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.
except there are people like me who leave shopping carts where they land, in order to guarantee employment to people who will need it. By doing the work of others, one diminishes the opportunities for low ability employment which is sorely needed in our culture and explicated by Murry in various books.
If that makes me evil, I guess I am, but I see others who act like lemmings to be thoughtless and easily led.
Your account had that same flavor to me!
Character. It is what you do when nobody is looking.
read some of the posts about the s.c. 15 y.o. who was stopped from walking around while the pledge of allegiance was being recited. Its her right to be an ass, well its their right to support ass behavior and not feel bad about carts left anywhere in the parking lot. because asses hang together IE: democratic socalists.
People that do that really grind my beans. I hate lazy people like that and worse yet people like my wife (who works in a supermarket) have to waste their time picking up after lazy slobs who do this.
AMEN!
This. Before cart corrals were ubiquitous, I’d often leave my cart by the car, somewhere where it wouldn’t roll around. But when i went INTO the store, I always took two or three with me, unless there were none to be found. And back in those days, there were always PLENTY to be found. I don’t think I EVER saw someone bring an empty cart all the way back to the store. I actually worked for one summer bringing carts back. (And on the register, but carts were more fun.) I never looked at someone who left a cart behind as making me work, but rather as keeping me employed.
Thanks. New since I was last at an Aldi, I guess.
Seems creepy to me, but obviously a reflection on the character of our population.
Definitely part of my upbringing! (Though it did take some time to get that one to sink in!)
Character is what you do when you know you won’t get caught.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
True. And this shopping cart discussion puts me in mind of the disgusting people who litter public spaces. The dregs of society in my view. Probably why the word “trash” is often used in reference to trashy people!!
I only care about finding my car. Now that I'm really old, people are always offering to help me find my car. lol
Locking carts is unfair to the homeless.
Its not illegal not to return the shopping cart nor is it immoral. God will not judge you based on your shopping cart behavior. 95% of the time I dutifully return the shopping cart but occasionally I leave it propped on a curb or parking lot pole. I don’t steal it or abuse it. God doesn’t care.
I agree this WAS a good test.
Now that people are watching, the test is invalid.
Fall back is whether a person picks something up at a store, changes his or her mind and either returns it from whence it came or just puts it wherever.
I didn’t exactly date much, as I had an arranged marriage, but one arrangement that didn’t work was a lady who would just dump products wherever in a store. I broke it off. She ended up (a decade later) getting arrested for fraud.
EXCEPT ... some of us appreciate finding a cart in the parking lot. After cervical spine surgery a year or so back, I tend to wobble when I walk. So I really appreciate finding a cart next to my handicap parking spot. And the same for my wife.
Me, I take the shopping cart and load it with my possessions that were “borrowed “ from somebody else and then sleep on the sidewalk in front of somebody’s business.
Is that wrong?
Theoretically
I’ve seen them half-jammed
ANYTHING but for someone to walk 20-50 feet 🙄🙄
I like to sell my shopping carts to the homeless- doesn’t that make me a good person?
Simplistic but accurate, in my opinion.
Sadly, so much civility has disappeared from our society. Children who are not taught to be considerate and respectful grow up to be inconsiderate, self-centered adults.
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