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<title>21 September, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Insider from the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Speaks Out</strong> - A new memoir by a victims’ advocate describes a process that seemed fixed from the start. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-insider-from-the-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-speaks-out">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How (Not) to Tax Billionaires</strong> - A plan from House Democrats targets the merely rich rather than the plutocrats, insuring that our new Gilded Age will continue. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-not-to-tax-billionaires">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It’s Climate Week Again, but the Calendar Is Running Out</strong> - A slow transition away from carbon will be costlier than a fast one, but each year that we keep spewing carbon is a year in which fossil-fuel companies’ current business models stay intact. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/its-climate-week-again-but-the-calendar-is-running-out">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Deliverista in the Storm</strong> - A photographer searches for the man who appeared in a video that went viral during Hurricane Ida. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-deliverista-in-the-storm">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Highlights of the 2021 Emmys</strong> - Michaela Coel’s brilliant speech, Jennifer Coolidge’s one-woman wavelength, and the pleasing return of dumb red-carpet questions. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-highlights-of-the-2021-emmys">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>One Good Thing: Reservation Dogs is groundbreaking. It’s also incredibly funny.</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="The four main characters of Reservation Dogs walk toward the camera, dressed in snazzy suits." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JncvMYrThn5RYhzb8O3lxvH7iRs=/154x0:2821x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69887490/reservation_dogs___new_fx_comedy_series.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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The central quartet from <em>Reservation Dogs</em> strides through their little town, looking pretty fantastic. | FX
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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FX’s series, now available on Hulu, is the rare TV comedy that knows what it is from its first scene.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="38RoqA">
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It’s really rare for a TV comedy to know exactly what it is from the first scene of its first episode. Usually, these shows take at least half a season to hammer out the core relationships, the best stories for them to tell, and the strongest possible punchlines.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kk5Aal">
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Even some of the best comedies spent a lot of their early seasons tweaking things. (<em>Parks and Recr</em>eation<em>, </em>for instance, spent its first two seasons shedding elements that just didn’t work and zeroing in on those that did.) Comedies that are sure of themselves from the first scene exist (<em>Cheers</em>, <em>Arrested Development</em>, <em>Atlanta</em>, etc.), but they are few and far between.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aLkXHv">
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I’ve only seen one season of FX’s terrific new comedy <em>Reservation Dogs</em>, but I’m happy to add it to the list. (Season one is <a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/reservation-
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dogs-5a310c23-e2db-4c9f-a66c-27c2fee43d92">now available on Hulu</a>.) From the first scene of its premiere to the last scene of its finale, the show’s first season is eight episodes of sharp-witted, perfectly balanced comedy, with just enough dramatic heft. It gives the teenage characters, who are all small-time criminals trying to save up enough money to leave their Oklahoma reservation, much more weight than you might expect.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IVdAEm">
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A lot has been written about the historic nature of <em>Reservation Dogs</em>. It’s the first American TV series ever with a writers room and directing staff composed entirely of Indigenous people from around North America and just the second with an Indigenous showrunner. (The first, Peacock’s <em>Rutherford Falls</em>, also debuted this year.) Said showrunner is named <a href="http://sterlinharjo.com">Sterlin Harjo</a>, and not only did he co-create the series with <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/11/4/16570486/taika-waititi-eagle-shark-boy-shadows-wilderpeople-ragnarok-jojo-
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rabbit">Taika Waititi</a> (himself of Maori descent), he also wrote five of the season’s eight episodes and directed three.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BlyIOX">
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Harjo is a film director, with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1802161/">three features and a documentary to his name</a>. (He’s also directed several shorts and episodes of other TV shows.) He and Waititi met when they were up-and-coming directors, and Waititi used his increasing muscle within the entertainment industry to help get the show made. (Waititi has a relationship at FX, having also executive produced and directed two episodes of the Emmy-nominated <em>What We Do in the Shadows</em>, which is spun off from his film of the same name.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gLoLZ0">
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But despite Waititi’s bigger name, <em>Reservation Dogs</em> is very much Harjo’s show, with a unique and witty visual style all his own. One sequence set during a hunting expedition is shot entirely using wildlife cameras in a series of still shots, almost like comic panels. Dream sequences unfold with a woozy sense of the characters being trapped amid the stereotypes of Indigenous people still so common in other films and TV shows. Shots are chosen to subtly highlight the poverty and natural beauty of the characters’ surroundings, sometimes with frames that isolate the characters in one small section with the setting overwhelming them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7vcSyl">
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Lest that all sound very heady, <em>Reservation Dogs</em> is also tremendously funny. It opens with its four central characters pulling off a daring heist … of a truck carrying boxes of chips. (They aren’t apprehended because the local police officer is distracted with a YouTube video about Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u7BPO9">
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The aforementioned dream sequences feature one of the characters meeting a Native American, in stereotypical garb, riding a horse, but he keeps trying to overinflate his prominence at the Battle of Little Bighorn and can’t stop coughing. There’s a whole episode about an elderly relative of one character attempting to sell a 15-year-old bag of weed and finding no takers in a world where marijuana has been legalized. Characters say the word “shitass” constantly, to great comedic effect.
