#and most of my shopping is done online so its worthless in that aspect

[feline-insolitum]

man whenever i express wanting to wait until christmas or my birthday to get something because i dont want to spend my own money for fear that ill get reprimanded my parents will be like "youre allowed to spend money!! youre not a burden for spending your money that you have that isnt our money in any way!!!" so then i go and spend my own money and they reprimand me and yell at me for spending my money

????????????? absolutely baffling.

[nickgerlich]

Get Ready To Shop

It’s fun to think back to the 80s. While it seems like they weren’t that long ago, we must sober up and realize that was—um—40 years ago, depending on which year you’re recalling. Those were good years for me. I earned a BA, MBA, and PhD, and started my job at WT. Oh, and got married the first time. OK, four out of five ain’t bad.



It was the time of hair bands, women in colorful leotards and cozy leg warmers, and Ronald Reagan. Actually, if you could mash up all of them into one, it would be pretty funny. And it was also the decade that televised home shopping clubs took root, thanks to the prevalence of cable TV.



Home Shopping Club (later Home Shopping Network, or HSN) was founded in 1982, and four years later, QVC (Quality Value Convenience) came along to compete. They’re both still in existence today, although the company that owns QVC now also owns HSN. It’s an alphabet soup, but the premise is the same: nonstop 24/7 live selling.



While these started out primarily as liquidators, they quickly grew into a variety of categories, especially clothing and accessories sought by women. Fashion designers jumped on board, drooling at the prospects of a sales platform that could stretch as long as the company wanted. Create excitement, show a quantity available countdown clock, and voilá! The phones were ringing off the hook as folks called in (remember, this was pre-internet!).

To be honest, I think those original stations preyed upon lonely old women. My mother was one of them. She bought a lot of worthless junk from them, but at the same time, they provided entertainment. For the life of me, I cannot understand how having someone sell to you nonstop is entertaining, but it was.

I never tuned in to those stations on my own, but would be subjected to them whenever we visited Florida. And now that both are gone, I haven’t even given a passing thought to them. Well, until right now, when I discovered that livestream shopping may be the new rage, and outlets like Amazon, TikTok, and YouTube are actually banking on them.

It’s a new spin on an old idea, and looks and feels a lot different from the 24/7 onslaught on cable. This time around the people doing the selling are influencers, and they call the shots for when they go live. And among the three platforms duking it out for prominence, only Amazon can actually stock the inventory and make for seamless transactions.

All of which means that, if you are a fan and potential customer of someone you follow, you better be ready to go shopping whenever they pull the trigger. In some regards, this now sounds like BeReal, in which users have no control over when they are called to action.

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of livestream shopping is that it became a “thing” in China a few years ago, especially during the pandemic. And while Amazon found it could not export its ways to China, the opposite may very well prove to be true here. Looks like another weather balloon to me.

Personally, I’m just not that much of a shopper. I tend to be very purposive, having done my homework for a long time on pricey objects, saving my money, and waiting out the periodic sales. I do not, however, respond well to someone barking out orders and telling me to get on this.

But then again, it may very well work stateside, where I suspect the demographics will trend sharply toward Gen-Z, and, depending on the product categories, probably more female than male. I cannot speak for all of the people of my gender, but I’ve got too many things going on during my waking hours to even consider being on-call for a sale. That’s me, though. YMMV. And to be fair, I can’t picture many women beyond their 20s—working, with children, bills to pay, spouses or partners—yeah, this may be a non-starter with them as well.



Thankfully, online shopping and app usage is lowest among seniors, so people like my mother are probably not in the new target market. Otherwise, we might see history repeating itself.

Just leave the bad clothing in your closet.

Dr “Hard Pass“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

[queerlyhalloween]

Not to sound like the joker™️ but i hate western society. I know that hair and clothes aren't gendered, so do most of my mates, ive been working hard at unlearning the internalized transphobia that's just a part of being trans in the UK and actually ALLOWING myself to think about going on hormones and dressing in ways other than "ambigious as possible" despite the fact im non-binary

i grew myself a little mullet because ive not been working in the pub and wanted solid snake hair, ive allowed myself to look at my face and the long hair around it and not despair because i know that longer hair doesn't make me a woman, but the moment you go into a shop, or get takeaway or pass by people in the street its all "move out the way of this lady!" and "thank you, ma'am"

i dont want the gender option of 'other' on my ID i want to know 1 good reason why gender should be listed on an ID in the 1st place

ive just come back from the range and i had my hair up like some e-thot fuckboy, i had to go BACK to the range because they got my click and collect order wrong so ive got two members of staff looking over my order, im dressed in black jeans and a black masc-looking ripped shirt, mask covering half my face and as the manager's showing the kid who served me the receipt they go "oh I served that guy earlier" and the manager corrects them "its a lady". I say "im niether" and they both just stare at me like im a toddler. Im already panicking because the air feels the same way it did when some cunt came after me in the pub toliets. "dont worry about it :)" i say, they both turn back to the tills and completely ignore me.

