I think you’re making the right choice by going with 40-45L for week ending! Osprey and Gregory make great packs. Don’t know if you’re in a place where you can try them on - would go with whatever fits best, and those companies do make different fitting packs compared to each other.

What happened with that ~$1 trillion that was in forbearance during the pandemic? Doesn't seem like it tanked the economy...

As to Smucker's, I guarantee their factory floor is a lot browner. Now here's the question: does this cause a bifurcation between the Morlocks and Eloi where the ruling class beams down from the mothership every four weeks to command the galley slaves? Or do the galley slaves start moving up and displacing the whip-holders because they're simply there more often? I think that's a thoroughly unresolved question with massive implications for the future of work in the United States.

If this is anything like most large corporations I've worked for, or otherwise am aware of via former friends, colleagues, etc. it's still very much the former in this, and in some cases where I've seen the latter, for those people, they end up back on the factory floor/in the factory/etc. due to the politics and unwelcoming nature of breaking into the mothership.