3 ms·

And yet if we look around, in any city or town in the US, it’s easy to see there’s still garbage needing to be picked up; old buildings falling apart; sidewalks

And yet if we look around, in any city or town in the US, it’s easy to see there’s still garbage needing to be picked up; old buildings falling apart; sidewalks and roads in need of repair; the need for more libraries and parks, more librarians, more teachers, more doctors, more first responders, more social workers, more… everything? At best, the public realm meets, but almost never exceeds our, needs. Oftentimes it doesn’t even do that! Sure— if you’re fortunate enough, you can avoid the system altogether (private school, private healthcare, personal assistant to organize your DMV appointment, etc), but that just proves the point: what is there to be proud of? There’s so much that needs to be done and yet we’re not doing any of it. Instead we’re mostly coasting on the infrastructure (imagine if building highways then took as long as high speed rail today), (what’s left of the) social safety net, and institutions we created in the 50s and 60s. Why?

svieira 3y ago
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/acceptance-speech/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/acceptan... - we didn't dare to love.
refurb 3y ago
it’s easy to see there’s still garbage needing to be picked up I remember in my town the city council suggested that - pay unemployed people to pick up trash. You know who the biggest opponent was? The union for city workers. It threatened their jobs. You need to think through all the implications.
- thebradbain 3y ago
  Have them join the union then, or make it a program sponsored by the city workers (who else to better manage it anyways than those normally responsible for trash pickup?). That was also apparently one of the reasons that NYC could “never” have containerized trash pickup like literally any other city in the US. Surprise! Despite that, and a million other “intractable issues”, the city has essentially switched to trash containerization pickup overnight, and everyone is better for it.

svieira 3y ago

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/acceptance-speech/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/acceptan... - we didn't dare to love.

refurb 3y ago

it’s easy to see there’s still garbage needing to be picked up I remember in my town the city council suggested that - pay unemployed people to pick up trash. You know who the biggest opponent was? The union for city workers. It threatened their jobs. You need to think through all the implications.

thebradbain 3y ago
Have them join the union then, or make it a program sponsored by the city workers (who else to better manage it anyways than those normally responsible for trash pickup?). That was also apparently one of the reasons that NYC could “never” have containerized trash pickup like literally any other city in the US. Surprise! Despite that, and a million other “intractable issues”, the city has essentially switched to trash containerization pickup overnight, and everyone is better for it.