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</p>
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<div id="dlXKfW">
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<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
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</div>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dPrlkh">
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The riskiest element of <em>Reservation Dogs</em> could have been the casting. The only four regular characters on the show who appear in almost every episode are four teenagers, and all are played by actors who are not widely known.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Ch9mY">
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Paulina Alexis, who plays the simultaneously dry and energetic Willie Jack, seems to have had only one credit to her name before she worked on <em>Reservation Dogs</em>, while Lane Factor, who plays Cheese, the little brother of the group, had his first acting role in the series. The other two main stars — Devery Jacobs, who plays Elora, the girl who most wants to leave town, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear, the group’s de facto leader — have more experience. But Woon-A-Tai apparently had fewer than 10 credits to his name when starting work on this show.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m5qSRS">
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All four actors, however, form one of the best ensembles of teen characters in recent memory. All are equally capable of comedy and drama. (Jacobs, in particular, finds new shades in a character you’ve seen many times before, the small-town girl who longs for something better.) The scenes where the four just sit around and banter back and forth have an easy chemistry that never feels forced, which is hard to do in a show this young, with actors so relatively new to the game.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hBn5Y4">
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The guest stars who pop up are also great. In particular, I loved Zahn McClarnon’s turn as Officer Big, who seems only half-heartedly interested in doing his job. McClarnon is an actor with a wealth of experience, but he tends to play rather somber characters. You may remember him as a hitman in season two of <em>Fargo</em> and as the Native American Host who gains sentience in <em>Westworld</em>. He’s too rarely allowed to go comedic, and <em>Reservation Dogs</em> lets him be incredibly silly early and often. (He’s the officer distracted by a JFK conspiracy video in the first episode.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RRH9GR">
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But beyond McClarnon, the guest cast brims with amazing performances. Indigenous rappers Lil Mike and Funny Bone pop up as a bike-riding Greek chorus, while veteran actor Gary Farmer is goofy and winded as would-be weed dealer Uncle Brownie. There’s even a surprisingly dramatic turn for standup comedian Bill Burr as a driving instructor who helps Elora process some of her most complicated emotions.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68LxC5">
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The team behind <em>Reservation Dogs</em> has been emphatic at every point of the show’s publicity cycle that this is not yet another story about the tragic life of the people who live on a reservation. And they’re right about that. This series is a comedy, first and foremost. But it also tells a slyly moving story about teenagers who aren’t sure how many options they have and a community where resources are stretched tighter and tighter all the time. It’s a hilarious show, but it’s also a beautiful show, all of which adds up to one of the best first seasons of a comedy in some time.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6xZuBx">
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Reservation Dogs’ <em>first season is available in </em><a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/reservation-dogs-5a310c23-e2db-4c9f-a66c-27c2fee43d92"><em>on Hulu</em></a><em>. A second season has been picked up and will likely debut in 2022. For more recommendations from the world of culture, check out the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/one-good-thing"><strong>One Good Thing</strong></a><em> archives.</em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1eAKvf">
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Fmgsc">
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>When quitting your job feels like the only option</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="An illustration showing a briefcase opened to reveal a collection of post-it notes that read
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“take this job and shove it.”" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/zBij53V9PZ9Thc3YJW7gZMdu-T4=/800x0:5600x3600/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69852610/Vox_Greatresignation_Final.0.jpeg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Max Erwin for Vox
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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How a potent mix of frustration and optimism led to the Great Resignation.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-left">
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/YYgW4HsU995yniG4Y5QuEoQvF0Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21899595/VOX_The_Highlight_Box_Logo_Horizontal.png"/>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YltkPn">
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Part of the<a href="https://www.vox.com/e/22439661"> Recovery Issue</a> of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
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highlight"><strong>The Highlight</strong></a>, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.
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</p>
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<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="R5EB0Z"/>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ese6yn">
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Working at a big-box pet-supply store was never easy. The job involved washing, grooming, and styling often anxious dogs, as well as pacifying their equally anxious owners. The hours could be long, the schedule unpredictable. But for nearly five years, Zoe Hoffeld managed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UJhEbg">
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And then the pandemic hit. After closing for a couple months in spring 2020, the dog salon in Martha’s Vineyard reopened. Understaffed, the store pressured Hoffeld, who uses they/them pronouns, to bathe or groom upwards of seven dogs a day, in addition to scheduling appointments and making reminder calls.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IREjIZ">
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The safety precautions were lackluster to nonexistent. What’s more, the AC didn’t work; neither did the pipes, which caused the bathroom, as well as the area where dogs were washed, to regularly flood. A plumber was called in, but the recommended fix — shut down the location for a week to address the problem — went unheeded.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gjd0O6">
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And then there were the customers, whose expectations — against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic — took on a surreal quality. Hoffeld could put hours into a single dog haircut, and have an owner respond with dissatisfaction. While most clients were understanding, others demanded fluffy perfection. “We’re human,” Hoffeld says. “We try our best and do our best but ultimately our job is to make the dog comfortable.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jpepEt">
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At the end of a shift, “I’d go home, eat dinner, and fall asleep because I was so tired. I didn’t have the energy to do anything else. All my energy was put into work.” They were exhausted. In June, after expressing concerns about the conditions and their pay to the store supervisor to no avail, Hoffeld reached a breaking point.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RVRpvG">
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So they quit.
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</p>
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<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="lrAbjQ"/>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xpw8Sz">
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At the onset of the pandemic,<strong> </strong>employers and consumers alike fell over themselves heralding so-called essential workers, the often low-paid individuals who didn’t have the luxury of sheltering in place.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hP8FQK">
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The message only briefly obscured a harsher reality. Covid-19 amplified “the uglier side of the business,” says Nick Bunker, an economic researcher at the jobs site Indeed. Employers were quick to enact layoffs — by April 2020, the unemployment rate had skyrocketed to <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R46554.pdf">14.8 percent</a>. Those who kept their jobs had to contend with increased demands; after losing coworkers to cuts, furloughs, resignations, sickness, and death, employees took on heavier workloads, all while serving an emotional, sometimes downright belligerent public.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KWL0cN">
