Are we in an undeclared Depression?
Monday, October 31st, 2022 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioIt was grey and rainy as I left for work today, but around 6PM, the rain let up, the clouds parted, and I saw a rainbow over the school, outside.
It was a mild Halloween, in the mid 60sF, with still a lot of color in the canopy out there.
About half the trees now, are bare, and many of the leaves on the ground have gone brown. But, as I said, there's still some blazing reds, golds, and oranges to be seen across the landscape.
--<>--
I had gotten Dad all set up to hand out treats while I was at work, lowering the screen on the side porch storm door, etc... and he'd been ready with a basket full of candy.
I was looking forward to hearing the final count from him, when I got home tonight, but was shocked when he told me the count was ZERO!
Not only did he not get a single trick or treater, but he didn't see a single soul out there on the street in a costume! They weren't just bypassing our house... they just weren't THERE!
Then, very late tonight... aroun 8:35PM, the front doorbell rang, and one mom, with four small kids in costume were on the stoop, awaiting treats. So I handed them out and... that brought the 2022 total up from 0, to 4!
--<>--
Dad's been the head of the house since 1957, and I asked him if he ever recalled a single year, in the past sixty five years, that there had been ZERO. And no!
One year, back in the 1990s, it snowed on Halloween, an was cold and windy, and that year we only had ONE.
But even in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, he'd counted eight!
Last year we had 24.
So... I'm really floundering for an explanation as to how this year, there were ZERO... trick or treaters, out on the street, during official hours, which are from 5PM to 7PM... on such a mild night!
--<>--
It had to be a confluence of events...
Firstly, Halloween fell on a Monday. This would reduce the number, if many kids had already done trunk or treating on Friday, as I witnessed at Grape Elementary.
Secondly, There was the rain... still going until around 6PM. That would reduce the number even further, and many may have doubted that the rain would subside before 7PM.
Thirdly, inflation!.. a quick check on Google suggests that candy prices went up 16% this year... which is higher than the rate of inflation for other goods.
AND... I did think it was odd last week at WalGreens to see candy on sale at 40% off!
Why would they be selling candy at such slashed prices the week BEFORE Halloween?
It would seem, lower middle class people like me, just weren't buying it this year?
--<>--
The picture, here, would be that... because of inflation, poor people made other plans, well in advance of Halloween... They'd buy less candy, and take their kids to trunk or treat on the Friday before... and then maybe have one little bag on hand for anybody who showed up on the actual Monday.
So it didn't matter that Walgreens was having a fire sale on candy this week, becuase by that point, everybody'd made their plans.
Then, on top of that... it rained the first hour.
So everybody just said, Fuck it, and stayed home!
That's the best explanation I can come up with.
------------{=0=}------------
If you follow this blog, you'll recall how amazed I was over the summer, to be hearing ZERO late night speeders, through most of June, and all of July & August... and in fact I'm still not hearing any now.
But late night speeders have been an absolute STAPLE of the noctournal soundscape for my entire life... not just in the summer, but year round.
But, the same year my speeders vanished, we had zero trick or treaters!
Both were due to the economy... to unprecidented inflation... and, supply chain issues.
But because these two metrics, speeders, and treaters, flatlined like never before... I'm gonna say this isn't just some run of the mill recession. This is a depression!
------------{=0=}------------
I was just talking to Helen tonight... my coworker custiodian. We don't talk much because we work in different parts of the building, but tonight I was surprised to find out that she had been the head custodian of a school for 26 years!
She said she finally quit the position because she was burned out and tired of dealing with asshole upper management... but now she was happy just working the simpler job on second shift.
She, in turn, was surprised that I'd been a maintenance guy at a hospital for 14 years, and I told her I was burned out and tired of dealing with assholes... but now I was happy just working my simpler job on second shift!
My point here, is that I think a LOT of people like us, got fed up with corporate bullshit before the pandemic and... are now working again, but volutarily making less money in exchange for more peace of mind!
--<>--
My neighbors next door sold their house this year to go live in a Winnebago for a while, and look for greener pastures. And the new neighbors who moved in, are multi-generational... two grandparents, two parents, and two kids... pooling their resources.
