No idea why my previous comment shows as quoted, but whatever

My argument is that if they were actually competing that would mess with the performative nature of the storytelling.

Oof, yeah, forgot about that. Yeah, people are people everywhere… I just liked having a more idyllic version of things in my head

When I lived in Germany I found that the people were far more self-policing than Americans. There just seemed to be a general attitude of, “we know we’re not supposed to do that, so we don’t.”

Fully anecdotal, sure, and that was 15 years ago, but nonetheless it’s hard for me to imagine “ze Germans” tampering with odometers to sell cars.

athlete Athletes compete or strive against others to attain a goal, TV wrestlers perform, or enact a feat before an audience.

I don’t think anybody is asking to measure his feet, but these measurement devices are practically everywhere that shoes are sold, so it’s easy to check for yourself.

I wonder if it’s a function of total surface area or if it’s more about the weight pressing on your ankles…

Aaaannny second now…

As a funny challenge I like to come up with simplified, stupid-sounding, 3-word search queries for complex questions, and more often than not it’s good enough to get me the information I’m looking for.

It’s Did Not Finish in racing

I agree with you, the “unimportant” part was tongue in cheek. My point really is that if a person wants a job done for money, they need to either pay a living wage or admit that the work isn’t important enough to pay for. There shouldn’t be an in-between for people to take advantage of.

Then we make two wages, one we call minimum, the other we call living. That way it’s easy to know if a place is offering a living wage or if it’s just unimportant work.