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This played out across industries: In the first few months of lockdown, grocery stores faced <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/12/grocery-worker-fear-death-coronavirus/">labor shortages</a> as panicked shoppers ravaged shelves; this spring and summer, freshly vaccinated diners overwhelmed <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/customers-are-back-at-restaurants-and-bars-but-workers-have-moved-
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on-11626168601">understaffed restaurants and bars</a>; and then there are the airlines, which haven’t been able to rehire fast enough to meet the rising demand in domestic travel, resulting in <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
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goods/22550623/air-travel-summer-post-covid-layoffs">cancellations, delays, and lost luggage</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A5YkPs">
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It’s a frustrating loop of layoffs, labor shortages, and overwork that has fallen squarely on the shoulders of workers already on the front lines of the pandemic.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KAltxs">
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A year and a half in, that collective weight has resulted in what economy-watchers are calling the Great Resignation. From April to the end of July, nearly <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm">16 million Americans quit their jobs</a>, a historic number. The mass exodus is particularly stark given how quickly it follows one of the largest recessions in US history. That didn’t stop 4 million people from quitting their jobs in July alone, a sign of optimism — if they leave, they can find something better — in the face of what’s shaping up to be a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/perspectives/economic-recovery-jobs-covid-19-delta-variant/index.html">prolonged recovery</a>.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/2YWbExRLklb0eUWKo1R_2IEWSLI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22840935/GettyImages_1325140419.jpg"/> <cite>Mario Tama/Getty Images</cite></p>
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<figcaption>
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A “now hiring” sign is displayed at a fast food chain in June in Los Angeles. An exodus of workers this spring and summer highlights two truths: Workers have optimism about their prospects, and they’re experiencing unprecedented dread about their current jobs.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TakHPI">
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Alongside confidence, however, there’s a pervading sense of mental and physical fatigue. “For a lot of people, it’s been traumatizing,” says Chris Tilly, director of UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. In the first 10 months of the pandemic, essential workers in California experienced a 30 percent increase in deaths, according to an<a href="https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fact_sheet_-
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_the_pandemics_toll_on_california_workers_in_high_risk_industries.pdf"> analysis of public health data</a>. Specific jobs, including in health care, meatpacking, retail, and restaurants were hit especially hard.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TqBnal">
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At a single Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota, 1,294 workers got sick. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/02/01/962877199/meatpacking-companies-osha-face-
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investigation-over-coronavirus-in-plants">Four died</a>. In the first year of the pandemic, New York City <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2021/01/mta-nyct-coronavirus-memorial-covid-19.html">lost at least 136 transportation workers</a> to Covid-19. Particularly in the beginning, when cases were skyrocketing and so much remained unclear about transmission, work presented a hellish choice: Go in and risk exposure, or stay home and forgo a paycheck.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NC9egC">
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Employers have blamed expanded unemployment benefits for people’s reluctance to go back to work, but even in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/27/business/economy/jobs-workers-unemployment-benefits.html">states where job benefits were cut</a> early, workers failed to return to their old jobs. (After months of strong job growth, there are already troubling indicators ahead — employers added just <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/03/business/economy-stock-market-news/here-are-six-takeaways-from-the-august-
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jobs-report">a third of the projected number of jobs for August</a>, a sign that the delta variant is interfering with the economic recovery.) People are tired and demoralized. Many are also recovering from overlapping categories of trauma. Alongside the primal pain of losing someone to Covid-19, there is the emotional and physical grind of showing up every day to a high-stress, understaffed environment where safety measures aren’t consistently enforced.
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</p>
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That was Amanda F.’s experience, anyway. (She asked that her last name not be used as she’s about to start a new job in the industry and is concerned about professional fallout.) A pharmacy technician since 2012, she liked her job, for the most part. The pandemic changed that. The workload increased abruptly — she was tasked with facilitating Covid-19 tests in addition to filling prescriptions and administering vaccines — as the number of employees dwindled. Some shifts, it was just her and a pharmacist.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m5xSr9">
|
||
The pace was unrelenting. Rushing to fill backlogged prescriptions, she’d hear, “Pickup, lane one,” and have to dart over to the drive-through window. Meanwhile, “The phone is ringing; there are nine phone calls in the queue,” she says. “It’s just me and a pharmacist, and I’m saying, ‘How are we supposed to do all of this? All I feel like doing is crying and walking out.” Customers, frustrated by the long wait times, could be impatient, sometimes outright hostile.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aqIDpx">
|
||
The anxiety began to manifest itself physically. Amanda started eating lunch a couple of hours before she left for a closing shift; if she ate any later, she says, she risked throwing up the meal while at work.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aiwNwZ">
|
||
Like Hoffeld, Amanda was exhausted, not just by the work but also the lack of understanding or compassion from customers. In September, she quit too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="IsMsMP"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qefBlA">
|
||
Typically, leisure, hospitality, and retail have the highest quit rates, Bunker says. It’s not surprising: The pay is typically low, the turnover high. These sectors have seen the largest proportional increase in quit rates compared with those before the pandemic. As with the broader economy, the recession and subsequent recovery have taken an existing trend in these sectors and amplified it. People in low-wage jobs are quitting in search of higher pay and benefits — as well as relief from extended periods of overwork. “If you don’t have enough coworkers, there is presumably a period of time where you can pick up that slack,” Bunker says. “But after some time, you are going to realize you need backup.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="OMq4iD">
|
||
<q>People in low-wage jobs are quitting in search of higher pay and benefits — as well as relief from extended periods of overwork</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oXOhS3">
|
||
More work for the same pay is not a recipe for retention. While employers categorize the tight labor market as a labor shortage, that’s a misnomer, says Françoise Carré, research director of the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “When you hear employers saying, ‘I can’t find workers,’ they can’t find workers for the wages they’re willing to pay right now,” she says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xmlPiN">
|
||
There are signs that pay is trending upward. A number of Fortune 500 companies, including Costco, McDonald’s, Amazon, Chipotle, Bank of America, and <a href="https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/cvs-plans-
|
||
lift-its-minimum-wage-15">CVS</a>, have announced plans to raise the starting or average pay for hourly workers. Meanwhile, the average wage of restaurant and supermarket workers recently surpassed <a href="https://www.eater.com/2021/8/9/22617225/average-pay-restaurant-supermarket-workers-15-per-hour">$15 an hour</a> for the first time, a milestone that some workers have been lobbying for <a href="https://fightfor15.org/about-