Anyway, micro-aggressions, ive experienced a lot of them for many reasons over the course of my life and today ive decided to snap.

Not at the people in the range like, just in general.

I will never pass. That's just an element of trans euphoria i will never get to experience. Not right off the bat, anyway. Not where i live, and most likely not in my lifetime. Maybe for kids in LA or Brighton, and hey power to you guys man im happy for you, but people assume or guess m/f when they look at me and they will never get it right.

So when i see people on this site try and twitter etc rank "who's the most oppressed"™️ like a godamn smash bros tier list it blows my mind because of all the things you could spend your days doing thats what youre expending energy on?!

You could be the exact same age, race, sex, gender, sexuality, you could have the exact same disabilities, mental health conditions and money in your bank as another person on this site and you'd still never understand what they've been through. Our experiences, our families, our morals and lives are always gonna be different and the moment you try to write definitive rules on whose got it worse you've already lost and you're already wrong. Oppressed classes are not a fucking hivemind and pretending they are is only going to cause you more problems. I get the strong sense that some of you looked at the word intersectionality, went "ah yeah, i know what that means" having never read up on the matter, then proceeded to play the pain olympics.

And its creating a culture where kids feel the need to spills their souls online to justify living their lives!

You've not listed your disabilites in your bio so you're able-bodied. You're Irish but haven't listed your race so you're white. You're cis man so you've never played with gender and suffered as a result. You're asexual so clearly you're a cringeworthy baby who's never experienced a wrong-doing in their life.

The reverse is true too, if you list every aspect of yourself then you're automatically honest. The more opressed you are the less likely you are of causing harm to others. Psht, don't have a carrd in this day and age? What are you, a fraud? cishet white man playing make believe? Post a selfie or face the wrath of ozymandaus. What's privacy? It takes me 3 minutes to read the bio on this discourse side-blog so clearly they're an angel.

my mam abused me for years, she did the same to my brother when i left home at 18 and my dad drank himself to death. My nan, his mother, never believed me because my mam's a disabled woman with a lot of trauma, and at 14 how do you explain to the woman who takes you to the beach that it's WORSE because as she's beckoning you to the side of her bed so she can scream point blank in your face, or hit you, you're never truely sure, you're thinking about running away because of course she physically can't chase you but she can throw. And then where would you go if you did buggar off?

"You have to sleep sometimes" she used to say to me when I'd piss her off. Other days she told me horror stories about kids in care, and disabled people having their kids taken away, made me promise that I'd always love her and always be her baby, and I'd do that for her because she's my mam, she'd be satisfied then ignore me for a while. I grew up thinking that was entirely normal until i'd tell funny family stories at school and nobody would laugh. The closest I got to truely running away was when I changed my name and pronouns and her rejection, turned to vitriol one night and I so, so, nearly held a knife to my throat and simply fell forwards in the uni showers. Obviously I didn't do that.

But she's had a shitter life than me thus far so she's in the right, as the online black/white dichotomy states. I keep her at arm's length but I'm unable to cut her away without losing the rest of my family because I dared defy the role of eldest child and care for her as I've done my whole life, as is expected.

we need to take things on a case by case basis, and learn when stuff is none of our business.

"Hey! :) I see you've reclaimed (X) slur, without submitting the proper paperwork. Real quick tell me every trauma you've ever experienced or I'll write a callout post :) delete this anonymous message (as is your right) and i'll assume you as sus ❤"

you can only call yourself a dyke if on your 13th birthday, the moon's tender rays struck you through your bedroom window and gave you your first wet dream about girls.

