EoR No. 21: Do you trust your neighbors?
Plus, doing nothing, tool lending libraries, AI shoppers, living paycheck to paycheck and more
Top of mind
I started my first ever corporate media job recently, and this essay hits hard. So much of the 40-hour workweek of corporate knowledge-industry workers is… nothing. And that’s quite funny when you’re in your 20s and it’s your first doing-nothing job.
But by mid-career, you’ve seen a few layoffs, and you realize, oh, eventually they figure out doing nothing is costing them a whole lot. To fix their books, they lay you off and, a few months later, hire a new round of people to do nothing for a while. People make billions of dollars running business like this. Money isn’t real.
No news this week, so straight to a little reading to get you through your day (and a discussion on a topic I’m currently obsessed with and would love to know your thoughts!).
🥑 ICYMI at Healthy Rich this week
🔗 Things to catch
Worried about the impact of tariffs on necessities? Tool libraries could help you get what you need while reducing your consumption!
Trust among Americans is declining in general, but this data from Pew Research is interesting (if unsurprising to those of us with experience): Folks with the least access to education and income are also the least trusting.
Are you ready to let your credit card do your shopping for you?
The Biden-era Junk Fees Rule just went into effect — even out of her post, Lina Khan’s FTC legacy is making our lives better 💖 by Samuel Levine at
.An essay on the helplessness and frustration of living paycheck to paycheck.
This is why everyone who’s ever worked in the service industry says everyone should be required to spend time working in the service industry.
- with a too-perfect summary of life under late-stage capitalism: We traded good jobs for cheap crap, but now the crap isn’t cheap.
💬 Let’s discuss
Do you trust your neighbors?
I find the Pew Research study on trust fascinating. As someone who understands the way working-class folks always feel taken advantage of, as someone who lives in a town where most voters would rather a woman like me didn’t exist, as a neurodivergent person who’s always been perceived as a weirdo, I understand distrust deeply. And yet, I believe in the value of community and the goodness of people just as deeply.
How’s your relationship to trust? Do you believe most people can be trusted? Do you generally trust your neighbors and the people around you? What effects your level of trust in people, especially strangers, especially people who aren’t exactly like you?
So many knowledge workers jobs are disappearing. This started way before AI. I kept searching for stability only to be caught in rounds of layoffs.
I am a neurodivergent weirdo old enough to just be known as the weird kid growing up. I never figured out social cues so I am both gullible and standoffish. I live in a massive apartment complex where a certain amount of polite disinterest works best — be nice in the elevator, hold doors open, help a neighbor when you can but mostly stay separate and never ever complain to the management.
I naturally trust people, sometimes too much for my own good. I cannot imagine that people would approach me with bad intentions... It is a bit tiring for my husband who has to get me out of some situations because of that, but I am generally happy to be like that.