|
||
us/">since 2012</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h87Sja">
|
||
Employers — notably, bigger companies with the resources to enact these changes quickly — are also adding benefits, including paid time off, sick leave, and tuition reimbursement. Target recently said it will <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/target-launches-debt-free-education-frontline-
|
||
workers-2021-08-04/">cover tuition</a> at select undergraduate programs for part-time and full-time front-line workers. This follows <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-dropping-1-day-fee-employees-college-
|
||
degrees-2021-07-27/">Walmart’s announcement</a> in July that it will cover tuition and book costs for all its employees.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xFYOYY">
|
||
In addition to more money, workers are able to shop around for roles that are a better fit. Amanda is slated to start a new pharmacy technician job at a different company later this month.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nnM2SB">
|
||
The pay is slightly higher ($19 an hour versus $18.55), but the real advantage is that the location is closed-door, which means she won’t have to interact with customers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="jtZFI4"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/VBv_-g1_UOWUg8oI7Bkv4UUEQmk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22841029/GettyImages_1230955977.jpg" /> <cite>Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Grocery workers in Long Beach, California, protest in February after their employer closed stores rather than pay city-mandated hazard pay during the pandemic.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="imXQ11">
|
||
Demand and the high quit rate have made the field slightly better for job seekers and workers over the past few months. But it’s important to put wage gains in context, says Enrique Lopezlira, the director of the low-wage work program at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center. Even with higher starting pay at large companies, “We’re still looking at people making between $26,000 and $30,000 a year, which is not that great.” Many low-wage jobs not only lack health insurance, sick leave, and fixed schedules, they are also physically and emotionally taxing. “People settled for that, but they weren’t necessarily thrilled with those jobs,” UCLA’s Tilly says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Ka8ks">
|
||
This is true for essential workers, as well as for entry-level workers hoping to break into white-collar professions. After receiving a master’s degree in communications in May 2020, Maggie, 30, who asked that her last name not be used so as not to risk her current position, sent out nearly 100 applications for jobs in her area, but steady work remained out of reach. “I was applying to all levels of jobs,” she says. “Jobs I thought were quote-unquote ‘above’ my skill level, jobs below my skill level, anything that had to do with communications.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lrE8c1">
|
||
A year after graduating, she was hired as a contract legal assistant to a personal injury attorney in Wisconsin. The office job involves some writing. And there’s a reliable, if modest, paycheck (though no benefits or sick leave). Beyond that, it’s hard to come up with many positives. She’s on the phone with clients all day, most of whom are checking on the status of their cases. “We have people that will just call in and cry,” she says. “People have had shit years.” Sometimes they take it out on her. “It can be as bad as it was when I was waitressing,” she says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t4HE4n">
|
||
Worse than that is the feeling that work is sucking the life out of her. Her dream is to one day support herself through writing, a practice she tries to maintain. But after a full day spent typing on a computer, “When I get home, I don’t want to do it for myself,” she says. “It’s kind of like you are giving up your soul — like a vampire. I’m giving up everything for a job that I don’t even like, that I’m not even passionate about.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xwhoaR">
|
||
Maggie continues to hunt for better job opportunities, but the available pickings for her location and experience level remain slim; without another offer lined up, she can’t quit, even though she wants to. “It’s either this or not knowing how I’m going to pay my rent or bills,” she says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W1ewQn">
|
||
While retail workers have more immediate options, leaving a job for a better-paying one isn’t always easy or even possible. A vast swath of low-wage jobs don’t offer predictable hours. Shifts fluctuate wildly from week to week, often with little or no notice. For anyone with responsibilities outside work — children or relatives to take care of, classes to attend, or simply social commitments — it’s not a sustainable model. Sure, the local CVS or Target might pay more, but if the available shifts don’t work with your schedule, it’s not a feasible option.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sdy3IT">
|
||
There’s also the matter of getting to work in the first place. The nationwide <a href="https://archive.curbed.com/2019/5/15/18617763/affordable-housing-policy-rent-real-estate-apartment">affordable housing crisis</a> means workers must spend more time commuting, a reality that’s not just time-consuming but <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-commute-costs-idUSKBN0E721M20140527">expensive</a> as well. (In 2019, the average one-way commute in the US reached an all-time high of <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-
|
||
releases/2021/one-way-travel-time-to-work-rises.html">27 minutes</a>. For workers who take public transit, that figure goes up to 46 minutes.) The opportunity cost of a longer commute versus the advantage of slightly higher pay doesn’t always level out.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U3IWJI">
|
||
That’s the case for Mendy Hughes, 47, a cashier at a Walmart in Arkansas and a member of United for Respect, a nonprofit fighting for better conditions and pay for retail workers. She’s been at the company for 11 years and makes just $11.85 an hour. The past 18 months, she says, have been grueling. On many of her shifts, the store was understaffed, either because coworkers were out with Covid-19 or because the chain has struggled to hire and retain employees. Often, there aren’t enough people to adequately assist customers. “They’re stressed, we’re stressed,” Hughes says, an emotion that frequently curdles into anger directed her way.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XzreJy">
|
||
At the end of a shift, “I’m just relieved it’s over,” she says. But Hughes doesn’t plan on leaving, even though she could make more at another big-box retailer. Her commute is a five-minute drive. Working somewhere else would require a more reliable car, something that’s not in the cards right now.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bS0cor">
|
||
There’s also no guarantee the additional money would last. The retail industry, which has <a href="https://progressivegrocer.com/minimum-wage-hike-means-minimum-
|
||
opportunities-nrf">passionately fought</a> attempts to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25, is predicated on a model of cheap prices at the expense of higher salaries or benefits. While hourly wages traditionally go up when labor is in short supply, the “downside is, it’s cyclical,” Tilly says. “Once labor becomes more plentiful, [employers] let those investments slide, you let inflation eat away at the value of those wages.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/yUiLXHfTwihcxATiYbd0KquDTVg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22841040/GettyImages_1232609016.jpg" /> <cite>Amir Hamja/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A West Village eatery. Manhattan’s restaurants struggled with a labor shortage in the months after the city slowly began reopening restaurants.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xd7vR2">
|
||
“The labor shortage giveth, and the end of the labor shortage taketh away,” Tilly says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HMAAE9">
|
||
The result is a system that requires flexibility and promptness from workers but fails to provide any of the structural support that would enable them to realistically meet these demands. The onus rests with the individual, an expectation that allows employers to abdicate responsibility. This was true before the pandemic, but Covid-19 placed systemic problems in sharp relief. Workers were expected to show up every day and risk their health for far less than a living wage, without the support of child care or benefits. What was a raw deal before became, for many, untenable.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cM2Fk5">
|
||
Hoffeld experienced this dynamic at the company level. Their employer didn’t provide hazard pay, benefits, or even, at times, working AC and plumbing, but still expected them to show up, without complaint and with a smile, for $16.75 an hour.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="7BLyKM"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fZDJEG">
