Judging by the comments, reading the article seems to be a lost art. Here’s the image for y’all:

It’s very specifically about 18-24 year olds, compared to last year, with video games seeing the steepest decrease.

You can stop complaining about games being soulless, unless you want to claim that wasn’t a problem last year. Well, you can, but it’s unrelated then. Compared to last year, this age group has felt the need to cut back at everything more so than anyone else.

Here’s the thread mentioned in the article. Suspected reason is restarting of student loan payments and difficult job market.

That is literally what I am talking about, though. “you doing more, the store doing less, prices increase anyway” is exactly the same thing as happened 100 years ago.

Stores where customers didn’t have access to the back also don’t need security cameras, so even that point is 1:1 the same (although that’s way later than 1925 then).

We have lost most of the stores where a clerk will collect your items for you, they once were the only option. At this rate, we will lose most of the stores where a clerk will scan the items for you as well. Simply because 1 clerk and 20 cameras is cheaper than 15 clerks.

I’m not saying that you have to like or hate both developments equally, I just wanted to point out that we have had and lost this exact battle before.

“Don’t you hate it when you walk into a grocer and they expect you to pick out the items yourself? I don’t work here, I just want to say “1 pound of ham and 2 loafs of bread” at the clerk, pay and pick them up. I’ve been to this new Piggley Wiggly, can’t find anything, spent like an hour to find beans. Imagine if I was paid for that time, I would have made 15¢!”

OP in 1925, probably.

Ah yes, the “it’s been 3000 years” guy, genuinely one of the series best moments.

What else was there? The villain? Whack. The champ? Whack. The prof? Whack. The 5 rivals? Whack. I don’t think 2 great scenes make a good story, no matter how elaborate the lore.

Thank you for your input, but I won’t leave my mountain to fight you on your hill.

Well, same back to you. I never doubted you having that experience, but I asked if it’s normal.

Your own source says it’s only 12.8% of the US living in such areas. So it’s safe to assume that OP would also be interested in the cheaper recipes that involve mostly produce. Your life experience isn’t universal either.

Every supermarket I ever went to had a vegetable aisle and potato sacks for a few €. Variety in produce may be low, but that’s what a Turkish supermarket is for.

Granted, I never lived in an American BestBuy town, so this might be a cultural thing. But produce being unavailable or even just being out of one’s way seems insane to me. You sure that normal where you live?

I agree that how healthy something is should be put on the back burner (hah!), true, but when cost is the most important factor, produce is unbeatable. While not created equal, the means to prepare for most are 1 pot, 1 board and 1 knife, and there sure are recipes that don’t take up too much time.

Someone asking for recipes can be expected to have some time to cook them, while working 2 jobs is way too common nowadays, there are still more people struggling for money with some time on their hands. If you have no money, no time and no energy for cooking, you’re beyond asking for advice and should instead be asking for help.

My ultimate struggle meal:

In 1 pot:

• Rice (the good one from a sack, forget about minute rice)
• Carrots, sliced
• Whatever is cheapest between Sweet potato, Pumpkin or Eggplant at the time, cut into cubes.
• Thai Curry paste & Soy sauce
• Salt
• Cook 15 minutes
• Put into a tortilla with mayonnaise

Fast, really cheap, and has the important bonus that the only dish to clean is the 1 pot. When struggling, I also don’t feel like doing a lot of housework.

Sadly, I can never remember the best ratios, so the mayonnaise is rather mandatory as it can save a rather bland filling. Sometimes, I splurge and use guacamole instead, sometimes I also put in mini-spring rolls from the same shop I buy the rice and curry.

With my “recipe” out of the way, the important thing is to find some ingredients that have a low price for lot’s of weight, and then choose a recipe that’s like 90% cheap ingredients by weight. (Remember that some ingredients take on a lot of water, rice taking on twice it’s volume for example, so they’re cheaper than the price tag implies). I personally look for food that’s under 3€/kg. The other 10% of the meal can be way more expensive (curry paste in my recipe), but, because you only use so little of it, as a whole it’s still cheap.

Probably the absolute cheapest meal are homemade hash browns, potatoes are ridiculously cheap, with apples being the cheapest fruit where I live. Next cheapest vegetable around here are carrots.

The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.

Arthur Schopenhauer

It may a 200 year old quote, but the only thing that has changed is that we have since found even worse things to be proud of.

Cycling is part of the war on cars that’ll turn our country soft by promoting thick, muscular thighs.

Someone, probably

Yeah, we’re all mad, fuck the suits and all that.

But why does the distinction between “real-world adult material” and “creative, non-realistic”, “artistic, animated works” that “do no harm” matter? Last time I checked, realistic adult material can be just as artistic, and the harm done by negligently letting children watch it seems comparable.

Are they in favour of age verification for “uncreative, realistic” pornography, or is the real distinction just between real-life and online?

“Are red pandas carnivores or herbivores?” “They eat like 80% bamboo, so herbivores.” “Wrong! They are taxonomically in the order carnivora, making them carnivores! Please ignore that carnivore also just means meat eater and herbivore isn’t even a taxonomic clade. People only ever talk to me to get mad at this switching between casual and scientific definitions, I am nothing without it.”

You know, random ass thought…

For purely economic reasons, the less often I need to buy it, the more I allow myself to splurge.

So vegetables and my go to drink I consume everyday are bought the absolute cheapest, but that spice blend for those veggies lasts me months so I really don’t care if there’s a cheaper alternative.

Of course, expensiveness is measured per kg/litre, paying a bit more up front is always worth it if it means a lower price per kg (if you can consume it before it goes bad).

Isn’t OP’s whole point that you should complain, just not call it theft?

Underhero is a RPG. There is (bad) 2D platforming and an interesting blend between turn based and real time battles with decent amount of player expression, but I find most interesting the writing and scenarios you will find yourself in during the game. You play as an Underling after the Hero has an unfortunate accident after all, and while technically a silent protagonist, all entries in the journal/hint system/to-do list are just brimming with personality.

I swear I first saw this game in list of “Paper Mario-likes”, but I can’t find a single video with that topic that mentions it, and now I realize that it only has like 600 reviews on steam.