Great, cool. I have no interest in calling myself a dyke, i cant call myself a lesbian because it makes me dysphoric, thats why im queer, but i can assure you that when 3 kids from catholic school pinned me under the bridge and threatened to cut me open for being a "dirty dyke tramp" they didn't play 20Qs with me first to check that i was actually a lesbian.

if your first thought is "well thats just misdirected homophobia, so youre not ACTUALLY a victim" log the fuck off and consider what's wrong with you. Because all our oppressors care about is sniffing out the wrong on you and beating it out, they dont care what breed of wrong it is.

so you're going to spend your day, the enlightened adult that you are, frothing at the mouth because some 15yr old dared call themselves butch despite them being OnLY a BiSexUAl? You're gonna say that trans woman deserves to be suicidal because yes she may be trans BUT she's from the UK, so clearly she loves her horrid country and government. You're gonna say that black lad deserves racial abuse because he's trying to focus on his studies rather than go to protests. That 19yr old who's living in poverty deserves it because they work for Amazon. Texans deserve to freeze to death because there are republicans in Texas.

You're going to harass a complete stranger coming to terms with the parts of themselves society has taught them are worthless at best because they're not doing it the way YOU think is right.

This post has not ended where I started it but I really dont care:

Some of you are so fucking desperate to be the bullies you never got to be in secondary school and it shows. But you're cowards. You can't just admit you want to divide and concur so you do it in a new woke way and when your time on this earth is done, you'll have commited the same pain that's been dealt to you and wonder why you died miserable in a world thats more or less the same.

okay to reblog but dont @ me for a debate because i have, like, real problems and will just block you

[seedfinance]

The Worst Personal Finance Advice on TikTok (and Why It’s Wrong)

Money / financial planning

Funstock / Shutterstock.com

TikTok isn’t just about viral dance videos. It has quickly become a popular resource for personal financial advice – but unfortunately, not all is well. While there are some legitimate money experts on the app, there is a lot of financial advice on TikTok that is misleading or downright wrong.

Related: Top 10 Money Professionals To See On TikTok Most Influential Money: Where do Americans get their financial advice?

GOBankingRates asked personal finance experts to debunk some of the worst money tips on TikTok – so if you see any of these popups on your #fyp, keep scrolling.

Starting an S Corporation can help you avoid taxes

In a popular TikTok video, a woman claims that “if you start an S corporation and you own 100%, you can buy anything that you own under that S corporation and you won’t pay any tax on anything you own The video also claims you can hire your children for $ 12,000 a year tax-free for you and return that expense to your household.

Why this is wrong: “S-Corporation is only allowed to buy things that are considered common and necessary expenses for their own business,” said Bill Smith, chief executive of the CBIZ MHM National Treasury. “For example, if it buys a lawn mower to mow your lawn with, it will be treated as a taxable distribution to you. There are countless instances where using a company as a personal checkbook is discussed and they are not limited to S companies. “

The claim that you can “hire” your kids for $ 12,000 a year tax-free probably refers to the annual gift tax exemption – which wouldn’t even apply here.

“S-Corporation does not have the annual gift tax exclusion for individuals (which is up to $ 15,000 for 2021),” said Smith. “The standard penalty for 2021 is $ 12,550 (not sure when the video was released). Assuming the child is working lawfully and the compensation is reasonable, there would be no income tax but there would still be employment taxes. S-Corporation would not deduct the $ 12,000 salary if the children were not working or the compensation was inadequate. It seems to mix up the standard deduction and the annual gift tax exclusion. There is no aspect of this that includes “giving back to your family household”. What it seems to be saying is your kids can work tax free, but it implies they don’t have to do anything to get their $ 12,550 in 2021. That is imprecise. “

See: 10 finance books that will change your life (and finances)

Anyone can teach themselves how to day trade and be successful at it

Much of TikTok’s personal finance content revolves around day trading and how various users have been successful with it. However, this is not an investment strategy that experts recommend.

Why this is wrong: “To be consistently successful in day trading, you must have significant capital, time and emotional stamina – qualities most people don’t have,” said Will Rhind, founder and CEO of GraniteShares, a New York City-based ETF issuer with over $ 1.5 billion in assets under management. “While first-time day traders are initially lucky, they are more likely to suffer losses over time. You could lose all of your investment or, worse, get into debt if leverage was used. It is important never to speculate with more money than you can afford to lose. “

Rhind recommends focusing on building long-term wealth rather than short-term gains.