|
||
For Maggie, the past year and a half has affected her in ways she’s only started to unpack. After graduating, she lived off unemployment for stretches, an experience that sparked something of an identity crisis. “We are very indoctrinated to believe that a lot of our worth is in productivity,” she says. “Not having a job, I had a very difficult time. I felt like I was doing nothing, like I was participating in nothing. It was really hard for me to relax.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="8hzBpu">
|
||
<q>Workers were expected to show up every day and risk their health for far less than a living wage. What was a raw deal before became, for many, untenable. </q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QvBiuk">
|
||
But where she now finds herself may be worse. In exchange for a job that (barely) covers her bills, she feels like she’s handed over her soul. Days are shaped by the ebb and flow of dread. Mornings are bad; upon waking, she confronts the yawning hours of phone calls that await her at the office. She’s tired before she leaves the house.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ibqHfL">
|
||
It’s a hamster wheel that’s equally exhausting and motivating. Mentally drained at the end of the day, she forces herself back online to job-search. This isn’t what she wants long term.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9x5r9k">
|
||
For Amanda, the pandemic has been more clarifying. After quitting, she vowed <em>never again</em>. The next time she changes positions, she has a list of questions to bring to the interview:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="plS7IK">
|
||
“What’s your turnover rate like? What do you do for short-staffing situations? How do you ensure the safety of not only your technicians but also your customers?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dzFAVf">
|
||
The price was steep, but Amanda now feels a greater sense of control over her career. She has a better grasp on what she’s looking for and, just as important, the conditions she will no longer tolerate. The strong quit rate indicates she’s far from alone, even if the long-term impact is still up in the air. If demand from employers falters, workers might be forced to renegotiate what, exactly, they are willing to put up with.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vXx7ua">
|
||
For her part, however, Amanda isn’t compromising. “I can’t get back into this situation,” she says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PvKCvn">
|
||
<em>Laura Entis is a former editor at Fortune and former staff writer at Entrepreneur magazine. She previously wrote about the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
|
||
highlight/21320361/small-business-closing-covid-coronavirus-ppp-entrepreneur-economy-stimulus-
|
||
loans"><em><strong>reckoning for small business</strong></em></a><em><strong> </strong></em><em>amid Covid-19 and the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/5/26/21256190/zoom-facetime-skype-coronavirus-
|
||
loneliness"><em><strong>effects of Zoom</strong></em></a><em> and other communication technology on loneliness for The Highlight.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div>
|
||
<div id="e33Ei4">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DMXsae">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wcbok9">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Advice for a young idealist: Find a lonely cause</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="People sitting in a circle on a campus lawn on a sunny day." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/JyaN-DfVmyVVfn26cKKGhQCPa2k=/328x0:3356x2271/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69887380/144580264.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Youths, full of possibility! | Vanderbilt/Collegiate Images via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
If you want to make a difference, find a neglected problem no one is working on.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jRmS8W">
|
||
As a journalist who isn’t too many years removed from his misspent youth, I get a fair number of emails from readers who are either in college or recent graduates asking for advice on what to do with the rest of their lives.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jpPfHr">
|
||
Sometimes my correspondents know what they want to do with their careers (usually journalism). But many don’t. They care deeply about making the world a better place, but they don’t know the best way to do that.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXtJ9w">
|
||
The world has so many problems: <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21492321/global-extreme-poverty-getting-worse-hunger-death-covid-19">persistent poverty and hunger</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21437054/chickens-factory-farming-animal-cruelty-
|
||
welfare">mass torture and slaughter of animals</a>, ongoing and worsening <a href="https://www.vox.com/21571842/coronavirus-pandemic-climate-change-covid-19-natural-disaster-vaccine">climate disasters</a>, the emergence of <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/19/17873822/nuclear-war-weapons-
|
||
bombs-how-kill">weapons</a> and <a href="https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-
|
||
risks/biosecurity">diseases</a> that could end life as we know it. If you just want to <em>do something good</em>, how do you choose?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i9wkyW">
|
||
For more specific advice on career paths, I usually point people to <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9jYXJlZXItZ3VpZGUv/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB9148adc4">80,000 Hours</a>, an effective altruist group that specifically researches careers that can produce a lot of good. They even have a <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly84MDAwMGhvdXJzLm9yZy9wcm9ibGVtLXF1aXov/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB8ee9733f">quiz you can take</a> to decide which of the world’s problems you can use your career to focus on.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8m6NOf">
|
||
But my more general advice, learned in part from the good people at 80,000 Hours, is to think about all the social issues and problems that most motivate your friends<strong> — </strong>and then pick something different.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vgT6UV">
|
||
That might sound strange, so let me explain. The world is a big, complex system full of immense problems. The problems that are more obvious, or that already have lots of people working on them, present themselves most readily to young idealists and altruists. But that leaves many severe, much less obvious problems neglected. And neglected issues are often the ones where you can do the most good.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zsKDrs">
|
||
I want to be clear here. If you’re already deeply passionate about some topic or issue, pursue it. Passion is not a very easy commodity to transfer. And most people’s passions point them to problems that are genuinely very important.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iGKH82">
|
||
Take education. Making sure it functions well and equitably is incredibly consequential.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WKqz8b">
|
||
But precisely because of that, many, many young people are drawn to become teachers, going into Teach for America, into the public education system, or in education-adjacent careers in advocacy or policy. Moreover, the government spends <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudm94LmNvbS9mdXR1cmUtcGVyZmVjdC8yMDE4LzEwLzMwLzE3ODYyMDUwL2VkdWNhdGlvbi1wb2xpY3ktY2hhcml0eQ/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fBf8f36384">hundreds of billions of dollars on the effort each year, and philanthropists spend billions more</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CJKtFU">
|
||
If that’s the cause you’re truly passionate about — Godspeed! Both my parents taught high school, and I have the highest regard for the vocation and anyone working to improve it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ITA546">
|
||
But if you’re open to other directions and are looking to have the highest impact possible, you should see all the money and energy pouring into K-12 as a sign that lots of smart people are already working on that problem — which means you might have more impact elsewhere.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h3 id="QImCBr">
|
||
Picking a neglected cause makes change easier
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IGuibK">
|
||
When you’re embarking on a career, you want to know the cause you’re working on is important and likely to make an impact. And you’re going to be estimating your odds of making an impact in a context where people are already mobilized and working on problems.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7m3SaJ">
|
||
The smart thing to do is to scan the landscape and look for gaps in mobilization, places where a little more effort or investment could make a big difference, as opposed to intractable problems where billions of dollars and millions of people are already working.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9nFGJC">
