Learning English Podcast - Boomer Economy, Product Variety, Government Tik Tok

welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. Coming up on the program, Gregory Stockwell reports on labor shortages in the U.S. caused by an aging population. John Russell has a story on how businesses are offering fewer products. Brian Lin has the Technology Report on

President Biden's appearance on Tick Tock as a part of his reelection campaign. Later, Joe Robbins and Andrew Smith presents the lesson of the day. But first, each day, about 10,000 baby boomers leave the U.S. workforce. Baby boomers are the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964. The COVID 19 pandemic only increased the amount of people retiring as older workers decided to retire early rather than risk getting sick. We're running out of workers. Why? Because baby boomers are retiring a

nd you don't have enough younger workers who are skilled to fill their spots, said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, a research group. She said the U.S. is going to have labor shortages. And she added that the pandemic quickened retirements and made labor shortages more intense. Seljuk Iran is a senior economist at the conference Board. He said the problem is that for every person leaving, only one person is coming into the labor force, and a slowed down labor force means l

imited growth, he said. So one on one it means that your labor force is not growing, which is going to slow down economic growth as well. The Federal Government workforce is also expected to be hit hard as more boomers retire. 40% of the federal government is aged 55 or more as of now. So that means that this huge wave of retirements is coming, Aaron says. And you're going to have a difficult time to replace them because there's not enough younger people, especially with their educational requir

ements, that those jobs require a conference Board report looks at industries that are likely to have shortages. As older Americans leave the workforce, they include physical labor, jobs like personal care, food services, cleaning and jobs involving repairs and building, among others. Production and transportation jobs will also be affected by retiring baby boomers, but less so. The report finds that the most severe labor shortages will be in health related jobs as more aging boomers will requir

e personal care. The possibility for labor shortages is mostly lower in jobs that require a college degree. STEM professionals or those working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are at a lower risk of shortages. Jobs that permit remote work will have less intense labor shortages, the report says. Immigration could be a way to lessen the effects of boomers leaving their jobs, Aaron says. Aaron said that's probably the faster solution because it takes time to educate a younger pe

rson to bring them to that skill level, he said. The fastest solution is just immigration and giving priority to immigrants with those skills that we are going to be lacking. That's number one, he said. Number two is to keep baby boomers working by giving them incentive to stay in the workforce. Incentives could include tax and Social Security policies that do not punish someone who works into their seventies. And offering increased freedoms like remote or part time work to people nearing retire

ment age. For Chicago based college professor Christine Mariani, retiring baby boomers mean increased opportunities for her students. She said the fact is, it's giving younger people the generations that came after them, to become the change makers, the decision makers. Mariani is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She added that it is important to make sure that the education and the knowledge that is given to these individuals that they will be able to move forward with

these responsibilities. I'm Gregory Starkel. American businesses are reducing the number of products that they offer. The change began before the covid 19 pandemic. It has only increased in recent months. Coca-Cola used to offer around 400 different kinds of drinks. The beverage company recently decided to discontinue half of them. Among the products cut were Tab Zico, coconut Water, Diet Coke, feisty cherry and Odwalla juices. Other American businesses are reducing food offerings from mayonnai

se to cereals. Car companies, too, are offering fewer kinds of cars and instead putting more effort into what they think will sell best. Stew Leonard's a company that operates food stores in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey has cut the number of cereals it offers from 49 in 2019 to 24. Edgewell Personal care company, the maker of Schick Razors and Banana Boat. Suntan lotion has cut some kinds of its antibacterial wipes called wet ones, among other products. Dollar General, based in Goodletts

ville, Tennessee, used to offer six different kinds of mayonnaise. Now it offers to the consumer is not going to know the difference. Todd J. Vassos, its chief dollar general, told experts in December. Actually, it's going to make her life a little simpler when she goes to the shelf. Shoppers looking for cars are finding fewer choices as well. Both General Motors and Ford have announced they are limiting the number of option combinations customers can get on their vehicles to reduce manufacturin

g and purchasing complexity. That is a change of direction from a few years ago, when companies aimed to offer more choices. Online shopping caused some to think that more choices lead to better sales. But more choices often do not. Companies started reducing the number of products they offer a year or two before the pandemic. During the pandemic, the reductions increased, with companies focusing on necessities as they faced supply problems. After the pandemic, when goods began moving freely aga

in, many businesses discovered less was better. New offerings made up about 2% of products in stores in 2023. That includes products for beauty, footwear, technology and toys. Market research company Circrna said that number is down from 5% in 2019. Many think the companies are also helping shoppers. Some studies show that fewer choices result in shoppers buying more. In 2000, psychologists Sina Langer and Mark Lepper published a study that showed limited selection is better for people who are b