“You are probably better off investing your money in a diversified investment vehicle that eliminates the guesswork,” he said. “Exchange traded funds, for example, offer tax-efficient, cost-effective and transparent exposure to a basket of securities that are traded on a stock exchange like a share. There are thousands of ETFs that are suitable for a variety of investment goals, such as capital growth, wealth preservation, income generation and inflation hedging. “

Find out: Best expert money advice for millennials

You can turn $ 56,000 into $ 1 million in 11 years with compound interest

In a TikTok video, a woman asks @curtisray for financial advice and says her husband makes $ 80,000 a year and she makes $ 56,000. Ray recommends that the couple live solely on the man’s income while the woman pays her entire salary into a compound interest account. He “works the numbers” and states that your investment of $ 56,000 will become $ 1 million in 11 years – tax-free.

Why this is wrong: Andrew Meadows, senior vice president at Ubiquity Retirement + Savings, notes that living on a single income is easier said than done.

“Who can get by on $ 56,000 a year for no pay?” He said. “Even if this example shows a dual-income household, this is about what you are willing to give up. In addition, you have to wait 11 years to receive this “million”. It sounds simple: forego an annual salary (if that’s even possible) and you’ll be a millionaire in 11 years. While it’s true that it’s tax free – your contributions are taxed before they are deposited, but you are not taxed on interest – you don’t quite get to a million when you look at 2% interest and account fees. Neither do I see the calculations for the fees; There are always fees that people miss out on that can eat up your savings. “

Ray’s advice may not be “wrong,” but few financial matters are as mundane as he makes them seem.

Learn: How Much Do TikTokers Make? Here are 5 of the top earning TikTokers

“Finance is a nuanced business, and getting rich quick is often only for the chosen and fortunate,” said Meadows. “Beware of all the things that are omitted in this advice. If you listen critically, you will find that you are missing the information: What is the level of interest? Who is it through Is this facility insured? What are the fees? While some things may be true, simply stringing numbers together with loose logic is not going to make quick money. I’ve always been told, ‘If it looks that easy, why doesn’t everyone else do it?’ And while this may be a solid investment for some, one size doesn’t fit all. “

Don’t make a down payment on a home unless you have an obligation to do so

In another TikTok video, Ray says it’s best to make the smallest deposit possible and then put the rest of the money you’ve saved on a home in a compound interest account.

Why this is wrong: Alex Klingelhoeffer, CFA, CFP, at Exencial Wealth Advisors, said this is not necessarily “wrong” advice, but it may not be the best advice for everyone.

“This advice comes from a good source,” he said. “If, like a mortgage, you can borrow at a low rate – 3-4% – and invest 7-9% in the markets, then normally you should. In fact, most people have a mortgage and investments. What this advice ignores is the behavioral side of investing. Most people will clearly chase the markets, see the market fall, sell, and be disappointed with the experience. In fact, I’ve seen this countless times with people who walk into my office at 40 and make the exact same mistakes in their 20s. “

In addition, owning a home is a safer investment than the market.

“The problem with this system is that it is anti-fragile,” said Klingelhoeffer. “If you lose your job, have poor health, or have some other problem, your investments could go down while you need cash. Is the money available in a HELOC? No, because if you only have 3% less, you have no equity to speak of. Again, this comes from a good side, and in a spreadsheet I can turn anyone with enough leverage into a billionaire. In the real world, the fluctuations will undo this strategy. “

Continue reading: Old School Money Advice That You Shouldn’t Follow Any More

Early purchases in newer cryptocurrencies will make you rich

TikTok user @superhexwin suggests shopping in new cryptocurrencies – like HEX – to get rich, noting that people who shopped early on in Bitcoin and Ethereum are now extremely wealthy.

Why this is wrong: “Yes, assets can and do rise astronomically. As is well known, two pizzas were once sold for 10,000 Bitcoin, which would now be worth 350 million dollars, ”said Klingelhoeffer.

However, the rise in Bitcoin does not indicate that every cryptocurrency in the market will experience the same increase in value.