|
||
I’ve been lucky to know and report on some enterprising individuals who’ve been particularly good at identifying neglected topics and making incredible progress on them. In these cases, the activists or social entrepreneurs in question identified a problem that was easier to make headway on precisely because attention on the issue was scarce. That meant that few people before them had pushed hard or pushed with many resources at their disposal.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BvpI9c">
|
||
A favorite example of mine is <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/15/18095174/pesticide-suicide-ban-sri-lanka-charity">pesticide suicide prevention</a>. Suicides that use pesticide poisoning as a method take some 110,000 people’s lives every year, mostly in the developing world. These are preventable deaths: When Sri Lanka banned a set of particularly lethal pesticides, <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudm94LmNvbS9mdXR1cmUtcGVyZmVjdC8yMDE4LzExLzE1LzE4MDk1MTc0L3Blc3RpY2lkZS1zdWljaWRlLWJhbi1zcmktbGFua2EtY2hhcml0eQ/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB46878b30">the national suicide rate fell by half</a>. But for years there wasn’t much of a movement internationally to pass similar regulations to save lives.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XzSS6M">
|
||
So in 2016, Leah Utyasheva and Michael Eddleston, a human rights consultant and University of Edinburgh toxicology professor respectively,<strong> </strong>founded the <a href="https://centerpsp.org/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%207-27-21">Center for Pesticide Suicide Prevention</a>, a group that works to enact similar controls in developing countries. So far, the group has helped bar some lethal pesticides in Nepal, which should <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ2l2ZXdlbGwub3JnL3Jlc2VhcmNoL2luY3ViYXRpb24tZ3JhbnRzL0NQU1AtZ2VuZXJhbC1zdXBwb3J0LWphbi0yMDIx/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB24a5d76a">save around 380 lives per year</a>. As the group works in more and more countries, that number should rise. Utyasheva and Eddleston found a neglected problem and are tackling it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p3U8mA">
|
||
Or take an example close to my heart (literally): <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/11/12716978/kidney-donation-dylan-
|
||
matthews">kidney</a> and other organ donation. The large majority of transplant organs in the US come from deceased donors: people with healthy organs who have died and opted to have their organs donated. That, combined with the fact that there’s a long waitlist for many organs (particularly kidneys), means that increasing the share of organs from deceased people that are being donated would save many thousands of lives.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DRi26H">
|
||
The key groups here are known as <a href="https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/members/member-
|
||
directory/?memberType=Organ%20Procurement%20Organizations&organType=%27AL%27&state=0&region=0">organ procurement organizations</a> (OPOs), which are government-contracted nonprofits that have a monopoly on distributing organs from the recently deceased to living people in need. There are 57 OPOs in the US now, each with a different regional focus.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U8DQGb">
|
||
Recently, a couple of activists — Greg Segal of the nonprofit patient advocacy group <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub3JnYW5pemUub3JnLw/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB9f2ec695">Organize</a> and Obama administration alum Jennifer Erickson — helped <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly81ODQyNWVjYS02NDlhLTQyZDQtYjI2NS1kMWUxNzQzYjZjNDguZmlsZXN1c3IuY29tL3VnZC81ODFiYzNfZTUyNDYyY2RhYTk1NDY4ZGIwNzg3Y2Y0NzgxMGY5NDMucGRm/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB26b8ca8f">put together a bipartisan coalition</a>, from Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) on the right to former NAACP president Ben Jealous on the left, in favor of reforming OPOs so they use more deceased donor organs and are less likely to decline deceased donors with perfectly good organs (a decision they were perversely incentivized to make before). Segal, Erickson, and their allies pushed through a reform that could <a href="https://link.vox.com/click/6100314bd4c72a01f20c05d0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY21zLmdvdi9maWxlcy9kb2N1bWVudC8xMTIwMjAtb3BvLWZpbmFsLXJ1bGUtY21zLTMzODAtZi5wZGYjcGFnZT0xMzY/60917ae2ac7e007ef63acf2fB0945cd5e">boost the number of organs OPOs distribute by 7,300 per year</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a7ZPyV">
|
||
That’s some 7,300 lives saved, every year. And while their work wasn’t easy — the OPOs fought back hard — it wasn’t nearly as difficult or as long-fought to create big change in this relatively neglected area as, say, reorienting the whole K-12 education system would be.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="fKhCVa">
|
||
The opportunity presented by Secret Congress
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aY7Ngq">
|
||
A key reason why change in OPOs was easier: It was not a politically polarized issue the way that, say, raising the minimum wage is. There is no Democratic or Republican position on OPOs, really. It’s possible for unlikely allies, like liberal <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/499246-covid-19-increases-importance-of-implementing-reforms-
|
||
to-organ">Rep. Karen Bass</a> (D-CA) and <a href="https://www.young.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/hhs-finalizes-
|
||
rule-modeled-after-youngs-organ-donation-legislation">Sen. Todd Young</a> (R-IN), to come together on it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RvPylk">
|
||
While it doesn’t seem like it from the outside, a lot of policymaking in DC is like this: Big changes happening quietly through strong collaboration between the parties. Sure, there’s polarization and gridlock, but if you’re paying attention, you also see the things that do get done.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tV83pZ">
|
||
Simon Bazelon and Matt Yglesias at Slow Boring have coined the term “Secret Congress” to refer to the vast variety of legislation that Democrats and Republicans come together to pass on topics that don’t earn much public attention or outrage. <a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-rise-and-importance-of-secret">Secret Congress</a> is a very real phenomenon; hugely consequential legislation has been passing pretty regularly on a bipartisan basis over the last decade, even as partisan battles have reached an ever-more fevered pitch.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="efObJs">
|
||
Here are just a few examples:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li id="9ejycj">
|
||
In 2018, both houses of Congress passed into law huge increases to a <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/IF11455.pdf">tax credit called 45Q</a>, so that it pays up to $50 per ton to companies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Both arch-environmentalist <a href="https://www.catf.us/2018/02/passage-45q-legislation/">Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and coal diehard Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)</a> were leading sponsors.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li id="axuL5x">
|
||
In 2016, Congress passed (by unanimous voice vote in the Senate and <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2016/roll238.xml">403-12</a> in the House) a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/22/obamatoxic/">massive overhaul of all American chemical regulations</a> called the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/policy-success-in-an-age-of-
|
||
gridlock/02A75189183F98BCCD733D6CFEBD3537">Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act</a> that allowed the EPA to regulate toxins like asbestos and formaldehyde for the first time.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li id="aQT4Oy">
|
||
Also in 2016, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/nov-14-2019-third-anniversary-
|
||
foreign-aid-transparency-and-accountability-act">Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act</a> to mandate more spending transparency and evaluations of US Agency for International Development programs. <a href="https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2016/6/rubio-cardin-bill-on-track-to-become-law">Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Cardin (D-MD)</a> were both sponsors, and it <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-
|
||
bill/3766">passed both houses unanimously</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li id="gEFvyA">
|
||
In 2019, Congress voted to <a href="https://www.axios.com/congress-tobacco-age-21-raise-f583f6f3-ea58-4817-ac53-8f491817445d.html">raise the tobacco age from 18 to 21</a> nationwide with no <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/19/21030207/us-tobacco-age-
|
||
raise-21-cigarette-ecigarette-vaping-bill-senate-vote-juul">major partisan controversy</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li id="B1n2GV">