uying things in their experiment. The researchers found consumers were ten times more likely to purchase jam when the number of jams available was cut down from 24 to 6. Later, studies have produced similar findings. Retailers are recognizing that they have to be respectful of shoppers, Time said Paco Underhill, whose company in Brazil studies consumer behavior. But retailers cannot just reduce offerings without a plan, said David Berliner of BDO, a business services company. You want to make th

ese cuts so they they're not even aware of it, and you want the store to still look full, Berliner said. If you do it too much, you might scare some away. I'm John Russell, and there were more and more about them. More and more and more and more and more and more and more and more among them. And more and more and more. More and more and more and more people. U.S. President Joe Biden officially has a presence on Tik Tok, but his reelection campaign is having to defend its decision to put him on

the video sharing app. That is because his administration has repeatedly warned of national security concerns linked to Tik tok Biden, a Democrat, first appeared on Tik Tok in a video published Sunday night. The 32nd video showed him answering a series of questions mostly about Sunday's Super Bowl. U.S. officials have said the decision to put the president on Tik Tok came from Biden's campaign organization, not the White House. Campaign officials have explained that they see Tik Tok as a way for

Biden, age 81, to connect with younger voters. Last month, a Tik Tok representative told U.S. lawmakers the app currently had an estimated 170 million active users in the United States. That was up from 150 million a year earlier. Online data company STATISTA has estimated about 70% of American teenagers are users of Tik Tok. U.S. officials have long warned that Tik Tok presents national security concerns. The government has accused Tiktok's owner, Chinese company Bytedance of sharing user data

with China's government. Critics have said China could also use Tik Tok to spread misinformation, and that material published on the service can harm the mental health of young users. Tik Tok denies the accusations. President Biden approved a limited ban on Tik Tok in December four, 2022. The ban made it unlawful for most of the federal government's 4 million employees to use the app on devices owned by agencies. On Monday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. gov

ernment's position and policies concerning Tik Tok had not changed. There are still national security concerns about the use of Tik Tok on government devices, and there's been no change to our policy not to allow that, Kirby said. White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters election rules barred her from commenting on campaign matters. But when asked about worries that Tik Tok and similar apps can help spread disinformation, she said It's a concern that we have. I spokesman for

Biden's reelection campaign, defended the use of Tik Tok to help get the president's message out. Deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty noted that by Monday afternoon, Biden's Tik Tok video had been watched more than 5 million times. The video, Flaherty said in a statement, demonstrates the campaign's continue doing efforts to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented and increasingly personalized media environment. Attempts in Congress to restrict Tik Tok have not resulted in approved legislation

. A number of U.S. states and some universities have banned Tik Tok on state issued devices. Several lawmakers criticized the Biden campaign's decision. Among them was Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. He wrote on ex that Biden's campaign was bragging about using a Chinese spy app even though Biden signed a law banning it on all federal devices. Republican Senator Joni Ernst also reacted on ex expressing concern that the campaign had decided to put Biden on what she described as a dang

erous propaganda app. Republican Representative Darrell Issa said panic is when the Biden campaign joins Tik Tok after the White House banned the app from devices a year ago. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, also expressed his national security concerns about Tik Tok and criticized the campaign's decision to put Biden on the app. I think that we still need to find a way to follow India, which has prohibited TikTok, Warner said. He added, I'm a little worried about a mixed message. I'm Brian Lin.

Brian Lin joins us now to talk more about his technology report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Of course, Dan, thanks for having me. Your report was about a decision by President Joe Biden's reelection campaign to put him on TikTok in an effort to appeal to younger voters. But the decision has been criticized by many. Are there any signs the campaign might reconsider? So at this point, there has not been any indication of that. The campaign did put out a few statements about the Tik Tok launch

and praised the amount of attention Biden's video was getting. But some political experts have said the decision to put the president on TikTok might have to be reconsidered at some point, especially if criticism of it does not die down. In the end, the campaign will have to weigh whether having Biden on Tik Tok helps him more than any lasting criticism is hurting him. A lot of the criticism seems to be centered on the campaign's decision being related to an investigative report that suggested B

iden suffers from age related memory issues. Have campaign officials addressed this? So none of the campaign statements I've seen directly link Biden's appearance on TikTok with the observations made by investigators that the president has problems with his memory. But campaign officials have said repeatedly that putting Biden on TikTok, of course, is an attempt to get him to connect with a younger audience. They have made no secret of that and say they hope the move will, in fact, introduce the