“As of 2021, the main use of crypto is a bigger fool, meaning you buy it to sell to someone else,” said Klingelhoeffer. “There are a lot of coins out there today and 99% of them will be worthless in less than three years. Why? There is a limited supply of people willing to invest a large portion of their net worth in crypto and those who do will want some liquidity. Until there is a coin with a demonstrable real world benefit that is better than traditional banking in terms of functionality, power consumption and most importantly, legality, crypto is just a space to speculate and see if you can make a winner. I don’t envy people who go to the casino for the same reason. It’s fun – buy with what you can afford to lose. “

More from GOBankingRates

Last updated: June 21, 2021

About the author

Gabrielle joined GOBankingRates in 2017 and brings a decade of experience in the journalism industry. Before joining the team, she was a writer and reporter for People Magazine and People.com. Your work is also at E! Online, Us Weekly, Patch, Sweety High, and Discover Los Angeles, and she was featured as a celebrity news expert on Good Morning America.

source https://seedfinance.net/2021/06/22/the-worst-personal-finance-advice-on-tiktok-and-why-its-wrong/

[dinatcn12575-blog]

Best Flames Truck Wedding Invitations

Christmas is a time for celebrations, family gatherings, spectacularly delicious food, gifts and the usual merriment which surrounds the entire festivities. Of course, the Christmas holidays are a well earned break from the grime and hard work we put in all year long for the people most dear to them. Thus, it is but natural to want to have an enjoyable time with the people you are surrounded with, your family, your friends, your colleagues and acquaintances, even complete strangers. No one goes without wishing anyone. We can add even more cheer to our festivities by pairing them with filler crazy games for the whole gang. They will get the people talking, chatting and enjoying themselves at party, in other words, break the ice. If you are at home, you could call in guests with their kids and play numerous games meant for all age groups or for kids specifically, if you want to keep them occupied while you mingle with the other guests. Crazy Christmas games for kids could include pin the star on the tree, where the kids help put the shining Christmas star on top of the big Christmas tree, and whosoever puts theirs the highest, wins the game. Another one could be the lost and found game, where children, both who can read as well as those who can't, can play together. What needs to be done is to find the hidden treasure, helped by the clues provided by the picture cards. If the party's guest list hardly has any children, then there are many games for the people young at heart. You could play the ever classic dumb charades where teams' players enact the name of the movie, making their team members try and guess the movie correctly. You could also opt for Pictionary, forming teams and challenging each other to try and guess what depicted through a picture. If you're planning an out and out adult Christmas party, there still are numerous crazy games that one could play. Some might be naughty, some plain cute, but al of them are bound to get the guests talking and having a comfortable good time. On the other hand, if an office party is planned, fun is the key requirement but not at the cost of corporate ethics and rules. You could play date bingo, or even simpler, just sit, and gossip about stuff without taking potshots at anybody. Whatever be the case, official parties and games can be as crazy as possible as long as they successfully relieve the employees of work related stuff and create a friendly and happy atmosphere. Looking for Funny Games ?, you found us Funny Crazy Games.com offer a large collection of free Funny Game online, Enjoy; Also, look for for delayed vehicles, impaired vehicles and as a result accidents. Reframe what infants are starting to converse to their very own classmates, particularly if it's not cleanse to each other child. So, if the customer have an actual boy which is helping a passage to a brand new bed, yourself can't pretty much go entirely wrong if you may settle towards a blaze truck kid bed by its vivid red complexion. There are, indeed, certification of randomness, or unpredictability, and there are numerous degrees involved with importance you can events. Of instance, can carry a clothes pole, consideration stool this doubles as being a item chest or little desktop and seat designs to initiate the room or space just want a smallish fire location. Any time you keep younger children, be for sure to go to "Preschool Place", a hands-on area in addition to numerous good fun activities.