|
||
On January 1, 2021, as part of a defense appropriations bill, <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/congress-passes-
|
||
the-anti-money-9818694/">Congress passed measures dramatically cracking down on money laundering</a> by banning anonymous shell companies, overcoming a veto of the spending bill by President Trump
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="id__h7r2blpero6">
|
||
These examples may seem small-bore, but they’re not. Raising the tobacco age to 21 will save hundreds if not thousands of lives. <a href="https://twitter.com/cjcmichel/status/1334642593985142784">Expert Casey Michel</a> said of the money laundering legislation, “Banning anonymous shell companies in the U.S. would be the biggest anti-money laundering move the country has taken in nearly 20 years—and potentially ever.” The 45Q credit put a real price on removing carbon, a sort of carbon tax lite that could still be important in fighting climate change.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DZgifN">
|
||
So what does this mean for you, someone deciding which cause to take up? It implies that you might want to look for stuff that Secret Congress could or is working on and focus your energy there rather than on big topics prone to lobbying and conflict. I find tax policy fascinating, but raising taxes on the rich or cutting taxes for corporations are not “neglected” causes: There are literally thousands of people in DC working on each of those causes as we speak, and they have millions, if not billions, of dollars at their disposal.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GkNdKb">
|
||
But suppose you found a modest chemical regulation that could save thousands of lives (such as bans on pesticides that are used in suicides). The American Chemical Society might fight you. But a private battle against one lobby is cheaper and easier to win than a massive public battle. And if all you care about is saving lives, picking the easier battle is a good call.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="AJ2tSg">
|
||
Find your neglected cause
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bHcZNr">
|
||
Public policy is the area of life I know the most about, so naturally the examples of neglected causes that come to my mind most easily are in that area.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tBkg94">
|
||
But there are other ways to make change. You can make this kind of change through science, too. Katalin Karikó, a microbiologist, has spent much of her career on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/health/coronavirus-mrna-
|
||
kariko.html">an area of research that funders and other scientists were neglecting</a>: the potential for mRNA to become a tool for vaccine development. It took years, but Karikó’s cause selection paid off in spectacular fashion in 2020 when the idea she devoted her career toward became essential to developing Covid-19 vaccines. Karikó’s work has already saved millions of lives and will likely save many millions more as mRNA vaccines are developed for new diseases.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jTfShO">
|
||
If you’re an engineer or scientist outside medicine, there are plenty of opportunities too. Think about the technologies that would be most helpful in saving lives and promoting economic growth in the future — and think about which ones aren’t trendy right now. Geothermal energy is one example; the writer Eli Dourado makes a <a href="https://elidourado.com/blog/geothermal">compelling case</a> that specific kinds of work, like developing harder drill bits and better methods for locating heat in the earth, could dramatically improve geothermal and expand our supply of clean energy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q35BCD">
|
||
If you’re entrepreneurial in spirit, there are plenty of opportunities too. The company <a href="https://www.sendwave.com/">Sendwave</a> saw that fees for remittances (which represent some <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/05/12/defying-predictions-remittance-flows-remain-strong-
|
||
during-
|
||
covid-19-crisis#:~:text=Officially%20recorded%20remittance%20flows%20to,latest%20Migration%20and%20Development%20Brief.">$540 billion in cash flows</a>, mostly to poor countries from rich ones, annually) were quite high and developed an app with lower processing costs that could save migrant workers money on their remittance payments. Sendwave isn’t a charity, but it is a socially minded organization whose success depends on saving millions or billions of dollars for its users, and alleviating global poverty in the process. There are surely other opportunities like this out there.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0vvwpW">
|
||
Or, if you’re still looking for a cause, think about the trillions of humans who will live in the future, and find opportunities to fight potential causes of extinction, like pandemics or nuclear war (an area where <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/19/washington-arms-controllers-nuclear-weapons-500126">philanthropists are currently pulling funds</a> and which needs more help).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GLhUDl">
|
||
This is all, of course, easier said than done. But the broader point is worth lingering on: There’s a big world out there with lots of problems to tackle. Finding a neglected but consequential cause and making progress on it is some of the most meaningful work the world offers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Diamond And Pearls and Wind Symbol please</strong> - Diamond And Pearls and Wind Symbol pleased when the horses were exercised here on Tuesday (Sept. 21).Outer sand: 800m: Roka (rb) 58.5, 600/45. Urged.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Olympic gold medalist Madison Wilson hospitalized for COVID-19</strong> - The swimmer, who is fully vaccinated, picked up a gold and a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Virat Kohli’s decision to quit captaincy didn’t impact RCB’s performance against Kolkata Knight Riders: Mike Hesson</strong> - RCB were handed a nine-wicket loss by by KKR, a day after skipper Kohli announced he will step down as captain of the IPL team at the end of the ongoing season.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pakistan will now look after its own interest: Ramiz Raja</strong> - The statement comes following the England and Wales Cricket Board’s withdrawal of men’s and women’s teams from a tour of Pakistan for a limited-overs series next month.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Venkatesh Iyer’s knock signifies the aggressive brand of cricket KKR want to play: Eoin Morgan</strong> - After bowling out RCB for a paltry 92, openers Iyer (41 not out) and Shubhman Gill (48) helped KKR cruise to a nine- wicket win with 10 overs to spare</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Stubble burning: Central commission directs 11 thermal plants around Delhi to co-fire biomass pellets</strong> - Paddy straw burning is a matter of grave concer in NCR and adjoining areas</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>HC sets aside norms for access permission for fuel stations</strong> - ‘Procedure adopted by State in framing guidelines wanting in many aspects’</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why this panchayat in Kerala is ready to play cupid for single youths</strong> - Thidanadu grama panchayat in Kottayam district has opened a ‘marriage diary’ for registrations. It has received over 700 registrations in just three days</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cinemas reopening: theatre owners expecting aid from State</strong> - With Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian making clear the State government’s intent to reopen cinemas in the next phase of relaxations to COVID</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kannur University appoints M. Haridas as the first Emeritus Professor</strong> - His vast experience enabled him to establish the first protein crystallography research group in Kerala.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia behind Litvinenko murder, rules European rights court</strong> - The former Russian spy, who became a British citizen, was poisoned in London with polonium in 2006.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Canary Islands volcano: Hundreds more evacuated as La Palma lava nears sea</strong> - Officials fear lava could trigger toxic gasses when it reaches the sea on the Canary Islands resort.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Salisbury poisonings: Third man faces charges for Novichok attack</strong> - Denis Sergeev is thought to have been the on-the-ground commander for the 2018 poisonings.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: US opens up to fully vaccinated travellers</strong> - The US rolls back international travel restrictions, answering a major demand from allies.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>France’s Emmanuel Macron heckled asking Algerian veterans for forgiveness</strong> - The French president is heckled as he promises reparations for Algerians who fought for France.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The anonymous meta-analysis that’s convincing people to use ivermectin</strong> - What happens when you leave the analysis out of a meta-analysis? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1795939">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Restored Vermeer painting finally reveals hidden Cupid in background</strong> - Art historians have known about the Cupid’s existence since an X-ray analysis in 1979. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1791079">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: Kena: Bridge of Spirits is this year’s best Zelda 35th-anniversary gift</strong> - Studio’s first-ever game is a 15-hour adventuring triumph, GOTY contender. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1796788">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sony’s new PS5 firmware can make your games slightly faster</strong> - How big a frame-rate bump? Tests get down to the percentile level. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1796836">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SEC probing Activision Blizzard in wake of harassment, discrimination lawsuits</strong> - CEO Bobby Kotick and other execs subpoenaed, personnel files requested. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1796859">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>A man decided to tattoo his wife’s name on his penis before going to their honeymoon</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
