People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
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People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.
I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.
@futurebird I'm old enough to remember when bin gangs consisted of a driver and four guys to collect, carry, empty into lorry and return the bins to the house. I wonder how he'd react if he were spirited back to those day
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People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.
I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.
@futurebird the same people complain about unsanitary conditions (like rats) or traffic being held up by garbage trucks.
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@futurebird @billiglarper I find the way that the mission text on the side gradually turns into a threat a little strange. I'm used to things like that being more along the lines of "Emptying your bins!" in a jolly handwriting font.
It's just how people in NYC are. We like to have everyone think we are very tough for some reason.
It's not true, though. It's just a way to make a little personal space.
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If the driver needs to leave the cab in NYC you need to lock it or someone will get in and drive the truck away... not to steal it but just because when you have this many people some of them are... well they just do things. Anything a person might do WILL happen. Anything.
@futurebird @Nerts sometimes it's just you get enough population density and "poor impulse control" is enough of an explanation
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If the driver needs to leave the cab in NYC you need to lock it or someone will get in and drive the truck away... not to steal it but just because when you have this many people some of them are... well they just do things. Anything a person might do WILL happen. Anything.
If you made a little box with a big red button on it (and nothing to indicate what it might do) and set it up on a NYC street it would be just a few seconds before someone would push it.
Ask them why? You'd get a blank stare. People just push every button turn every nob, wiggle into every crack.
The other reason you need two people on the garbage truck is so you don't have some kid trying to ride the thing while it's lifting. "that wouldn't happen"
No it will.
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@Illuminatus @futurebird @baishen But we collectively seem to have forgotten all of that now.
@jjLitke @Illuminatus @futurebird Society doesn't like facing uncomfortable truths.
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If the driver needs to leave the cab in NYC you need to lock it or someone will get in and drive the truck away... not to steal it but just because when you have this many people some of them are... well they just do things. Anything a person might do WILL happen. Anything.
@futurebird @Nerts I like to say that if a thing has a one in a million chance of happening, it happens eight times a day in NYC.
(This was borne out when I volunteered for the local American Red Cross chapter, which averaged eight emergency responses each day.)
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If you made a little box with a big red button on it (and nothing to indicate what it might do) and set it up on a NYC street it would be just a few seconds before someone would push it.
Ask them why? You'd get a blank stare. People just push every button turn every nob, wiggle into every crack.
The other reason you need two people on the garbage truck is so you don't have some kid trying to ride the thing while it's lifting. "that wouldn't happen"
No it will.
@futurebird @Nerts Try standing somewhere, anywhere, looking up with binoculars.
Even better than a red button.
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@futurebird Reminds me of the joke about the guy who will do anything to protect his family but he just means killing someone. Not anything actually useful like making sure the kids are clean, well fed, getting with housework, etc.
@baishen @futurebird Similarly, "I'd die for you"-- "You realize you just said I'd be better off if you were dead, right?"
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@futurebird @Nerts Try standing somewhere, anywhere, looking up with binoculars.
Even better than a red button.
This is how I have created many new ant fans just by standing with my camera with its huge lens intensely focused on a sidewalk crack. Someone will just join me staring at the crack then after a bit ask "what are we looking at?"
"ants!"
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@baishen @futurebird Similarly, "I'd die for you"-- "You realize you just said I'd be better off if you were dead, right?"
A failure to process the concept of "you" as another entire person and not a "precious object."

It's bad.
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@futurebird @Illuminatus @baishen yup, if they are being paid a pittance, they are probably extremely important to keep everything running
@webhat @futurebird @Illuminatus @baishen here in the UK, the people who were turning up for work every day and keeping the country going were generally those who work the worst hours, in some of the worst conditions, and generally get paid the least.
When the return to work orders went out, we were hoping to get OUR 6 months off at 80% pay or whatever it was, but no, we had to keep on going in, because everyone was now back at work, so no time off!
And those who had had months off work on 80% pay complained about how tired they were, being back at work, and how much they were looking forward to the next bank holiday (national holiday) the following weekend.
I'll give you 1 guess who worked the bank holiday!
Yep, the "Essential Workers", the "Key Workers", the people who had to keep going to work for 100% pay when everyone else seemed to be getting 80% pay for completing Netflix and Prime and publicly wondering when exactly was the right time to switch from day time pyjamas to night time pyjamas.
And the worst part - the company sent out posters to each location at the start of the lockdowns, encouraging those who could work from home to do so.