Other neighbors are raising chickens, breeding dogs, and growing their own food in their yards.
People are not just reacting to short term price fluctuations... rather, people have been, for a few years now... completely reinventing their lives to survive on far less conventional income.
They're becoming more self reliant... but also strengthening their support networks and pooling resources... and in general, just foregoing a lot of creature comforts that would've seemed mandatory, a decade ago.
And we started doing all this BEFORE inflation and supply chain issues began to manifest in 2020 and 2021.
We started doing this... because we were just fed up!
--<>--
Corporations lost tons of employees... from burger flippers, on up to regional managers... and simultaneously lost tons of customers... because everybody found lower wage jobs and other workarounds to survive on less.
And their reaction has been... to absolutely refuse to change their toxic working culture... absolutely refuse to raise wages... and... force fewer workers to do more!
And of course you're gonna see supply chain issues, when there are far fewer supply chain workers to move the goods, and far fewer store workers to stock the shelves!
And of course you're gonna see inflation, because those supply chain slow downs mean that supply is not meeting demand!
And the corporations are okay with inflation, because they think, eventually the lower class will give in, and come back to work.
But the lower class is fed up, and won't do it!
Next thing you know... late night speeders... who don't give a crap about any of this, and just want to go fast in their cars at night... can't afford gas!
They can't afford brakes and tires! They have to wait weeks for brake pads and tires to even become available!
And so... even THEY say, Fuck it! They stay home and play video games instead!
And the soundscape changes.
And the trick or treaters vanish.
And that... in my opinion... is a depression!
------------{=0=}------------
I mean, what the hell am I doing back there trying to fell and dismantle a three ton tree with an electric chain saw, a couple hand tools, and some discount rope and pulleys?
Because I don't have the goddam, three to five thousand dollars it would cost to just hire professionals!
Services like that... which are absolutely essential to anybody who owns a home... are now only for the upper class! And insurance to cover that... also... only for the upper class!
I found out from a commenter on my TikTok today that... my polyrope and pulley system likely saved my life on Saturday.
He said leaning trees are the most dangerous, and that without those ropes in place, the whole tree would've, "kicked," as that dorsal checking allowed the trunk to explosively split.
And he said that, kick, can take your head off like opening a beer!
So...
It's absolutely ridiculous that I've had to deal with such a momentous problem... absolutely by myself... because the price tag was beyond not just my wildest dreams, but my whole family combined!
Yet... SOMEHOW... I'm taking care of it, and I'm still alive!
------------{=0=}------------
This can't be good for the service sector who's livelihood used to depend on taking care of this kind of thing for everybody... when everybody could afford them!
If you're relying on just the wealthy to support your business... competition goes up and... you shut down and go get a janitor job, for peace of mind!
And then the number of people trying to tackle dangerous DYI jobs by themselves goes up... and their heads get snapped off like opening a beer can... and the survivors no longer have that income they brought in.
Or they go to the hospital, and can't afford the $75,000.00 Physical therapy bill, on top of the $5000.00 Emergency room visit, and the $2,000.00 deductable... and whatever they were trying to fix remains broken!
Houses cave in!... society collapses!... Human sacrifice, dogs & cats sleeping together!.. MASS HYSTERIA!
--<>--
So... I guess let's hope people vote, a week from tomorrow?
I want my speeders and trick or treaters back... and I want to be able to afford a tree removal service next time around.
------------{=0=}------------
In other news, I started a new audio book today... Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
Like so many other examinations of the human mind, Bolte divides it into four, characters.. Characters, One, Two, Three, and Four.
Bolte's four characters are different from Kahneman's, System One, and System Two.
But they are more aligned with the old Left Brain/ Right Brain dichotomy.
However, I doubt she'll have anything to say about the Sleep/ Awake mental dichotomy.
--<>--
Everything I've been reading, or seeing on YouTube lately, is fairly contemporary, from the past decade, or more recent.
So... while everybody seems to see the mind now, as being comprised of different characters... there's no consensus on how many characters... or how they all fit together.
As for bundling the dream experience into that, along with sexuality?... forget it!
--<>--
But at any rate, Bolte's four characters do correspond to the brains physical anatomy... limbic left, cortex left, limbic right, and cortex right... with the autonomic brain stem being a kind of uncredited fifth character she likely won't delve into much.
