Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US can just print money, with much better effect. It actually does that.
The US is starting to lack a credible means of delivering printed money to actual consumers.
s/is starting to lack/has always lacked/
More Americans are shoplifting food
91–100 of 166 posts
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many of those wealthy individuals (or their companies, at least) have lobbied to ensure that we don't have a government which takes upon itself to keep citizens out of starvation. Not sure about Elon Musk specifically, but politicians don't just magically decide to ignore the needs of their constituents.
Politicians magically decide to ignore the needs of their constituents whenever they think they can get away with it, unless they're saints - and not many saints are politicians. The better question might be, why do they think they can get away with it? Why do they get away with it? (By the way, note that this is not just a problem with one party...)
Whenever they can get away with it and it's in their best interest (thanks to lobbyists). If they don't get anything out of it, they may as well take the free goodwill from voters.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#93[flagged]
It's sad to see HN users just downvote something they don't agree with instead of responding to the arguments made berg.
berg, what other options do we have besides capitalism? We saw how millions of people died of starvation with communist/socialists societies.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#94The US is probably inches away from a serious catastrophy caused be the extreme inequality that's only gotten worse this year. Inequality is one thing, but when you're forced out on to the street to starve to death and there's nothing you can do to improve your situation that's totally different.
Nobody is starving to death in the US. Food stamps and food bank help with that. The situation may be bad, but not as dramatic as you paint it.
A lot of food banks are closed.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/coronavirus-food-banks-are-c...
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
> defund the police Yes. If [0] is a point of debate, we need to seriously reform the police system, and defunding/demilitarizing is a good starting point. > When we have politicians endorsing ... riot, and use violence and terror Source? Encouraging protests is not the same as encouraging riots, let alone violence/terror [0] https://www.npr.org/2020/12/07/943829901/police-in-ohio-say-...
We need a more authoritative police who are given authority to really police. This means use of force when needed without being thrown under the bus for doing so as a default response. What we really need is Judge Dredds or Robocops that can re-establish that "do bad things and bad things happen to you" that is no longer present in todays world.
Police are not judges or executioners.
Robocop, as initially specced, was the villain. It had an awakening, turned on its creators, and began .... well, serving justice, but still acting as judge and executioner.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The House passed the HEROES Act in mid May. The GOP Senate sat on it (and did nothing else either) for the past 7 months. Oh, except for a hearing pushing hydroxychloroquine in November, months after multiple studies had shown it ineffective, and a hearing promoting an anti-vaxer just last week. And I guess a bunch of hearings a few months ago wherein various GOP senators heaped ignorant abuse on public health offici…
This is false. The Senate introduced the similarly stupidly named HEALS act. It takes two to tango. It was politically driven: Democrats were afraid of giving Trump a win. Perhaps it was good politics, since it seems to have worked. From Newsweek: "Despite a refusal for roughly the past six months to advance a smaller aid package that she deemed 'half a loaf,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now willing to support a bi…
> The Senate introduced the similarly stupidly named HEALS act. It takes two to tango.
It didn't pass it, unlike the House and HEROES. The Senate could have acted on the passed House bill. The House had no bill from the Senate to take up, since the Senate bill died in (Republican-led) committee.
The House is the only one on the dance floor.
And Nancy Pelosi may have opposed the Republican position in negotiations, but Nancy Pelosi has no control on what the Senate passes.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Donate cash to your food bank. Mortgages, rent and utilities are all suspended almost everywhere, so are student loan payments. So hopefully people won’t be evicted and not have to worry about bills right now. But I wonder if an instacart app for food bank delivery would be a good idea. Kind of like meals on wheels. Dunno.. it would beat queuing in cars for miles. Maybe there’s a way to do crowd funded UBI... it coul…
> Mortgages, rent and utilities are all suspended almost everywhere. Wait, seriously? I haven't been following events in the USA during this COVID year, but I assumed that things are like in most other developed countries with regard to things expected of people. In most European countries you still have to pay your rent and utilities every month, in spite of the noticeable economic slowdown.
An eviction moratium exists, but it doesn't cover your bills. "Almost everywhere," and "suspended", lack truthiness. As far as I know, unpaid rent and utilities will be owed. Some legislatures and housing organizations forgave periods of time, I think - that could certainly give you the impression that it is ubiquitous.
Anecdotal: the food pantry near my home is often busy now; much, much more so than last year.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#98I can tell you that in Seattle shoplifting, vandalism, burglaries, car thefts, and other crimes take place all the time and it is not because someone is down on their luck and actually in need of basics like food. The increased crime has been induced for the following reasons:
1. Drug addicted vagrants are ubiquitous because the city doesn't enforce laws and instead enables this lifestyle by looking the other way. These addicts very often steal things like food that are easy to fence and barter for drugs.
2. Our city and county prosecutors don't actually bring charges/accountability against criminals.
3. The police department has far fewer officers per capita than comparable cities, and simply cannot spend time on investigating and catching suspects.
The revolving door of people committing low-level crimes is so bad that Seattle businesses have released reports on this problem (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5752913-SYSTEM-FAILU...) and written letters to politicians asking for help (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5752914-Prolific-Off...) only to be ignored. Unfortunately the growing problem of low-level crimes with no consequence for criminals has also jaded residents to the point that they don't even bother reporting most property crimes - after all, if criminals don't face consequences and insurance requires a deductible, there is simply no benefit to spending time on reporting things.
I don't doubt that some number of people who are shoplifting food are trying to be productive members of society, displaying personal responsibility, and just need some support to get back on their feet. For them, I hope we can improve programs like SNAP (https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assista...) to provide more benefits (higher spending limits for healthier food) with less red tape (less stringent eligibility requirements).
But around me and in other West coast cities I've been to, those committing these crimes are very often not deserving of sympathy and are willfully not being good citizens. To bring the constituency on board, we need to address both sides of this equation. We need to start enforcing laws and holding criminals accountable, while helping those who are deserving and in need. Otherwise, the rest of us are not going to be onboard with simply allowing criminals to commit crime.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#99The US is probably inches away from a serious catastrophy caused be the extreme inequality that's only gotten worse this year. Inequality is one thing, but when you're forced out on to the street to starve to death and there's nothing you can do to improve your situation that's totally different.
In the Bay Area there has been a big uptick in thefts and break-ins. My sources are local people and first-hand knowledge (such as seeing broken glass everywhere on the street). I'm in the Oakland area, but friends in other places have experienced and witnessed some crazy things this year. It just blows me away that (part of) Congress has stonewalled any attempts to get people money, given the lockdowns. Reportedly t…
Giving individuals money is a top Democratic political point but they don't have the negotiating power to make the GOP budge. Democrats would absolutely love to give a $1200 check to every individual, as that would help cities greatly.
Socialist is a toxic insult in the GOP party, and it's how they painted the Democrats in Florida, as well as AOC and Bernie.
Re: More Americans are shoplifting food
#100Many people are starving because they are locked down and not able to work, but I think that the grocery self scan that so many stores are moving towards, enables food theft; or at the very least it makes it easier. It would be interesting to see exactly how much shrinkage occurs due to the self scan.
Agreed. Self check is such an obviously dumb approach, especially with high value stuff like meat. People do stuff like swap tags or enter invalid PLUs all of the time. Was that a cherry (11/lb) or a potato (0.69/lb)?
If you see a gigantic corporation continuing to use an obviously dumb approach as part of its core business, it's possible that you might not have considered all the angles.