Yeah, the shelves in the supermarket are going to be really full if I try doing that job from home, but people at Head Orifice could work remotely.
Yeah, we keep the country (and the company!) running, how about some pay, and some respect. -
This is how I have created many new ant fans just by standing with my camera with its huge lens intensely focused on a sidewalk crack. Someone will just join me staring at the crack then after a bit ask "what are we looking at?"
"ants!"
I guess they maybe thought there was a broadway show in there or something. LMAO.
(but, in a way, there is a broadway show in the sidewalk crack. Ant drama is high drama.)
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People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.
I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.
@futurebird Garbage collector is a job with lots of hazards, and they deal with angry idiots all the time. They absolutely earn those wages
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I'm struggling to even getting myself into the headspace where two people working a truck is upsetting to me.
Maybe this person works for UPS or some delivery company where drivers work alone and it is often *very dangerous*. (but just workable I guess? They still block traffic all the time) and they want everyone to suffer?
How do you look at a $7,000,000 patriot missile and get mad about more people being employed in the very honorable and *life-saving* work of collecting garbage?
@futurebird Buying thousands of Patriots at $7 Million each, and hoping that you never have to use them is almost as bad as spending all of that money, then getting into an unnecessary shooting war that requires you to use around half of those missiles, depleting stocks so far in 3 months that it will take decades to replace them all.
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People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.
I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.
@futurebird hi I was in an adjacent industry for some years
TRASH IS FUCKING DANGEROUS. It's not just that there could be sharps, there definitely ARE sharps. There are pressurized cannisters and car batteries and gas cans improperly disposed of. There are live animals with diseases. There's heavy shit and gross shit and actual shit shit. Illegal shit and shit packed so it moves unexpectedly and could collapse. Falling shit and flying shit. The second guy is there to save the first guy's life.
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People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.
I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.
@futurebird Hmm. The person who complained has: 1. Never emptied other people's garbage 2. Has never driven a commercial truck in narrow alleys or city traffic.
My wife used to drive a tractor trailer (53 feet) in NYC to deliver pallets of food. And had to navigate between park cars, unaware foot traffic, speeding cyclists, and angry drivers trying to block her or unsafely cut her off.
Since she drove alone, she had to take chances without any help when trying to back up or turn or get into/out of driveways. The city is not for faint-hearted inexperienced drivers. Commercial drivers get a premium to deliver in NY because it's not designed for commercial traffic, and well, because of impatient aggressive New Yorkers. Boston is as bad, with tiny winding streets and lots of Massholes.
After that person's car gets smashed or sideswiped by a one-person city garbage truck with one person, tell them "you got what you wished for, and don't you dare sue the city and raise our taxes." -
@futurebird Hmm. The person who complained has: 1. Never emptied other people's garbage 2. Has never driven a commercial truck in narrow alleys or city traffic.
My wife used to drive a tractor trailer (53 feet) in NYC to deliver pallets of food. And had to navigate between park cars, unaware foot traffic, speeding cyclists, and angry drivers trying to block her or unsafely cut her off.
Since she drove alone, she had to take chances without any help when trying to back up or turn or get into/out of driveways. The city is not for faint-hearted inexperienced drivers. Commercial drivers get a premium to deliver in NY because it's not designed for commercial traffic, and well, because of impatient aggressive New Yorkers. Boston is as bad, with tiny winding streets and lots of Massholes.
After that person's car gets smashed or sideswiped by a one-person city garbage truck with one person, tell them "you got what you wished for, and don't you dare sue the city and raise our taxes.""impatient aggressive New Yorkers" I can't imagine what would give people this impression. LMAO.
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I know. It's such a difficult job and this fun time we are all having living in a dense city just would not happen without this work. I guess I wish more people took that seriously. Especially because people die and are badly injured just trying to make it all happen.
@futurebird @alda In Paris the sanitation workers strike regularly just to make sure everyone remembers.
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I guess they maybe thought there was a broadway show in there or something. LMAO.
(but, in a way, there is a broadway show in the sidewalk crack. Ant drama is high drama.)
@futurebird @Karen5Lund @Nerts
Passerby: "Why are you looking at those?"
Myrmepropagandist: "Cause I'm an ANT FAN! 𝅘𝅥𝅮 Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop... 𝅘𝅥𝅮 "
[ parody of Scatman John's work, earnestly detailing the fascinating qualities of family Formicidae, continues for 5 minutes and 11 seconds ]