I should finish this book by Thursday, so I plan to report on it by then.
--<>--
That's the Halloween entry!
Happy November!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
It was a mild Halloween, in the mid 60sF, with still a lot of color in the canopy out there.
About half the trees now, are bare, and many of the leaves on the ground have gone brown. But, as I said, there's still some blazing reds, golds, and oranges to be seen across the landscape.
I had gotten Dad all set up to hand out treats while I was at work, lowering the screen on the side porch storm door, etc... and he'd been ready with a basket full of candy.
I was looking forward to hearing the final count from him, when I got home tonight, but was shocked when he told me the count was ZERO!
Not only did he not get a single trick or treater, but he didn't see a single soul out there on the street in a costume! They weren't just bypassing our house... they just weren't THERE!
Then, very late tonight... aroun 8:35PM, the front doorbell rang, and one mom, with four small kids in costume were on the stoop, awaiting treats. So I handed them out and... that brought the 2022 total up from 0, to 4!
Dad's been the head of the house since 1957, and I asked him if he ever recalled a single year, in the past sixty five years, that there had been ZERO. And no!
One year, back in the 1990s, it snowed on Halloween, an was cold and windy, and that year we only had ONE.
But even in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, he'd counted eight!
Last year we had 24.
So... I'm really floundering for an explanation as to how this year, there were ZERO... trick or treaters, out on the street, during official hours, which are from 5PM to 7PM... on such a mild night!
It had to be a confluence of events...
Firstly, Halloween fell on a Monday. This would reduce the number, if many kids had already done trunk or treating on Friday, as I witnessed at Grape Elementary.
Secondly, There was the rain... still going until around 6PM. That would reduce the number even further, and many may have doubted that the rain would subside before 7PM.
Thirdly, inflation!.. a quick check on Google suggests that candy prices went up 16% this year... which is higher than the rate of inflation for other goods.
AND... I did think it was odd last week at WalGreens to see candy on sale at 40% off!
Why would they be selling candy at such slashed prices the week BEFORE Halloween?
It would seem, lower middle class people like me, just weren't buying it this year?
The picture, here, would be that... because of inflation, poor people made other plans, well in advance of Halloween... They'd buy less candy, and take their kids to trunk or treat on the Friday before... and then maybe have one little bag on hand for anybody who showed up on the actual Monday.
So it didn't matter that Walgreens was having a fire sale on candy this week, becuase by that point, everybody'd made their plans.
Then, on top of that... it rained the first hour.
So everybody just said, Fuck it, and stayed home!
That's the best explanation I can come up with.
If you follow this blog, you'll recall how amazed I was over the summer, to be hearing ZERO late night speeders, through most of June, and all of July & August... and in fact I'm still not hearing any now.
But late night speeders have been an absolute STAPLE of the noctournal soundscape for my entire life... not just in the summer, but year round.
But, the same year my speeders vanished, we had zero trick or treaters!
Both were due to the economy... to unprecidented inflation... and, supply chain issues.
But because these two metrics, speeders, and treaters, flatlined like never before... I'm gonna say this isn't just some run of the mill recession. This is a depression!
I was just talking to Helen tonight... my coworker custiodian. We don't talk much because we work in different parts of the building, but tonight I was surprised to find out that she had been the head custodian of a school for 26 years!
She said she finally quit the position because she was burned out and tired of dealing with asshole upper management... but now she was happy just working the simpler job on second shift.
She, in turn, was surprised that I'd been a maintenance guy at a hospital for 14 years, and I told her I was burned out and tired of dealing with assholes... but now I was happy just working my simpler job on second shift!
My point here, is that I think a LOT of people like us, got fed up with corporate bullshit before the pandemic and... are now working again, but volutarily making less money in exchange for more peace of mind!
My neighbors next door sold their house this year to go live in a Winnebago for a while, and look for greener pastures. And the new neighbors who moved in, are multi-generational... two grandparents, two parents, and two kids... pooling their resources.
Other neighbors are raising chickens, breeding dogs, and growing their own food in their yards.
