of "agreed upon facts".  Certainly not a never-ending spew of anti-capitalist bullshit.   The best part is the, "citations" provided to verify all these, "facts".

Ok so in order of things:

• I literally just paid $150 in fees PER TICKET for a show I'm seeing in May. Do you want me to post my receipt or something? For fucks sake!
• The STIR/SHAKEN framework is directly from the FCC website, and it absolutely would cut down on spam calls. Implementing will have costs, and telcos are resisting their legally mandated fixes because they don't want to pony up.
  • https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication
  • https://commsrisk.com/big-us-telcos-ignored-stir-shaken-deadline-no-punishment-yet/
• I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with here. Since 2016, there's been about 28.5% inflation. Since 2009 there's been nearly 50% inflation.
  • https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1.00&year1=201601&year2=202401

[Incredulity 11532]

3 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I literally just paid $150 in fees PER TICKET for a show I'm seeing in May. Do you want me to post my receipt or something? For fucks sake!

...only if the transaction is documented in a peer-reviewed academic journal that you(or direct relative) own.

[immamac 42492]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

Fixating on a specific of job is wrong. Jobs change as the market change. I sit with my laptop at home doing emails and paid amply for it. This job wouldnt have been available to someone like me decades ago, and this job might be worth nothing decades from now. But there might be another job for my abilities providing my lifestyle  

If you are concerned about the poorer ranks, look at the poorer ranks, instead of the job. 

So serious Q: how large is this poorer rank, supposedly? how has that size changed over the years? how does it compare to other admirable places in the world?

The middle class is shrinking and it's not because there are that many more rich people. It costs more to be not poor, that bar keeps rising and the bar of average pay is rising slower than that. That's the fucking entire argument. People who used to be borderline middle class are now squarely  poor. the issue is at the same time the wealth of the top 0.01% has grown at the same clip of the total wealth of the bottom 50% and the top 10% being about the same as the mega ultra uber wealthy. Wealth disparity has never been greater than it is now at any point of American history, not just modern history. It's completely fucking broken that actual rich people feel absolutely dwarfed by thousands of other people. Having a few billionaires was crazy, now there's thousands of billionaires. It makes no sense. 

Being poor in the USA is still way fucking better than being poor in other countries, this is relative to our country not globally. 

[52-80 19066]

3 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

By definition, half of the population is below median intelligence. And median work ethic. And median opportunity for advancement. Those medians are already pretty low.

…

Ok, its all superficially correct and even agreeable, but is there any substantive or are we just gonna lean on superlatives as adjectives?

Whats low about these medians? How low exactly is this low?

Just saying “low is bad” is a fun tautology  

 

[RDCanecutter 26239]

2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Cargos, pony tail, whole bit. 

+ Highly specific opinions on comic books?

[aggie08 21379]

15 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Ok, its all superficially correct and even agreeable, but is there any substantive or are we just gonna lean on superlatives as adjectives?

Whats low about these medians? How low exactly is this low?

Just saying “low is bad” is a fun tautology  

 

Just pointing out the pretty obvious platitude that there are always going to be the haves and have nots, due to various internal and external factors. And have nots should still be entitled to decent, affordable health care.

I thought we were one the topic of people not being satisfied with their healthcare situation should seek other employment. Which derailed into general employer shittiness and the shrinking of the middle class.

But, honestly, I black out a little whenever I try to read this thread, so I'm probably behind.

Edited March 1 by aggie08

[MissingInAction 24765]

The poors in the US having nice things is why we/they haven't burned this motherfucker down yet. 

The same reason a fed dog doesn't bite, and will protect it's owner with it's life.

[immamac 42492]

Just now, MissingInAction said:

The poors in the US having nice things is why we/they haven't burned this motherfucker down yet. 

The same reason a fed dog doesn't bite, and will protect it's owner with it's life.

this is correct - now we can get back on track.

Enshittification is racing to the bottom on how far can the populace be pushed before revolting. We are teetering on the border of "this is okay" and that's what everyone is feeling/seeing/hearing. It's amplified by everything that used to be great turning to absolute dogshit and a money grab

[52-80 19066]

5 minutes ago, immamac said:

. People who used to be borderline middle class are now squarely  poor. the issue is at the same time the wealth of the top 0.01% has grown at the same clip of the total wealth of the bottom 50% and the top 10% being about the same as the mega ultra uber wealthy

…

It's completely fucking broken that actual rich people feel absolutely dwarfed by thousands of other people. Having a few billionaires was crazy, now there's thousands of billionaires. It makes no sense. 

What precisely makes up of this middle class that you base your post on? It gets boring relitigating stuff from pages ago, but the *median* household has more money, in *real terms*, than ever before. 

The lower middle (2nd lowest quintile) has more money, in real terms, than ever before. 