president to young people who might not go out and do their own research. Thanks for answering my questions, Brian, and thanks for your report. You're welcome. Thank you. Dan? And now it's time for the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English podcast. My name is Jill Robbins, and I'm joined by Andrew Smith. Andrew Hi, Jill. Our lesson is based on our video series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C.. Here's Ana introducing herself. Hello. My

name is Ana Mateo. In a recent lesson of the day, we explained the differences between the verbs. Talk and speak. Today we compare, the verbs tell and say. We'll be listening to some of lesson 22. Level two of Let's learn English to give some examples of these verbs. You know, we often get emails from our audience asking about how to use these two verbs. At first glance it seems they should work the same way as they have the same meaning. But that's not the case. So I'm sure this will be very h

elpful. Tell us more, Andrew. Okay. Here's the main idea to help your English. We put indirect object pronouns or nouns directly after the verb tell. Here's some examples. Tell me the truth. Tell me the truth. Tell her the answer. Tell her the answer. Tell them what we said. Tell them what we said. But with the verb. Say, we can't put those pronouns directly after the verb. Listen to Andrew give these examples. She said to me. What did he say to her? Say to them, Did you hear the difference betw

een tell and say with the verb? Say, We must use the preposition to before for the pronoun. And most of the time we don't even use indirect object pronouns. Like in this example, he said that I need to finish the job by tomorrow. Just to be clear, the pronoun I is a subject pronoun. The pronoun me can be either an indirect object pronoun or an object pronoun. Now let's listen to the beginning of lesson 22 of level two. In less than 21, Ana visited a store that sells art and objects found in the

trash or garbage. Now, Ana has tried to make art or special objects from the things she found. Try to listen for the difference between the verbs. Tell and say welcome to class Ana. I can't wait to see your trash. Oh, okay. All right. It's an it's a net with a. Oh, that's got a hole in it up. Tell me about that. This net said to me, Ana, I used to catch stuff. I don't anymore. So use me, Ana. That's what it said. It said, use me, Ana. Okay. So it's a plastic helmet. This plastic helmet said Ana.

Hey, Ana. Find me a head. Okay. And a broken toy. This broken toy. This broken toy said to me. It said, Ana, help me find fun. Help me. Ana is what it's said. Ana, this stuff is not saying anything to you or me or anyone. It's what we like to call in the business garbage. We heard Sue say. Tell me about that. And we heard Ana say this broken toy said to me, it said, Ana. You can hear how Ana used the preposition. And two, after the verb say. And of course, the objects don't really talk to Ana.

Ana just means that she was interested in the objects in a special way, as we explained in our previous podcast lesson. We can say that the objects spoke to her and notice that the past tense of say is pronounced said. You can remember this pronunciation by thinking of words that rhyme with said such as red and head. And what about the past tense of tell? Let's listen to more of less than 22 to hear that verb. Ana, what happened? I told you to wait for me. Actually, you told me not to start with

out you. The verb tell changes to told in the past tense. It sounds like Ana had some problems following directions in the class. She sure did. Our listeners should really watch the video to see just how badly Ana followed directions. Yeah, I think it's pretty funny. Ana ends up with pieces of paper glued all over her. Okay, now we're going to move to the last part of our lesson to learn how to use the verbs. Tell and say correctly. It can be helpful to simply hear several examples. So Jill and

I are going to read the following chant, which is kind of like a poem. Are you ready, Jill? Ready? Okay. Here's the chant I can tell you. And you can tell her. She can tell them. And they can tell him. He can tell us. And then we will learn if everyone said the same thing you did. But if he says something, we did not say, then we will know that somethings astray. Astray just means wrong or not really right. I can tell you. And you can tell her. She can tell them and they can tell him. And if he

tells us the same thing we said, what I told you is what you told her. And what she told them is what they told him. Isn't it great when everyone listens that way? You don't need to say it again. But maybe this poem's a little bit tricky. I think they just might need to hear it once more. And that's exactly what Rewind is for. Okay. Okay. I get what you mean. Now let's continue. Before I turn. Agree? No comment on that. So take it away. Now we will tell you just what to say to family and friends

and those who will listen. You can learn English by starting today with programs we make here at v0a. Our website is learning English that VOA news dot com. And remember, you can write to us at learning English at VOA News.com. You can ask us questions or comment on our lessons. Tell us what you think about our programs or tell us something about yourself and what you enjoy. We hope you enjoyed today's lesson about the verbs, say and tell and honest effort to make treasure out of trash. Thanks

for listening. Say goodbye, Andrew. Goodbye, Andrew. Very funny. I'm Jill Robins. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.