Waiting in the grocery checkout line I can see how society has changed

I was grocery shopping tonight and I was struck by things I saw while waiting in the checkout line. The people running the registers didn't look like they belonged there. They looked too young for some reason. It seemed to me that in past years these people would have been in college, not working full time in a grocery store. I know there was no union since the store was Albertsons, the one that the union struck and lost out on.

I worked in a grocery store just out of high school then was drafted and returned to the store when I got back from Vietnam. I became a department manager and was making much more money than these folks make if you use today's dollars for the comparison. I was in the union and had benefits. These folks work for less and have less benefits.

I think that they can't afford college so they have to work full time. I also am amazed at the magazines in the check out line. One tabloid which calls itself the most trusted newspaper has a lead story about the finding of a mermaid cemetery. No more Time or Newsweek. Only mags about Jen and Brad and their new lovers.

It seems to me that society has changed for the worse.

...about the workers...It makes sense that fewer people can afford college. I was dirt poor in college and I barely qualified for Pell Grants. I'm thankful from the bottom of my heart that I got them. I can't imagine that the requirements are even more strict.

About the media in the check-out lanes... There was a discussion, on DU, about television shows. TV is just as bad as popular media. Much of it seems escapist and bizarre. I think the current state of popular media right now--is indicative of trouble. People understand that there is an undercurrent of unrest in our nation right now. People are struggling and they understand that Bush is bad. People are in various stages of denial about the enormity of the problem--and so they seek out television and magazines that help them "numb out" and escape reality.

The worse reality is--the more bizarre television and other entertainment becomes. I find the 245 variations of CSI to be quite disturbing. Just how many shows about serial rapists and killers do we need to see? Junk reality television seems to be a symptom of all of this, as well.

Interesting observations--and I'm sure that you understood they are symptoms of our ills.

I don't know why people believe that tabloid stuff. I was taught that they are all full of lies. I guess other people didn't get the same message.

Tammy

Life's a helluva' lot tougher than what folks are fed by the "teevee" (which implies the failure to have a variety of insurance coverages, a new car, stocks and bonds, new clothes, exotic vacations, perfect teeth and hair and body and boobs, a home, lotsa' STUFF every worthy American individual can have means you're just not good enough no matter what you do to have any of that).

Life is a helluva' lot less rewarding than they were told it would be IF they work hard, be lawful citizens, be faithful, and contribute to their community,...all that good stuff.

So, all the "bad" Americans who just don't have the "right stuff" to acquire all that shit the "teevee" tells them they should have turn to that which either entertains or escapes them away from their lot in life.

That's just MHO. I watch my Mom do it all the time. I don't condemn her for it, either. She needs a way to survive through this shit just like the rest of us.

However, it was in Mississippi and they had virtually no power. The only thing the union ever did for me was feed me at a hotel restaurant during our annual meeting. The fried oysters were good, as I recall. Thats one of the reasons I went off to college.

Trash/tabloid/beauty/crap is what I acknowledged on the magazine shelves. Several times I have actually taken the time to look at every aisle to see if any of the notable publications on our country and world were somewhere among all the crap papers. I saw,...none.

However, I still noted something I hold dear at the grocers I frequent: a sense of gratitude and neighborly conversation and concern. As a matter of fact, people seem more open to talking about troubles than before,...more supportive in those dialogues. Of course, I still live in a rural area where community health has some meaning left.

neighbors hold a pot luck dinner to raise money for them. Everyone gets a flier in their mail box asking you to bring a dish to pass and pay $10 for the dinner. All the money goes to the needy person. We also don't look our doors at night, yet.

and some rudeness.

I have been in line when they come up saying "if you come down here we can get you on aisle 9" I used to just tell them "I'm in line here."

Now I listen to my Ipod while shopping and have had the same thing happen, once the guy came right in front of me "Sir, Sir," I had to turn the Ipod off and he was starting to tell me about an aisle opening up, when I asked "Did you not see I was listening to something? Did you really find it absolutely necessary to interrupt me?" I didn't wait for him to respond I just turned the thing back on.

College doesn't pay anymore. Middle class kids can't afford the debt. Their parents can't help them out either.

Millions of Americans went back to school during the Clinton years and stacked up big time college debt and now can't find decent jobs to pay off their college debt. Those small colleges made money hand over fist though when Americans started having to pay money to learn job skills that used to be taught for free by employers across the country.

I don't want to go into the whole sob story but believe me a whole lot of us are in big time trouble because we counted on our "college education" to improve our quality of life and ended up with $30,000 worth of debt and $16 an hour jobs along with a mortgage, two kids, etc. etc.

I think more and more people are going to end up in lower and lower paying jobs. Illegal immigration and it's corporate greed connections are starting to make a real impact on society and you're 100 percent right, It is not for the better!