Why does the Left insist on lowering societal standards to the lowest denominator, reducing us to a third world low-trust community?
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From forcing citizens to accept feces and needle-littered sidewalks, to ending Gifted and Talented programs for their children, to tolerate the transformation of hospital emergency services to general medical care facilities for illegal immigrants, ordinary, law-abiding citizens are told that their middle-class standards are hopelessly outdated, racist, and impossible to maintain. The rich have their gated communities and guard services and don’t have to tolerate the deterioration of society that they’ve imposed on the great unwashed, and it’s nice to know that our finest celebrities and politicians are comfortable, but that won’t scrape the crap off our shoes.
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: The controversial solution Long Beach has picked to battle shoplifters.
Tired of rampant shoplifting scaring away citizens and shoppers, Long Beach is trying to force stores to add staff and reduce dependence on self-checkout.
The beachfront city, with a population of around half a million, last month started requiring major food and pharmacy retailers to do more to stop theft. So far, the measures have led to a heated debate and longer lines.
Employees like the new law. The retail chains warn that the restrictions could backfire. Shoppers are confused.
The city’s “Safe Stores are Staffed Stores” ordinance is the first of its kind in the country. It requires large stores to increase the number of employees relative to self-checkout stands and also puts a limit on the number of items and types of goods that can be rung up at self-checkout.
“Since this is California, I’m forced to assume that the only thing Long Beach hasn’t tried is cracking down on shoplifters.
“In any case, self-checkout is for high-trust communities, and those seem to be in short supply on the West Coast.”
Here’s another city’s different approach:
Then there’s this British woman, who could just s easily be speaking from the U.S. — hang her by her manicured fingernails:
I’m a middle-class shoplifter – and here’s why I’m happy to confess it
…. The first time I did the dodgy in the supermarket was a few years ago, when I took the tag off the organic leeks and pretended they were normal leeks at the checkout. I had a buzz on realising I was cheating the system and taking something from them, a behemoth supermarket giant. I realise it’s not high stakes, but now I regularly shoplift.
…. You see, I don’t even see it as shoplifting: people like me don’t do that. I’m a nice middle-class woman with young children! I am entirely unextraordinary – we’re not on the breadline, but food is still expensive. We are the very definition of the “squeezed middle”.
…. You see, it is so easy. I’ve stolen baby grows, bibs, waterwipes, tins of tomatoes (the posh brands), linwoods seed mix, organic salmon (that’s never security tagged like the meat), sourdough crumpets, organic milk, a huge assortment of vegetables (no one ever checks the ginger), toilet paper, butter (that has gotten SO expensive), the list goes on. I have always been very lucky that I’ve never needed to worry about how much I spend on groceries, but the cost of living is painful and definitely on my mind now.
…. I’m not all bad. I would only do this in a supermarket chain, rather than any family-run small business. In contrast to this, if I’m short-changed on a bill in an independent cafe or restaurant, I always draw their attention to it. If there’s been a pricing mistake in a small clothing store, I never let it slide. My honesty goes into overdrive in these situations, because I want the little guys to do well. And perhaps that’s my issue. The greed of the multinationals – I want something from them, and this is my way of taking it.