Posted on 03/22/2023 5:42:49 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
What is the making of a "good person?" Different people use different scales to determine who is good and who is not. Over the years, there have been many factors that have been used to categorize people. And the internet keeps providing more updated benchmarks for us to measure people by. The latest theory that has been making rounds on the internet is the "Shopping Cart Theory" and it can perfectly define a person's character. It is a modern-day take on the trolley problem with a more real-life application and implication.
Depending on how you answer the following question, you are either a good or a terrible person. Would you return a shopping cart to its designated spot after use or would you simply leave it wherever you want? Of course, this is provided that there is no dire emergency. The theory was picked up from a Reddit forum and was posted by a Twitter user for further discourse. Now, let's see what it indicates.
there is no dire emergency. Do you accept your duty to return the cart even though you gain nothing?
"The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing," the post explains. "To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it." So if you chose to return the cart, then you are a good person. At least according to this theory.
The theory further states: "No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you, or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct." The theory then goes on to make some extreme declarations. It reads, "A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with a law and the force that stands behind it."
The theory then concludes by stating, "The Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society." While the original trolley problem was also an exercise to determine a person's ethics, the modern version is less violent while also being more apparent.
-PJ
Says who?
Another reason for doing this is to protect property of other people. Sometimes a gust of wind will send an abandoned cart across the parking lot to slam into somebody's parked car. Or even a moving car.
The coffee urn in my ship's First Division main deck gear locker had a sign on the bulkhead: HE WHO TAKETH THE LAST CUP MAKETH ANOTHER POT.
That’s exactly what I do. Leave the cart in the parking spot so someone has a job.
One time a woman wagged her finger at me and pointed to the cart rack. I said to her “Why are you trying to take someone’s job away?” Frickin heartless ppl out there.
You are
Agreed. This does fall, as far as I am concerned, into the realm of living in society. You don’t have to do things for the “good” of other people, but you want to avoid doing things that could harm other people.
If you see a cart in a parking lot, it could not only get blown into your car, but might hit someone else’s. You can protect your car and those of others by securing it.
If you are in a line of cars going through a light at an interesection and traffic is backed up, you may go through on the green light, but...instead of zoning out and leaving a full car length of space in front of you, stranding someone behind in the intersectionvwhen the light changes, you pull up as snugly as you can to the car in front of you and therefore let them get out of the intersection. Sure, they probably shouldn’t have crossed, but they probably saw the space in front of you and figured you would pull up. Consideration for others. It isn’t virtue signalling. It is the hope that when you get stuck in an intersection, the person in front of you will have the consideration to pull up snugly.
Depends on how busy the parking lot is and how far away the cart return is.
It made me think of this, which was popular some years back:
It’s also a test of what kind of society you live in.
“To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do.”
The flaw here is that anyone can take issue with this statement and say “I don’t recognize it as the correct, appropriate thing to do. Stores hire cart wranglers to manage stray carts, and if everyone returned their carts, those folks would be out of a job and their families would starve”.
By sneaking an unsupported assumption into the problem, the creator left it wide open for that sort of chicanery.
My wife will return her cart to the designated area every single time. If I get out I use one of the stores EVC and usually will pull it close to my vehicle and make sure it’s turned off to conserve the battery for the next person. Taking it inside would result in a long walk for me on two canes which I try and avoid because each step means pain.
No financial incentives here but I do take it back to the rack, or at least off the parking lot and back to the building or store sidewalk in some cases. Never leave in the lot — I’ve spent hours repairing parking lot rash on my vehicles and don’t wish that on (almost) anyone.
No one expects you to take it back inside if it is difficult for you to walk.
I’ve never heard of full-time cart jockies anyway. They have lots of other duties. And the hypothetical concern about losing their jobs in kind of like “broken window fallacy” in reverse.
It’s lame. Society is better described by Aldi’s quarter-release carts, here you have a motivation — to get your quarter deposit back — but Aldi goers know to have the quarter ready to simply hand to someone who is bringing back a cart and exchange a smile. Cooperation promotes capitalism.
It isn't extra effort -- you just put your foot on the rear axle and "wheelie" it up -- I've done that during horrid weather. It accomplishes the purpose of protecting other's vehicles.
On the subject of preventing paint or ding damage: Walmart's carts, at least around here, are about the only ones that don't have plastic bumpers on the front edges of the carts. That seems like mild negligence to me. The metal corners will do damage every time. I just spent about 40 hours repairing a quarter-sized ding/dent. Took so long because of re-dos to get it perfect. It is perfect now and you can not detect a repair even when looking at the area from a shallow angle with various lighting. Glossy black cars are tough to do body and paint perfectly.
That damage was not caused by a cart — caused by a broken branch flying through the air during a wind storm. Didn’t want to make a comprehensive insurance claim and have them raise my rates. I also did it better than the typical body shop would do on an insurance job. I actually had the problem of the new paint being of better quality than the factory paint around it — no “orange peel” whatsoever. I had to smooth the factory paint around it to blend in the repair.
“but occasionally I leave it propped on a curb or parking lot pole.”
That’s acceptable. Don’t be so sure God doesn’t care about little things, though.
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