"Draw a great pretty good picture and win a battery-operated fire truck" the D.V. loudly blared. Logic determined that right there must have in effect been an important bad car there where had full-coverage down their highway altogether in the fact direction. Also, your main interest rank should always be any one higher than your state government. Make that you simply band designed for across any front amongst the pectoral and one for under the torso in generally abdomen surface area. But whether or not quality definitely is what they are after, then this kind model may perhaps well be place to gratify your prefers. People require in which to recognize targets like "What is an alternator, and additionally how is performing it rate my electric power supply?" to will have a more complete grasp amongst how a vehicle duties. 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Considering the road traffic rules in the world we live, car racing on road seems completely impractical in real life. And, not everyone can roll down their car on commercial racetracks. But, when you can play it right on your computer, why to burn down the fuel of your car! In the last two decades, car racing games have evolved as the most widely played form of video games, which is not only enjoyed by kids, but by adults too. But, what is the reason behind the huge popularity? These days, people always look around for different ways to shed their stress and fill some excitement in their mundane lives. And, car games look perfect for this purpose. You can play it online that is the flash version, which does not require any downloading or installation, such as Pro Parking, Snow Drift Racing, Mercedes Drift, and Heist Game. However, if you do not want to compromise with graphics and content, you should definitely go for the downloadable version. Still, that does not mean that flash games are worthless. These days, a number of gaming sites have appeared in the web world, and most of them offer high quality car games with superb graphics and crystal clear sound effects. Such aspects definitely add more fun to the game by making it more visually authentic and interactive. On the other hand, incorporation of various elements makes the games more appealing, such as customization of the car design, real-like tournaments, competition with other participants, different sorts of race tracks, etc. For some games, you might need game consoles like steering wheel, joysticks, etc. In car racing games, the most important trait you need to have is the ability to play fast paced games. For instance, to play the game of Bank Robber vs. Police you really have to think fast and maneuver the car according to the fast changing situations. On the other hand, games like Snow Drift Racing and Ultimate Drift requires extremely good control over the keys and mouse buttons. In such games, your task should be to drag and drift the car in the proper way and compete against the other cars at the same time. In simple words, you would need an agile mind with shrewdness as well. When it comes to the challenges or tasks involved in car games, game programmers or developers leave no stone unturned to make the games lively and realistic. They keep looking for unique ideas to make car games more interesting and better than before. Apart from entertainment, car games can prove to be extremely helpful to wannabe or experienced car drivers. Highly responsive games can certainly help them figure out how to drive carefully and accurately. So, what is holding you back? Time to fasten your seat belts and get ready for some fast paced action!

[topicprinter]

Besides capital, of course. Well, specifically, where will the capital need to be disbursed.I have an idea for an app/service that by its nature requires a certain type of business structure. I'd rather not get into the details there but in order for it to comply with the ethical rules of our industry it can only be owned by certain types of entities, and we have to apply discretion to who we choose to work with.Because of that, none of us are programmers, and it's very unlikely that we'll find any programmers eligible for equity in the business. So we need to pay them cash. We like that - we want to keep the profits and are willing to assume the full financial risk.My partner, who's technically my boss in my current day job, likes the idea but wants to know exactly what will be involved. So I will need to develop a detailed business plan including as close as I can get to an exact budget for the non-revenue phase of the project.What are some of the less obvious things I'm not thinking of? I know we will need to register the corporation and go through the usual corporate formation rigamarole. I know we will have to either hire an in-house programming team or contract with one of these development shops to build the phone apps and the server. I don't know how to go about selecting such a provider to make sure that we get the right balance between being sensible about the budget and getting a quality product. This is not an app that will be sold but a conduit to a new distribution model for an existing and popular product/service that we are already experts in providing. We may end up borrowing staff from one of our existing businesses at first to handle the non-technical aspects such as vetting our contractors and clients and setting up advertising for the service. Finally, where can I turn to for guidance in things like structuring our partnership agreement? I know I'm in a weak position when negotiating for equity since he's the one taking all the financial risk. Is there an established precedent or custom for how "idea guys" are treated in startups?And yes, I know the standard response - "Ideas are worthless." There's a little more to it than an idea, I've done a modicum of research and I actively work with our future competitors. This is a product that came into my mind because of a specific void in the market. I have a few ideas as to why nobody is already doing it, most the premise that most startups fail at the idea phase and the last few people to have this idea probably couldn't get the capital together.

[nickgerlich]

What We Have Learned So Far

I remember back to the 1970s, when I was a mere teenager. My Dad the Accountant was also the purchasing agent for our family. It was a task in which he prided himself and his squeezing-blood-out-of-turnips ways. He shopped with ruthless cunning and laser precision. This explained why our basement had metal shelves lined with enough canned goods to get us through a nuclear fallout, because Dad was the kind of guy who would find corn on sale, and then buy the whole case.

My friends used to make fun of me. “Are you guys planning on World War III?” they would ask. Nope. Dad was just being a good shopper, so we shut up and ate corn.

But suddenly I realize that Dad was ahead of his time, while at the same time, a product of his times. He grew up during the Great Depression, so he knew the value of a nickel saved, a paper clip, piece of string, even an empty beer can with its top removed to use as a pencil holder. This is not just quaint nostalgic yearnings, it’s the new survival strategy. I suspect if you went into many American pantries these days, you would think my Dad had paid them a visit.

