Short Takes #28: The Older You Are

Walter Mosley | It's Going To Get Worse | Weaselspeak | Factoids

Photo by Brijesh Reddy on Unsplash — The Good Old Days.

One of the truisms of human life is that the older you are, the more you live in the past.

| Walter Mosley, The Art of Fiction No. 234

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A bunch of what I write about, below, is from the beforetimes. But I am not sharing a nostalgic view: I want us to learn from the past, which we don’t seem to be doing.

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It’s Going To Get Worse

Around 10% of lower-income households are now spending over 10% of their income on gas.

| Benzinga

I can recall the gas rationing established during the gas crisis of 1973 (odd-even days at gas stations¹), Among other outcomes, the national 55 mile-an-hour speed limit was imposed², and the strategic petroleum reserve was established. Fuel rationing led to violence, as truckers protested high prices.

This time around, though, despite the fact that Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the US (and Israel) — not OPEC — has to be considered the cause of the rise in the price of oil, and subsequently, the price at the pump.

Remember, the OPEC countries cut production of oil and embargoed the US in 1973 because of Nixon’s request of $2.2 billion to support Israel’s Yom Kippur war against Egypt and Syria, which the Arab allies started in October 1973³. And, now, in 2026, we are suffering another oil embargo.

And, as usual, the poorest Americans will be the ones most severely harmed by soaring gas prices.

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Weaselspeak

Clive Thompson turned me onto this hilarious tool:

I don’t know who did this, but someone made a little Kagi translator that takes a normal English sentence and translates it into the clotted weaselspeak one finds in the average LinkedIn post.

It’s unsettlingly good …

Clotted weaselspeak = LinkedIn. LOL.

I wonder if it works in reverse?

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Factoids

It is the time of the clearing of the benches.

Reid J. Epstein, Ben Casselman report on March employment numbers:

Even in an era of surprising economic news, the numbers on Friday [March 6] were striking: Forecasters had anticipated a gain of around 50,000 jobs. Instead, employers cut tens of thousands of jobs, and what had looked like solid job growth in December was revised to show a loss. The unemployment rate continued a slow but steady rise.

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Goodbye, middle management.

There are now nearly six individual contributors per manager at the 8,500 small businesses analyzed in a report by Gusto, which handles payroll for small and medium-sized employers. That’s up from a little over three in 2019.

| Emily Peck, Managers were already disappearing. Enter AI.

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What?

Multiple studies show that young people aren’t dating, having sex⁴ or forming partnerships. A recent survey of young adults from the Institute for Family Studies and Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute found that only 30 percent of its respondents were actively dating, despite about half of them indicating that they were interested in finding a relationship. They cited a lack of confidence in what the researchers termed “dating efficacy”: Fewer than 40 percent believed themselves to be attractive to potential partners or felt comfortable discussing their feelings with them. Only around a quarter felt confident in approaching a potential partner or in their ability to stay positive after a dating setback — a rejection, a bad date or a breakup. If trends continue, one in three adults currently in their 20s will never marry, contributing to an epidemic of loneliness that is already generationally acute.

| Christine Emba, The Reason Gen Z Isn’t Dating [emphasis mine]

An epidemic of childlessness, too.

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The great pile-on.

Restructuring and layoffs have led to a “great pile-on” within organizations. Some 31% of workers say they have recently taken on extra work responsibilities, according to a survey from Wiley Workplace Intelligence, a workplace research firm. A majority of workers with new responsibilities say their workload increased following a restructuring or layoff.

| Kevin J. Delaney, How higher education must change to train tomorrow’s workers

See Goodbye middle management, above.