When erect it proudly reads <em>Wendy</em> on the side of his shaft, but when soft it only shows <em>Wy</em>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
While on his honeymoon in the Caribbean, he is using the bathroom and notices the guy in the urinal next to him also has a <em>Wy</em> on his penis. He then asks the guy if his wife is named Wendy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The guy replies in a Jamaican accent, “No man, why do you ask?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The husband then explains that he noticed the <em>Wy</em> on his penis and shared that he also has <em>Wy</em> and then when erect it says “Wendy”.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The stranger then said, “When I have a hard on it says, <em>Welcome to Jamaica, have a nice day</em>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pur__0_0__"> /u/pur__0_0__ </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/psew7f/a_man_decided_to_tattoo_his_wifes_name_on_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/psew7f/a_man_decided_to_tattoo_his_wifes_name_on_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>I saw a homeless guy telling people dirty jokes for a dollar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So I went up to him and gave him a dollar. He happily pocketed the dollar and said “you see that white cat over there, how many teeth does it have?”
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</p>
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So I said “ I don’t know….”
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</p>
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He said “ how many hairs does it have?”
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I again replied saying I didn’t know.
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</p>
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He then said to me “ You see that black rooster over there, how many legs does it have?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So I promptly said 2.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So the homeless man said “how come you know nothing about white pussy and so much about black cock?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Alexharper051"> /u/Alexharper051 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ps2uf4/i_saw_a_homeless_guy_telling_people_dirty_jokes/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ps2uf4/i_saw_a_homeless_guy_telling_people_dirty_jokes/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A teacher asks her students a simple math question…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“There are 3 birds on a wire, one gets shot, how many are left?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Little Johnny raises his hand, “there are none left, once the one bird was shot the other two flew away”
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</p>
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Teacher tells Johnny he is wrong, but she likes the way he thinks.
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Johnny then inquired, “may I ask you a question now teach?”
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She loves his inquiring mind and tells him to go right ahead
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Johnny continues, “There are 3 women coming out of an ice cream shop, each with a cone… one is licking it, one is biting it, and one is sucking it…. Which one is married?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Teacher thinks for a second and replies “well..I guess I would say the one who is sucking it”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Johnny replies, “No, it’s the one with the wedding ring, but I like the way you think”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/coldhamm"> /u/coldhamm </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ps4oa3/a_teacher_asks_her_students_a_simple_math_question/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ps4oa3/a_teacher_asks_her_students_a_simple_math_question/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on strangers, which he was.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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When he finished his drink, he found his horse had been stolen. He went back into the bar, handily flipped his gun into the air, caught it above his head without even looking and fired a shot into the ceiling.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Which one of you sidewinders stole my horse?!” he yelled with surprising forcefulness.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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No one answered.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Alright, I’m gonna have another beer, and if my horse ain’t back outside by the time I finish, I’m gonna do what I dun in Texas! And I don’t like to have to do what I dun in Texas!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Some of the locals shifted restlessly. The man, true to his word, had another beer, walked outside, and his horse has been returned to the post. He saddled up and started to ride out of town.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The bartender wandered out of the bar and asked, “Say partner, before you go… what happened in Texas?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The cowboy turned back and said, “I had to walk home.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/3Vishal"> /u/3Vishal </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ps4ld2/a_cowboy_rode_into_town_and_stopped_at_a_saloon/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ps4ld2/a_cowboy_rode_into_town_and_stopped_at_a_saloon/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>George and Harriet decided to celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary with a trip to Las Vegas</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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When they entered the hotel/casino and registered, a sweet young woman dressed in a very short skirt became very friendly. George brushed her off. Harriet objected, “George, that young woman was nice, and you were so rude.”
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Harriet, she’s a prostitute.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“I don’t believe you. That sweet young thing?”
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||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Let’s go up to our room and I’ll prove it.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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In their room, George called down to the desk and asked for ‘Bambi’ to come to room 1217. “Now,” he said, “you hide in the bathroom with the door open just enough to hear us, OK?” Soon, there was a knock on the door. George opened it and Bambi walked in, swirling her hips provocatively. George asked, “How much do you charge?” “$125 basic rate, $100 tips for special services.” Even George was taken aback. “$125! I was thinking more in the range of $25.” Bambi laughed derisively. “You must really be a hick if you think you can buy sex for that price.”
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Well,” said George, “I guess we can’t do business. Goodbye.” After she left, Harriet came out of the bathroom. She said, “I just can’t believe it!” George said, “Let’s forget it. We’ll go have a drink, then eat<br/> dinner.” At the bar, as they sipped their cocktails, Bambi came up behind George, pointed slyly at Harriet, and said, “See what you get for $25 !!!!!!!!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pscdtw/george_and_harriet_decided_to_celebrate_their/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pscdtw/george_and_harriet_decided_to_celebrate_their/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
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||
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