While the first documented US case of coronavirus happened on 20 January 2020, it wasn’t until the last two weeks that we really stood up and paid much attention here. In that short time, we have learned many things, about ourselves, about our society. Here are a few:

No one is happy right now. We are filled with anxiety. We’re stress-filled, and easily provoked by the littlest thing someone might do to us in public. I get it. When your world is turned upside down, it’s easy to take it out on others. Even though only a tiny tiny fraction of our 330 million people will contract COVID-19, there is still the chance it could happen. Given the fact that we are all told to stay home, one has to wonder what the social outcomes will be down the road. Will there be a baby boom next winter, as some chirpy people suggest? Or will the added stress lead to divorces? Worse yet, not if, but when, will there be shopping cart rage and shootings in shops as people fight over scarce commodities?

What we once took for granted, we may never do so again. Remember when we could go to a supermarket and they would have everything we needed? Yeah, me too…about two weeks ago. I remember my first semester at WT, when I had a young Polish emigre in my Principles of Marketing class. She told of life in the mother country, still reeling under years of an oppressive regime. She spoke of being overwhelmed by all the choices we had in America, because in Poland, it wasn’t about which bread, it was about whether there was any bread at all. If you saw a queue forming outside a store, you got in line without even knowing why you were there, under the assumption that someone knew something you did not, and you better not miss whatever was available.

How sad that we now think the same thing. We blindly get in line before opening hours in hopes that shelves have been restocked during the night.  And for that matter, every other aspect of our lives, from dining out to movie theatres, concerts, sporting events, and more, are all out the window right now. We have our Netflix, as long as they don’t cut the bandwidth to save the internet for everyone now engaged in online learning.


Cheap gas is nice, but if you can’t go anywhere, it is worthless. With a barrel of oil around $24, dealers are practically giving gas away. Today, you can get gas for $1.69 a gallon in Amarillo. The only problem is that, with so many people sent home to work, shops closed, and everyone hunkering down, there’s really nowhere to go other than the grocery. Oh, for fuel this cheap when we are able to take road trips. This is nothing but a false positive externality of the coronavirus crisis.

Agile companies and organizations will survive, while the others will be weeded out quickly. We will definitely lose a lot of businesses during this pandemic, especially mom-and-pop businesses. There are more businesses than we realize that are only one or two months away from bankruptcy, mirroring the condition of many citizens who are similarly skating by, month-to-month. Are you in the restaurant business? Why haven’t you considered takeaway before? Have a retail shop? Why haven’t you gone online yet with a commerce-driven website and/or mobile app? Teach at a university? Why haven’t you pushed yourself a little the last two decades by developing at least one online course?

Furthermore, this will cause many businesses, organizations, and even governments to reconsider how business is done, but only among those that survive. Does it necessarily have to be face-to-face? Why can’t it be done electronically? Does it have to be done the old way forever?

I do not need to eat out anywhere near as much as I once did. I have been moving in this direction for the last few months anyway in an effort to eat more healthily, as well as because I am enjoying teaching myself to cook. But with restaurants off-limits in most areas, and everyone my age being urged to have a month’s worth of provisions on hand, my pantry runneth over. And you know what? I am enjoying it. Even with my beginner’s skills and tools, I can put together a mighty tasty dinner. My oldest daughter often joins me in this endeavor, and she, better than I, produce some amazing meals. Guess what? We are saving money. We are eating very healthily. And I am losing weight. Lots of it. Yay, us! Of course, that’s bad news for the restaurants if they are able to survive this tragedy, because I may not return there as frequently as I once did.

Many more people are now getting exposure to e-commerce, curbside pick-up, and home delivery. This could forever change the way we buy things, making it difficult for those unable or unwilling to evolve. This goes far beyond the native convenience of it all, and even the social distancing aspect. I, for one, do not want to purchase items that have been handled, tried on, manipulated, etc., by others.

What people purchase during times of panic reflects their worst fears. Panic is irrationality at its worst. It causes us to do things completely out of character, and when it comes to purchasing, it causes us to buy things that make no sense whatsoever. The elephant in the living room right now is toilet paper. The coronavirus does not even cause diarrhea, so there’s no worry in that department, yet Americans and others worldwide have gobbled up virtually every available roll. One report I read said that we bought 60 days’ worth of toilet paper in three days. A standard 18-roll pack should last a minimum of one month, and quite possibly two months, in a two-person household.

So why did everyone hoard this most basic commodity? Simple. Because everyone fears having to take a dump and not having paper with which to wipe. Never mind starvation or more important matters; we just want to be clean down there. I want to be clean, too, but I’m not going to go crazy on inventorying it. A second fear is bottled water. Really? Unless our public utilities also break down, we’re going to have tap water. So picture this: We are a bunch of defecation dehydrophobes. I don’t like that mental picture.

