My parents collect cans for a living • Hacker News Board

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#351

Post by jonny_eh » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:18 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #342

jonny_eh wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What caused the machines to disappear? Because people hate the homeless and want to punish them, for some reason. It's the same reason we can't have comfortable public benches. Edit: Grammer

> Because people hate for the homeless and want to punish them, for some reason It's more, I think, that people hate seeing the homeless, and want to keep them away. They don't particularly care enough to hate them, they just don't want to have to encounter them.

That's a distinction without a difference.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#352

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

jonny_eh wrote: post #351

dragonwriter wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because people hate for the homeless and want to punish them, for some reason It's more, I think, that people hate seeing the homeless, and want to keep them away. They don't particularly care enough to hate them, they just don't want to have to encounter them.

That's a distinction without a difference.

Insofar as the “why” of anything matters, it's not.

Insofar as only the action matters, the whole question of why is moot.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#353

Post by podgaj » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:34 PM UTC

I feel shame for the United States, not for the parents.

Richest country in the world, but for whom?

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#354

Post by valarauko » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:38 PM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #339

valarauko wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of lower class Indian immigrants pool their money for taxi medallions, convenient stores, hotels, trucks, etc. to get a business going. Are there many "lower class Indian immigrants" who arrived in the past 30 years? The immigration system since the 90s has raised the barrier for Indians so high that the idea of 'lower class Indian immigrants' seems difficult to parse. I disagree with the assertion that Indi…

Yes. There are many lower class immigrants period and there's many jobs in which they work. Uber driving, trucking, convenient stores, and many more.

I'm genuinely curious how this is the case. Every desi person I see working in the jobs you mentioned has usually turned out to be Bangladeshi or Pakistani - For every Indian Uber driver, I've gotten 5 Pakistani ones. I'm in NYC, which has a large South Asian population. The city is quite tolerant of undocumented immigrants, so I'd expect undocumented Indians to occupy some significant fraction of those jobs as well. Yet even Indian restaurants here are mostly staffed by Bangladeshis.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#355

Post by MomoXenosaga » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:40 PM UTC

necovek wrote: post #321

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a rich man but the homeless guy needs the 50 cents more than I do. And I rather have homeless people collect cans than making street music to be honest...

While I don't see a connection between homeless people and street musicians, I am intrigued by your complaint of the street musicians? My kids are fascinated by them, and as long as they are not taking up too much space to make it impossible to pass through the street (and if they do, I'll happily pass through their "stage"), I am quite happy to have the streets livened up by some music too. Not all of it is good or…

They block the shopping streets and their music is terrible. There are no empty streets in the Netherlands on a Saturday and there is nothing more depressing than a Eastern European on an accordion.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#356

Post by dang » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:41 PM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #75

rkk3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Quoted post unavailable.

Please don't make things worse like this, even if your comment got a provocative and uncharitable reply.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#357

Post by dang » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:42 PM UTC

bigbillheck wrote: post #334

kstenerud wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been, and it has served me well. You'd be surprised at how quickly abusive people shut up after a smack.

If you have kids I hope you don't raise them that way (or think that violence is an acceptable approach there).

Please don't cross into personal attack in HN threads.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#358

Post by dang » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

rkk3 wrote: post #348

kstenerud wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

uh-huh, yeah bet you probably had a good karate teacher your parents paid for.

Would you please stop posting unsubstantive and flamebait comments to HN? You've been doing it a lot, unfortunately, and we ban that sort of account. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#359

Post by dang » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

throw8932894 wrote: post #23

sien wrote: post #7

From the article "Jessica is a proud first-generation Ecuadorian-American and a second-year Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) student at Baruch College majoring in business management with a minor in law and policy." Jessia is the American dream. First generation, got to college and writing like that. Lots of Americans concentrate on what is wrong with America. There is value in…

Quoted post unavailable.

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#360

Post by alibarber » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 7:54 PM UTC

cjrp wrote: post #310

alibarber wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Finland, it has this system, the UK where I’m from does not, you just squash your cans and bottles into a weekly recycling collection. It’s the ‘squash’ bit that I miss and makes me hate the deposit system. You have to keep the cans all fully intact, so the machine can read the barcode, so you have to give up stacks of room in your house and carry an awkward big bag of mostly air around to return them.

Do you know if they need the cans in their original shape in order to recycle them? If it's just to keep the barcode intact, presumably it could be printed on the can's base instead.

That’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a while.

You sort of have to lay the can sideways on a belt and it spins it around before scanning the barcode, then it carries it to the appropriate bin internally (where it gets crushed). In my opinion it’s a waste of time, the machines are sticky and smelly and I feel sorry for the staff who have to go and un-jam them regularly, but on the upside you won’t see any littering around the place (well, in summer you will - it’s socially acceptable just to toss them on the ground but someone will be along to pick it up within minutes)