The USA has a reputation for free markets it isn't really true. Pay Toilets were banned in the 70s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_toilet#U.S.
Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
61–70 of 119 posts
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#62I don't want to seem too accusatory, but this just felt like an angry rant without much research. I've been to a few places on this earth, and while I know there are some Europeans who'll proudly talk about how paying for toilets helps keep them clean, I haven't noticed them being any better than gas station bathrooms in the US. Some are okay, some are total disaster sites. The only difference is someone or a machine…
And completely misses the fact that the US has LOTS of free toilets--gas stations, state run rest stops, McDonald's and other fast food joints, Walmart/Target and other big box stores, pharmacy/drugstores, etc.
What has actually been asserted through dogwhistling is that "There are few free public restrooms where there are lots of homeless and/or drugs". That probably is true.
That tends to be cause and effect: an increase in homeless and/or drug users generally causes free toilets to shut down so as not to be an attractive nuisance.
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Weird, it seems so.
Not weird The silent majority just wants to do their number 2 with minimum hassle
Or a vocal minority cares a lot more about inserting capitalism everywhere, even when there are plenty of examples of places where toilets work fine without being paid.
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#64So Cochrane claims that toilet “attendant” work is “well suited to new immigrants.” Really? The rational for the claim is that immigrants “don't speak English, are not well attuned to American culture, and have little education or training.” Really? I don’t disagree with the overall point about public potty markets but there is something off putting about claiming that “dirty” jobs are for people without skills and t…
How many people who clean toilets do you know?
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#65I don't want to seem too accusatory, but this just felt like an angry rant without much research. I've been to a few places on this earth, and while I know there are some Europeans who'll proudly talk about how paying for toilets helps keep them clean, I haven't noticed them being any better than gas station bathrooms in the US. Some are okay, some are total disaster sites. The only difference is someone or a machine…
Maybe not the only way, but replacing The culture and Socio economic situation in the US with that of Japan seems like a fringe consideration
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#66> The problems of public infrastructure are not money.
The problems of American public infrastructure are exactly money, which is to say, the differences in funding capital projects versus funding maintenance. Forget public toilets for a second - one of the reasons why America's roads and bridges are falling apart is because they were built with Federal dollars, but no Federal provision was made for their maintenance. So what happens is that non-urban localities look at the responses to their maintenance RFPs, calculate that they would need to triple property taxes to afford it, and so decide not to do anything instead. Why would the maintenance of public toilets be any different? It's just another public expenditure. So writers like the author come up with mental gymnastics to try to find some kind of private solution that will take quarters from those who save every quarter to help them get their next fix. As if an addict would prefer a toilet to a dose. It's facetious on its face (pun intended, I guess).
America isn't like this because of "culture". America is like this because of the combination of a) Congress not being able to shoulder these maintenance burdens itself (because they are the responsibility of state governments) b) state governments being both financially restrained (people are willing to pay only so much in state taxes when they already pay so much in federal taxes) and monetarily constrained (no power to print their own dollars, often constitutionally required to balance their budgets). So nobody is empowered (in the real sense of funding) to provide for the maintenance of the public commons.
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#67[deleted]
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#68I don't want to seem too accusatory, but this just felt like an angry rant without much research. I've been to a few places on this earth, and while I know there are some Europeans who'll proudly talk about how paying for toilets helps keep them clean, I haven't noticed them being any better than gas station bathrooms in the US. Some are okay, some are total disaster sites. The only difference is someone or a machine…
"Meanwhile, in East Asia,"
I guess you've never been to Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines but I would agree that nickel and diming does not == quality/experience in this stance.
But sometimes it is marginally cleaner.
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#69The thing that makes me pessimistic about anything free, is seeing chewing gum in the urinals. It’s obvious the gum can’t go down the drain. It’s also obvious that someone will have to take out the urine soaked gum and put it in the garbage. There is a trash can literally 5 feet away. But I still find chewing gum in the urinals.
If we as a culture can’t collectively get that right, I have doubts for anything more involved.
Re: Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm
#70So Cochrane claims that toilet “attendant” work is “well suited to new immigrants.” Really? The rational for the claim is that immigrants “don't speak English, are not well attuned to American culture, and have little education or training.” Really? I don’t disagree with the overall point about public potty markets but there is something off putting about claiming that “dirty” jobs are for people without skills and t…
How many people who clean toilets do you know?
Other than myself and other folks who have been in that line of work none.