The official US Census’ poverty rate has stayed flat around 11% for forever. World Bank has Germany at 16%, Sweden at 16%, Netherlands at 14%, Switzerland at 16%. (They use slightly different criteria but the aim of the metric is similar). 

So what it comes down to is that people in the US at all income classes are doing better and better relative to the living costs….but you claim its bad because they *might not* be improving *as fast* as the upper upper upper classes?

That is a really fucked up toxic belief. Like, if im a orthopedic surgeon and “quite rich”, its terrible because jeff bezos the billionaire is way richer? Thats not broken economics, thats broken psychology. 
 

**
 

also lookie here and give me your thoughts. 

[InkaUtexas 25423]

So how does it get fixed?

[Captainant 27309]

1 minute ago, InkaUtexas said:

So how does it get fixed?

Spoiler

take it to the CR RARARRBABBBAABBGAGGHGHGHGLLLL

 

[MissingInAction 24765]

2 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

So how does it get fixed?

We both know how, and so do many others. 

We just have to give up our precious toys and bite our owners 

[52-80 19066]

 

2 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

 

A person can look at this and say, maybe if the red line gets decomposed into 80-90 & 90-100, that 2nd subgroup actually shot up at the expense of the 1st, but the data isnt available in deciles (or smaller).
 

And also the point still absolutely stands. If you’re in the 80-90 and rising, but your problem is the 90-100 rose more quickly…thats just petty jealousy. And the crux behind lots of peoples psychology here. 

[MissingInAction 24765]

Gas lighting is the ultimate refuge of the opressor.

[InkaUtexas 25423]

7 minutes ago, Captainant said:

  Hide contents

take it to the CR RARARRBABBBAABBGAGGHGHGHGLLLL

 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10134]

26 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

What precisely makes up of this middle class that you base your post on? It gets boring relitigating stuff from pages ago, but the *median* household has more money, in *real terms*, than ever before. 

The lower middle (2nd lowest quintile) has more money, in real terms, than ever before. 

The official US Census’ poverty rate has stayed flat around 11% for forever. World Bank has Germany at 16%, Sweden at 16%, Netherlands at 14%, Switzerland at 16%. (They use slightly different criteria but the aim of the metric is similar). 

So what it comes down to is that people in the US at all income classes are doing better and better relative to the living costs….but you claim its bad because they *might not* be improving *as fast* as the upper upper upper classes?

That is a really fucked up toxic belief. Like, if im a orthopedic surgeon and “quite rich”, its terrible because jeff bezos the billionaire is way richer? Thats not broken economics, thats broken psychology. 
 

**
 

also lookie here and give me your thoughts. 

My thought is the middle/median class gets very distorted now because of these two charts below and sure... salaries/income tend to raise over time across the board to keep up with cost of living:

[RDCanecutter 26239]

There's little common ground between middle class of 50 years ago and middle class now. For one thing, everybody wasn't a fat ass.

[Deej 76508]

Speak for yourself, fatty.

[RDCanecutter 26239]

3 minutes ago, Deej said:

Speak for yourself, fatty.

I have too much drug-induced diarrhea to get fat again. Admire my discipline!

[Incredulity 11532]

23 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

There's little common ground between middle class of 50 years ago and middle class now. For one thing, everybody wasn't a fat ass.

50 years ago everyone smoked a pack of Pall Malls a day.  Do you want the health system to struggle to treat lung cancer or diabetes?

[52-80 19066]

26 minutes ago, Deej said:

Speak for yourself, fatty.

@fattyflattie you’ve been summoned sir

[Guest]

1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

So how does it get fixed?

Bitch a lot.

Sit on your couch and be pissed that life hasn't fallen in your lap yet.

Say folks who disagree or have a different perspective just haven't seen enough yet.

[RDCanecutter 26239]

50 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

50 years ago everyone smoked a pack of Pall Malls a day.  Do you want the health system to struggle to treat lung cancer or diabetes?

The kids at my grade school were all into Gauloises, we were, 'ow do you say, intellectuals.

[Thatguy 8478]

Man, it's crazy people walk around this motherfucker seeing the price of goods, vehicles, and real estate and still think the way these guys do. We are all olds now and in decent positions in life but one should keep their ear to the ground because the generation behind us is struggling. You don't need charts to see it either. The birthing rates and amount of young adults living with their parents says all you need to know. 

[Da Fino 2719]

That ought to bring out more graphs. 

[fattyflattie 4636]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

@fattyflattie you’ve been summoned sir

Oh I’m not actually (that) fat.  Just an old handle from old forums.  Thread title definitely apropos for the last page though.  

[956 Worldwide 34313]

4 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

The zombie CVS, a late-capitalism horror story

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-zombie-cvs-a-late-capitalism-horror-story/ar-BB1j9XFe

 

There is almost nothing left to steal at the CVS in Columbia Heights, and that gives you an idea of which items have actual value.

