The McConnell-Trump Economy in Kentucky

Yeah, it's an isolated anecdote, although it explains and confirms a lot of things we've been seeing over the past year, so anyway:

I was in Kroger this morning, in a white, well-off section of Louisville, where I noticed that there were no baggers.

The poor cashiers were struggling to handle long lines of shoppers, backed up because the cashiers had to do the bagging, too.  And because on the busiest grocery shopping day of the week, there were only four checkout lines open.

Recently this Kroger had closed four checkout lines and replaced them with self-checkout, thus eliminating at least four cashier jobs, not including the departed baggers.  There was no waiting at the self-checkout, because everybody hates them.

And even though everyone in line whom I could see and hear was being patient and polite, the stress on the cashiers was evident.

Just as I reached the cashier, an elderly woman in her 70s, her phone buzzed.  She said, apologetically, "may I beg your indulgence?  I have to take this call. My mother just fell and broke her arm."

I'm a liberal Democrat, not a child-caging repug, so of course I said "please, go ahead."  It was the hospital, just texting to let her know her 94-year-old mother had broken her shoulder plus her arm in three places and they were prepping her for surgery.

She kept working.  And she kept thanking me.  And I kept reassuring her that we must support everyone caring for elderly or disabled loved ones.

What the FUCK kind of economy requires a woman in her 70s, with a 94-year-old mother undergoing emergency surgery, to KEEP WORKING instead of going to the hospital to be with her mother.

The kind of economy Mitch McConnell and the Pumpkin Traitor are working to create: Lords and Serfs.

Also, fuck Kroger for trying to force us all into self checkout by eliminating jobs.