Signs the economy is bad: December 8, 2017 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs the Economy is Bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I have time and/or feel like doing it) feature where I scour the Internet in search of the oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Sure, pundits may say things are getting better, but what do they know? And to show not all is bad, once in a while we look at how good the uber rich have it.

Unless I find a big influx of stories in the coming two weeks before Christmas, this will likely be the last edition of "Signs the economy is bad" for 2017. Do not worry. I am not expecting 2018 to be any better under the current "Hard Times," so I am sure this series will continue well into 2018. In the meantime, I have come across a few early holiday season stories along with  the usual fuckery, so let's have a look.

• It is getting more difficult to find volunteer firefighters, especially in rural areas. To make things worse, the number of volunteer firefighters we do have now is diminishing. This is not exactly good news given recent events like the California wild fires. Story via The Rural Blog. 
• Meanwhile, U.S. farmers are killing themselves in record numbers. Again, to make things worse, this trend is not exclusive to the U.S. Story via The Guardian. 
• In other rural news, 2/3 of rural counties now offer even less jobs. Story via The Daily Yonder. 
• Moving along, the U.S. construction industry is working harder than ever in light of recent disasters such as hurricanes in Texas and wildfires in California. Like many other industries in the U.S., the construction industry employs foreign workers, including some on various visas. Well, the Pendejo In Chief's administration, in its quest to keep messing things up and making things harder on everyone else, is moving to end protections for workers with temporary protected status,  many who do  those rebuilding jobs. Story via NPR.
• Laborers in China are not doing much better. After being told and encouraged to leave the countryside and move to cities for jobs, those jobs are now dwindling, and they are basically being told  now to GTFO. Story via NPR.  
• Meanwhile, in case you needed more reason to be angry at how restaurants exploit their workers, especially workers, their latest fraud is to basically skim off tax receipts. Seriously, they can now use software to void transactions, show less than what they actually sold, etc. in the quest to not pay or pay less taxes. It is not just a U.S. thing by  the way. Story via The Lexington Herald Leader. 
• And in news from the friendly skies, an airline that had delays offered their passengers some vouchers so they could eat at the airport. The problem? The vouchers were for about 8 bucks, and the cheapest food available was about 11 bucks. As the kids said, #fail. At least one of the passengers was not happy about it. Story via Inc.
• In higher education news, via Inside Higher Ed: 
• Moody's downgrades the outlook of higher education. Not surprising given the U.S. is not very good about investing nor prioritizing higher education. 
• Think student loans are the only problem college students face? Try all the other fees, charges, so on that colleges often levy on them that they may not be able to pay and then prevents students from re-enrolling or graduating. 
• On a positive for some, if you happen  to be a genetic researcher or such, the military may have work for you as it invests about $100 million in research for "genetic extinction" technology. The DARPA guys who brought you the Internet are now  interested in using genetic technologies to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which  sounds good, but it is the military. So naturally one wonders who long before they turn that in other fine bioweapons. Story via AlterNet. 
• In avocado news: 
• Did you know that if you are on a dating site and your profile mentions avocados, especially guacamole, your odds get better? Story via Atlas Obscura. 
• In ridiculous news, here is a solution for stupid people who can't handle knives and cut avocados. Now, you can buy pit-less avocados. Story via BBC. 
• You have to hustle in the bad economy, and this includes erotic performers online. Sidny Deveraux discusses what it is like to be "a naked lady on the Internet." This is a piece I found interesting on a topic you do not always  hear about. Story via CQ Magazine.  
• In early holiday season news, do you ever wonder why the  hell it is next to impossible to find t that one must have toy or gift everyone wants no matter how early or diligent you are, especially online? Here is the answer. Motherfucking assholes are using bots to buy them all up before you get a chance, and then reselling them at obscenely exorbitant prices in places like E-Bay. Story via The New York Times. 
• And finally for this week, do you have a gun enthusiast family member who  has it all? Are you not sure what you could possibly get them that they do not have already? Do you have some serious cash to spare? If you do, then you could get them a Trump .45. What is a Trump .45? It is a limited edition pistol, "the Rolls-Royce of firearms made for Donald Trump supporters and Second Amendment fans.It's finished in 24 karat gold, made with real meteorite, and has the blessing of the NRA.Could this limited-edition 1911 pistol engraved "TRUMP 45" make presidential firearms great again?" Story via Forbes, with hat tip to Christian Nightmares.

So that does it for this edition. Stay tuned for through the rest of the month I will be posting my annual holiday series. From ridiculous gifts to holiday traditions to books to read, I will take a look at the at the holidays with  a little fun in mind.