People are not just reacting to short term price fluctuations... rather, people have been, for a few years now... completely reinventing their lives to survive on far less conventional income.
They're becoming more self reliant... but also strengthening their support networks and pooling resources... and in general, just foregoing a lot of creature comforts that would've seemed mandatory, a decade ago.
And we started doing all this BEFORE inflation and supply chain issues began to manifest in 2020 and 2021.
We started doing this... because we were just fed up!
Corporations lost tons of employees... from burger flippers, on up to regional managers... and simultaneously lost tons of customers... because everybody found lower wage jobs and other workarounds to survive on less.
And their reaction has been... to absolutely refuse to change their toxic working culture... absolutely refuse to raise wages... and... force fewer workers to do more!
And of course you're gonna see supply chain issues, when there are far fewer supply chain workers to move the goods, and far fewer store workers to stock the shelves!
And of course you're gonna see inflation, because those supply chain slow downs mean that supply is not meeting demand!
And the corporations are okay with inflation, because they think, eventually the lower class will give in, and come back to work.
But the lower class is fed up, and won't do it!
Next thing you know... late night speeders... who don't give a crap about any of this, and just want to go fast in their cars at night... can't afford gas!
They can't afford brakes and tires! They have to wait weeks for brake pads and tires to even become available!
And so... even THEY say, Fuck it! They stay home and play video games instead!
And the soundscape changes.
And the trick or treaters vanish.
And that... in my opinion... is a depression!
I mean, what the hell am I doing back there trying to fell and dismantle a three ton tree with an electric chain saw, a couple hand tools, and some discount rope and pulleys?
Because I don't have the goddam, three to five thousand dollars it would cost to just hire professionals!
Services like that... which are absolutely essential to anybody who owns a home... are now only for the upper class! And insurance to cover that... also... only for the upper class!
I found out from a commenter on my TikTok today that... my polyrope and pulley system likely saved my life on Saturday.
He said leaning trees are the most dangerous, and that without those ropes in place, the whole tree would've, "kicked," as that dorsal checking allowed the trunk to explosively split.
And he said that, kick, can take your head off like opening a beer!
So...
It's absolutely ridiculous that I've had to deal with such a momentous problem... absolutely by myself... because the price tag was beyond not just my wildest dreams, but my whole family combined!
Yet... SOMEHOW... I'm taking care of it, and I'm still alive!
This can't be good for the service sector who's livelihood used to depend on taking care of this kind of thing for everybody... when everybody could afford them!
If you're relying on just the wealthy to support your business... competition goes up and... you shut down and go get a janitor job, for peace of mind!
And then the number of people trying to tackle dangerous DYI jobs by themselves goes up... and their heads get snapped off like opening a beer can... and the survivors no longer have that income they brought in.
Or they go to the hospital, and can't afford the $75,000.00 Physical therapy bill, on top of the $5000.00 Emergency room visit, and the $2,000.00 deductable... and whatever they were trying to fix remains broken!
Houses cave in!... society collapses!... Human sacrifice, dogs & cats sleeping together!.. MASS HYSTERIA!
So... I guess let's hope people vote, a week from tomorrow?
I want my speeders and trick or treaters back... and I want to be able to afford a tree removal service next time around.
In other news, I started a new audio book today... Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
Like so many other examinations of the human mind, Bolte divides it into four, characters.. Characters, One, Two, Three, and Four.
Bolte's four characters are different from Kahneman's, System One, and System Two.
But they are more aligned with the old Left Brain/ Right Brain dichotomy.
However, I doubt she'll have anything to say about the Sleep/ Awake mental dichotomy.
Everything I've been reading, or seeing on YouTube lately, is fairly contemporary, from the past decade, or more recent.
So... while everybody seems to see the mind now, as being comprised of different characters... there's no consensus on how many characters... or how they all fit together.
As for bundling the dream experience into that, along with sexuality?... forget it!
But at any rate, Bolte's four characters do correspond to the brains physical anatomy... limbic left, cortex left, limbic right, and cortex right... with the autonomic brain stem being a kind of uncredited fifth character she likely won't delve into much.
I should finish this book by Thursday, so I plan to report on it by then.
That's the Halloween entry!
Happy November!
°¦}