Blank CDs, for example — the thieves don’t even bother with them. The greeting card section has been left alone. The good magazines like Vogue and GQ and Sports Illustrated are gone, but there are still a few copies of Traditional Home, some special issues of Life devoted to Willie Nelson, and a Woman’s World that declares: “Bye bye, jiggly fat!” No soft drinks, but three gallon-sized jugs of Arizona green tea are still on the shelves on one recent visit.

Everything else that remains in the store in Northwest D.C., which is not much, is under plexiglass: Dawn dish soap, L’Oreal shampoo, MiraLax, a handful of Clairol root touch-up hair dye kits, flu season combo packs of DayQuil and NyQuil. The diapers are behind the counter. The Cetaphil and Neutrogena face washes are under lock and key.
Other shelves, stretching entire aisles, are totally empty.

Washington, DC is getting enshittified. The first and foremost problem is the COVID-driven flight of workers from the city to the comfy suburbs.  That’s been compounded by some really bad city management decisions, especially on policing. There’s no doubt that the city is less pleasant than it was even a decade ago.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/01/downtown-dc-transformation-plan-00144253 

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Man, it's crazy people walk around this motherfucker seeing the price of goods, vehicles, and real estate and still think the way these guys do. We are all olds now and in decent positions in life but one should keep their ear to the ground because the generation behind us is struggling. You don't need charts to see it either. The birthing rates and amount of young adults living with their parents says all you need to know. 

It's like none of us have kids who are twenty0somethings.  None of us at all.

 

Totally disconnected.  Again, I just need to get outside my bubble...

[DixonHur 11074]

27 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Man, it's crazy people walk around this motherfucker seeing the price of goods, vehicles, and real estate and still think the way these guys do. We are all olds now and in decent positions in life but one should keep their ear to the ground because the generation behind us is struggling. You don't need charts to see it either. The birthing rates and amount of young adults living with their parents says all you need to know. 

What does "the generation behind us" mean? 

I'm Gen X, so for me that's Millennials, who are set to become the wealthiest generation in history according to this article.

Link

 

[Pato del Muerto 52320]

6 hours ago, Covri said:

Just to clear up the numbers being thrown around $15 an hour is 31k a year not 41k. 10k is a big difference at that level of pay.

That will be federal income tax-free money!

[aggie08 21379]

2 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

That will be federal income tax-free money!

Lucky bastards, cheating the system.

[F250 28658]

On 2/29/2024 at 3:44 PM, RDCanecutter said:

I just checked with your nurse and doctor, and they confessed that they were in the back room watching reruns of Lassie. The good ones, not the trashy second season.

My primary doctor will spend a good 30 minutes with me shooting the shit about football.

The first visit I had at his office the topic of high school football came up. It turned out we attended the same school and two of my coaches played with him in high school. They did back to back state championships. I kid you not, he retold the entire story beginning with "we first came together in 7th grade."  Almost an hour later he finished the discussion and then left to see another patient. He probably spent less than 5 minutes addressing my health.

[hayden_horn 11360]

3 hours ago, immamac said:

this is correct - now we can get back on track.

Enshittification is racing to the bottom on how far can the populace be pushed before revolting. We are teetering on the border of "this is okay" and that's what everyone is feeling/seeing/hearing. It's amplified by everything that used to be great turning to absolute dogshit and a money grab

but does it scale

[David Dennison 18603]

Hot take: everything sucks.

[RDCanecutter 26239]

43 minutes ago, F250 said:

My primary doctor will spend a good 30 minutes with me shooting the shit about football.

The first visit I had at his office the topic of high school football came up. It turned out we attended the same school and two of my coaches played with him in high school. They did back to back state championships. I kid you not, he retold the entire story beginning with "we first came together in 7th grade."  Almost an hour later he finished the discussion and then left to see another patient. He probably spent less than 5 minutes addressing my health.

I always maintain a bright and cheerful demeanor, just in case they only have one dose of some rare drug I need and they're trying to decide who to give it to.

As for wait time, I make money off of it by knocking out baseball-card-sized cartoons that make people stop at my show tables and maybe buy more expensive  stuff. Even if they don't, it's like drawing my own 5 dollar bills. I give some to the doc, but not too many because if she lets me die they're worth more.

But other than that, we generally talk about weird gross side effects and then she goes to Spain or Houston and presents the results.

[mchookem 16094]

i think it's GenZ, they're the ones most angry and feeling screwed. by all of us. but i don't actually know many millennials, maybe two or three. 

[immamac 42492]

30 minutes ago, mchookem said:

i think it's GenZ, they're the ones most angry and feeling screwed. by all of us. but i don't actually know many millennials, maybe two or three. 

I’m a boomer millennial. I carry cash, am not afraid of manual labor, know how to drive stick and change more than just the tire/oil on my own car. Millennials that don’t have a mommy and daddy windfall are turbo fucked. 

