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.
Interesting. I am now going to have fun watching the parking lot.
I always take my cart back...to get the quarter.
I leave mine near my car. Why? Because Local 22 of the United Shopping Carts Retrievers of America wants me to!
What if you add items to other shoppers carts when they’re not looking?
See Post #4
I always return the cart to the storage area. Always.
If there is one loose in the parking lot nearby, I often grab that one and return it too.
If it is a bunch, I don’t. I figure that is a flaw in the management of the store, and they need to fix it themselves, but I always do the one-offs.
I work at a hospital, and I do that with orphaned wheel chairs too, sitting in the parking lot. Same dynamic. If it is one, I grab it. More, they need to know they aren’t doing something right.
Quarter or not, I always take my cart to the cart area.
I always put things back where they belong and leave things better than you found it.
That’s a very interesting point.
What do you do in private because it’s the right thing to do, simply because it’s the right thing to do, tells a lot about a person’s character.
100% of the time when I shop at Aldi’s.
Some people at Walmart will make extra effort to jam one up on a curb rather than return it
I’ve seen it at grocery stores too
They have to lift the cart as opposed to pushing it
My wife and are cart returners. Had a great time one day. I told my son to take the cart back. He left it on sloped ground. He walks away, but the cart turns and starts rolling toward him and kept following him. It was like it had a life if it’s own. My son started running and screaming. I was laughing a lot.
Character is what you do when you know you won’t get caught.
Good exercise, and no skin off my nose.
The wife and I have a spot in the truck console cup holder for the “shopping cart quarter”. It’s for shopping at Aldi’s. There may, or may not be quarters in the actual console well, but who wants to scrabble around in there looking for a quarter?
At Aldi’s you get your quarter back.....................
You’re a good person!
“I always return the cart to the storage area. Always.
If there is one loose in the parking lot nearby, I often grab that one and return it too.”
Same with me.
When I was working in retail as a young man I was asked by the store manager to do cart returns. I was supposed to be an assistant manager so I was really angry.
I proceeded to retrieve every single cart.
When every single cart was in the store it was virtually impossible to get in the entrance.
I was never asked to bring in carts again.
It was also the deciding factor in my choice of not pursuing a retail career.
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