The food people are buying reflects our rather pedestrian American cuisine, which also turns out to be our comfort foods. The American diet is a mash-up of various international influences and regionalized adaptations, along with some items of our own making. To be honest, I don’t think it is all that good. It is rather bland, favors sauces that happens to red, and probably puts more emphasis on the centerpiece—meat—than is healthy. But that’s a discussion for another time.

Folks are buying the things they know how to prepare, because going out to eat is out of the question unless you can live with takeaway, and people are buying the things that will provide comfort and hope during a time of discomfort and seeming hopelessness. If pounded steak and potatoes make you feel good, then by all means, eat it. It also means that my rather esoteric tastes and dietary preferences are pretty safe. This is one time that being in the minority has its benefits. All of my stuff is still abundant.

People will rearrange their schedules to go shopping if there is hope that a scarce item has been replenished overnight. When was the last time you went grocery shopping at 7:00am? I did it this week, and was not the least bit surprised to see about two dozen others out there, milling about in the pre-dawn moonlight. Many stores have now trimmed their operating hours to allow more time for thorough overnight cleanings and restocking, as well as to accommodate seniors-only shopping hours, but the long and the short of it is simple: We’ll do whatever it takes if we think we might find a roll of toilet paper or canister of Lysol. Think about this. Aside from Black Friday, when was the last time you engaged in cart-to-cart contact for a limited supply of products?

We are social animals, and we are already starting to miss each other. I can see it on social media already. We want…no, we need…human interactions, whether it is at church, the pub, the workplace, the classroom. All of those have been taken from us in short order, and it did not take long for us to feel that immense loss. Thankfully, we have social media to stay in touch, and inexpensive calling plans to just say hello. Reach out and touch your loved ones, maybe not physically, but at least electronically. It may be a while before we can hug, kiss, even shake hands. But we can still communicate.

There will always be defiant, belligerent people among us. This is the scariest part. There are many folks taking to social media trying to downplay the importance of this matter, dissing the statistics that shows this to be a highly communicable disease with a much higher mortality rate than the common flu. Worst yet, I have seen some of my former students echoing these refrains online. Now more than ever we must use reasoning and logic to filter through the news, all of it, from real to fake. This is a very real contagion that can grow exponentially if left unabated. Interventions of the highest order are necessary to throw speed bumps in its growth. This is not a conspiracy from any political party; it is a global pandemic that knows no borders nor ideologies. Don’t blow off the truth; don’t dig your heels in the dirt and embrace nonsense claptrap that ignores the magnitude of this situation.

We use social media to vent our frustrations and anxieties. And argue. It is sadly ironic that the very tool intended to bring people together has also made it possible for oceans of discontent to rage between us. Give someone a microphone, and suddenly they feel like they are back in high school debate. But more than that, I see raw emotions in people’s posts…the empty shelves, the shuttered stores, the empty parking lots. The mere act of photographing, composing a caption, and posting them is cathartic in that it lets us release those pent up emotions. My advice going forward: skip the arguing, but keep posting your photos and words. If anything, we are all now citizen journalists documenting history in the making. Can you imagine nearly everyone in 1918 had a decent camera in their pocket or purse, and snapped hundreds of photos of the pandemic that year? We would have a much better record had this all been available. We do, so keep shooting and posting.

Finally, we need to love our educators. They have all been forced to do things they may or may not know anything about as they transition to online. For some, it has been easy. For others, it is like being thrust from knowing miles, pounds, and quarts, and suddenly having to use kilometers, kilograms, and liters. We are doing our best to make sure the learning continues, with or without the comforts of the classroom. We all have to make the best of the situation. And I offer encouragement to students for whom online learning is unfamiliar. It’s not perfect, but neither is the classroom. Keep an open mind, and trust your educator. We’re not doing this for ourselves.

I know that I could go on, and there is certainly much more we will learn in the days and weeks ahead. And that’s right—weeks. I am not hopeful that we will return to what we consider to be normal for quite some time. This is the new normal. All I know is that my dad was right. Life could get tough again, maybe not quite like it was in the 1930s, but certainly a far cry from what we all know as the American way. In the end, though, it will make us tougher. Our steely resolve will help us get through this, and prepare us for whatever the future may hold. 



Now who wants some corn?

Dr “Going The Distance“ Gerlich

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