@52-80 I think one thing your charts don’t really capture is that people make and spend more real money than ever, but they are leveraged to the brink. Most people couldn’t go a full month without a paycheck it would be catastrophic for most. Is it a lot of people living beyond their means? Sure I guess, but there’s a lot of people that have a lot of nice shit that are flat fucking broke. 

In America we’ve figured out the magic of making everyone a wage slave. Everyone is actually poor they just have all kinds of nice shit as long as they are employed (including health insurance) as soon as that stops the train derails and it’s fucking disaster. 

The single largest net worth contributor for the middle class was owning real estate, namely their primary residence. The issue with having a generation of renters that don’t save and have no equity in anything is a huge red flag. Now of course most of these people are going to have their parents die and give them their house or inheritance and then poof as soon as that happens maybe the wealth thing happens for them. 

[fattyflattie 4636]

5 minutes ago, immamac said:

I’m a boomer millennial. I carry cash, am not afraid of manual labor, know how to drive stick and change more than just the tire/oil on my own car. Millennials that don’t have a mommy and daddy windfall are turbo fucked. 

@52-80 I think one thing your charts don’t really capture is that people make and spend more real money than ever, but they are leveraged to the brink. Most people couldn’t go a full month without a paycheck it would be catastrophic for most. Is it a lot of people living beyond their means? Sure I guess, but there’s a lot of people that have a lot of nice shit that are flat fucking broke. 

In America we’ve figured out the magic of making everyone a wage slave. Everyone is actually poor they just have all kinds of nice shit as long as they are employed (including health insurance) as soon as that stops the train derails and it’s fucking disaster. 

The single largest net worth contributor for the middle class was owning real estate, namely their primary residence. The issue with having a generation of renters that don’t save and have no equity in anything is a huge red flag. Now of course most of these people are going to have their parents die and give them their house or inheritance and then poof as soon as that happens maybe the wealth thing happens for them. 

Qfmft.  Great post.  

[52-80 19066]

9 hours ago, Thatguy said:

Man, it's crazy people walk around this motherfucker seeing the price of goods, vehicles, and real estate and still think the way these guys do. We are all olds now and in decent positions in life but one should keep their ear to the ground because the generation behind us is struggling. You don't need charts to see it either. The birthing rates and amount of young adults living with their parents says all you need to know. 

Man, its crazy you can just make a statement about the price of goods and vehicles and completely ignore the actual price of goods and vehicles as measured nationally by the govt. 

Guy is on some Birdbox shit. 

[52-80 19066]

7 hours ago, immamac said:

The single largest net worth contributor for the middle class was owning real estate, namely their primary residence. The issue with having a generation of renters that don’t save and have no equity in anything is a huge red flag. Now of course most of these people are going to have their parents die and give them their house or inheritance and then poof as soon as that happens maybe the wealth thing happens for them. 

Zoomers have the same home ownership rate as their age-cohorts in the past. 

X-Millenials dropped 8 percentage points long term, but have been regaining over the past decade.

 

[choripan 790]

On 2/29/2024 at 7:51 AM, Captainant said:

Haha, I officially feel stupid for engaging a particular poster here.

Last straw was posting the "average hours" worked chart a page or two ago, without context of how many of those people are working two or more part-time jobs.

Disingenuous at best. Me now leaving this thread that went from kvetching over enshittening to the shit-defender batsignal going somehow going up and bringing in the bootlicker cavalry.

 

[Fudge Nuggets 19118]

On 2/29/2024 at 9:39 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

So if Amazon is pressuring the cost of delivery through overhead and leverage, I suspect better service will be the dividend,

I laughed.

[Fudge Nuggets 19118]

2 hours ago, choripan said:

Disingenuous at best. Me now leaving this thread that went from kvetching over enshittening to the shit-defender batsignal going somehow going up and bringing in the bootlicker cavalry.

Well, corporate simps are gonna simp.  It is the way.

[StassneyHorn 6534]

In case some of you haven’t picked up hybrid or remote work, there’s some results of of UK that you won’t believe!!!

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/4-day-workweek-work-companies-share-results-after/story?id=107635577

One year after 61 U.K. companies opted to participate in a four-day week pilot study, 89% of the companies continued to keep the structure in place.

They’re working 32 hours over 4 days, with no reduction in pay

After one year, 51% of the companies have decided to implement the four-day workweek permanently and 89% have decided to continue the structure through the year.

In a follow-up survey with the participating companies' managers and CEOs, 100% reported that the four-day week had a "positive" or "very positive" impact on their organization, according to the study.

When researchers asked what the four-day structure had changed, 82% of surveyed companies reported positive impacts on staff well-being. 50% saw positive effects on reducing staff turnover and 32% said the policy had noticeably improved their recruitment, the study reports.