God, if only we actually had our own country…

Man, where does everyone in the comments live that it still works like this? Where I’m at, they basically have attempted to replace like 90% of cashier jobs with these machines. There is often either no cashier at all, or one single cashier with like 5 people in their line, each with shopping carts filled to the brim.

The self checkout lines routinely reach lines of 10+ people with many old people who struggle using the machines forced to use them and gumming up the operations more. I avoid going to the grocery store like the plague during any kind of higher traffic time because I don’t want to wait in line for 15 mins.

Other issue with self checkout machines is that some places (Kroger, looking at you) weigh the bag every time you scan an item before you can scan the next, which makes things go soooooo slow.

Oh god yeah, I feel that. I’d have a harder time keeping mine up if my colleagues were actually attempting to engage with me on it haha.

It’s so stupid, but definitely can be helpful professionally to maintain a profile there. Depends on your experience and what field you’re in, of course, but recruiters seem to use it a fair amount.

Definitely don’t use it for the garbage social media aspect (it’s like some weird crowd-sourced Chicken Soup for the Soul shit??) However, I’ve been convinced of its utility after getting a new job through a recruiter there without even looking. The process was sooo easy compared to applying for jobs the traditional way. Icing on the cake was that it came with a 50% raise and was for a position I would never have applied for on my own but I love it. Maybe it was lightning in a bottle, but I figure doesn’t hurt to keep up a page just in case another good opportunity comes along. If nothing else, the recruiters I hear from give me a sense of how hot the market is and what kind of jobs my profile is pinging me for in case I want to make tweaks.

Right? Amazon’s monopoly is definitely a problem but this part feels pretty par for course. Finding the sweet spot between price/competition/demand is like business fundamentals 101. I can assure you this is something all major retailers consider. There are also many analytics companies with their own “secret” algorithms (this probably just means proprietary?) focused on things things like pricing elasticity and optimization and are targeted to these retailers.

We used to do that in my old tiny apartment until one of us forgot and turned the oven on.

Yikes, pretty mean to call her an idiot. Seems like a high probability she was suffering from an eating disorder and/or other mental health issues. Most people don’t starve themselves to death out of stupidity.

That advice was born from women minorities struggling to get doctors to take their concerns seriously. Look, I get that medicine is a risk/benefit analysis, but patients also need some level of recourse if they aren’t being listened to. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be pushing for tests because you know something is off, only to finally be tested and told it’s too late, maybe if it was caught sooner. Yet, we know this happens. We also know that women and minorities receive demonstrably different care. That fact alone shows there are plenty of situations where a patient may need to fiercely advocate for themselves and question their doctors’ judgment.

I’m not saying completely ignore medical professionals and scream “lawsuit” because google. However, you live in your body and understand your own baseline more than anybody. Sometimes you absolutely can tell if something is truly wrong. Personally, I learned the difference between bad pain and there-is-something-fucking-wrong-you need-to-go-to-the-ER pain in my early 20s when I had ovarian torsion. Thankfully, I was at one of the best hospitals in the country, got a CT scan, and was in surgery lickety split. However, I met someone who had pretty much the exact same symptoms and story and ended up losing an ovary because she was sent home from the ER with them telling her it was normal cramps & anxiety.

Ultimately, imo it should be about informed consent. If you’ve gotten the same answer from 5 doctors and you still want the biopsy, despite the risks that have been plainly laid out for your, then fine. If you end up paralyzed, then you have to deal with the consequences of your decision.

I mean, there are tons of studies on racial and gender inequality in healthcare, but OK, go off.

For example, members of minority groups have longer wait times in the ER [7-9], are less likely to receive catheterization when identical expressions of chest pain are presented [10], and are less likely to be recommended for evaluation at a transplant center or be placed on a transplant waiting list when suffering from end-stage renal disease [11]. African Americans receive lower-quality pain treatment [12, 13], even when covered by the same medical insurance [14, 15] and seeking treatment at the same emergency department [16] as patients of other races. (https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/education-identify-and-combat-racial-bias-pain-treatment/2015-03)

“I was told I knew too much, that I was working too hard, that I was stressed out, that I was anxious,” said Ilene Ruhoy, a 53-year-old neurologist from Seattle, who had head pain and pounding in her ears.

Despite having a medical degree, Ruhoy said she struggled to get doctors to order a brain scan. By the time she got it in 2015, a tennis ball-sized tumor was pushing her brain to one side. […]

Doubts about women’s pain can affect treatment for a wide range of health issues, including heart problems, stroke, reproductive health, chronic illnesses, adolescent pain and physical pain, among other things, studies show. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors/)

Yeah, great question, I don’t understand it either, but marginalized groups like women or people of color can have a hell of a time getting medical professionals to take their concerns seriously. Maybe it’s just a hubris thing. “How dare this person question my judgment when I’m the doctor?”

I’ve never tried this, but advice I’ve seen online is if your doctor won’t order testing, ask them to note in your chart that they are declining testing. Apparently the implicit threat of a lawsuit if they’re wrong is enough to kick at least some of them into CYA mode.

I’m not sure I’m convinced there truly are that many skills an average person can’t gain proficiency in with a reasonable amount of time and effort. Sure, some people are more adept at things than others and maybe you’ll never gain a level of proficiency in music to become a professional musician, but given a little dedication most everyone can learn to play an instrument.

I think because often all we see is the output, it’s easy to discount the time and effort someone put in to get there. I once had a yoga teacher tell me I was so lucky to be “naturally flexible” because I had no idea how much some people struggled with it. Meanwhile, as a dancer, I had been stretching 5x/week for like 10 years to get to that point and was very inflexible before that and only moderately flexible when the comment was made haha.

Excuse you, I’m 34.

That drives me crazy and also the reviews who leave a confusing number of stars compared to their comment. “Best food I’ve ever had in my life, no complaints!” 3 out of 5 stars

Anger somehow don’t count as an emotion in the patriarchy.

That’s only for president. Naturalized citizens can run for all other public office positions.

Wow. Entirely unsurprising, but no less disappointing or infuriating.

Very Wes Anderson-y in a good way.

Oh good, another thing to love about living in Texas.

Sure, but that’s entirely beside the point here. Nobody is celebrating people being laid off en masse. The law changed because these jobs were apparently not being occupied to begin with,