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My parents collect cans for a living

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Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#361

Post by MisterTea »

valarauko wrote: post #331
MisterTea wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hearing $1300 and $600 in terms of rental money and living in NYC I cant help but ask what neighborhoods is that rent available? Back in the late 90's friends who were moving out at 17-18 Yo were having a hard time finding local places for $500 in the boonies of Queens. I own some property and have a large 2nd floor 3BR that can fetch $2500 and its in a shitty neighborhood where someone was shot around the corner the…

Parent comment says LA, so perhaps its possible there?

LA is a big city just like NYC. You can get apartments for under $1000 but they're usually illegal basement conversions in a crime ridden dump or a modest 1BR split into two shoe box studios in or near said crime ridden dumps.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#362

Post by beachy »

tomnipotent wrote: post #48

My father was illiterate, which left him very few options in life after spending his early 20s in prison for check fraud. During the 70s, he discovered he could pick up cardboard and recyclables from local shops and grocery stores and take them to the nearby recycling plant for decent money. By the early 90s, when I was a young teenager, he would use me as free labor and I'd spend my weekends crushing cans piled as m…

Awesome story. My computer career started when our school got an Apple II. I skipped classes to use it, with hindsight failing the other classes but learning how to program set me up for life. Good on you for sacrificing your fireworks.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#363

Post by downrightmike »

bluedino wrote: post #225

Michigander here. One of the very few states in the USA with a bottle deposit. 10 cents per can/bottle. It's actually prohibited to put a bottle or can in a landfill here. It's very common to see people digging through trash cans and such, collecting bottles and cans to return for deposit. We have two garbage cans in the garage at home, when they both fill up we will take them back to the store. It's a inconvenience…

In Germany the machines just print out a slip of paper with a barcode that can be used to get cash back at the register, or as store credit. The machines compact the plastic, and are fairly quick. On your way in, you just pop them in and go shopping. If more states had the bottle deposit, it would be easier to handle.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#364

Post by medion »

nigerian1981 wrote: post #124
medion wrote: post #123

I lived in Berlin for a while without an income - I collected cans and bottles and would cash them in at the supermarket for food vouchers.

How did you cover your rent and other expenses?

I had savings for rent, but not enough for food.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#365

Post by exolymph »

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.

I don't mind seeing homeless people, I simply don't wish to interact with them in any close or substantive fashion. It rarely goes well.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#366

Post by azundo »

relaxing wrote: post #255
gnicholas wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right that they won't give up drinking soda! But the experience of Philadelphia, [1] which imposed a per-ounce soda tax (later repealed) shows us that these tend to drive consumers to other jurisdictions (NJ) to buy groceries. This means Philadelphia lost out not only on soda sales, but also on other groceries purchased at the same time. Another issue that arises is that people will actually transport recyclab…

No one drove to NJ for groceries, the $5 bridge toll would offset any gains. You’d drive to one of the surrounding counties in PA, provided you lived close enough for the trip to make sense. According to that paper, that happened in about 50% of sales, which is still a net win in terms of reduced consumption. Very little is “lost” to the city when that happens, because groceries are tax exempt.

Presumably the owners and operators of the grocery stores are losing, and are constituents of the city, pay payroll taxes, property taxes, etc.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#367

Post by black_13 »

rbanffy wrote: post #130
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…

> Jessia is the American dream. She's the one who made it, unlike thousands of others, who worked equally hard, and didn't. No family should have both parents working 12 hours a day just to survive, period.

Exactly. And this story will be used to harm. Ppl will say „look they can just get out and collect cans from the side of the road“. I had a high school teacher that vilified ppl on welfare and said this. My parents and my siblings did this and my parents especially my mother and me are scarred by precarity. I hate the these stories they just do harm.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#368

Post by lazyasciiart »

rootsudo wrote: post #227
lazyasciiart wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long-winded way of saying you think America should not allow poor people to immigrate because they might cost society too much, and poor Spanish speaking immigrants are probably illegal anyway.

It's valid. Refugees are refugees and are granted legal status. Illegitimate Spanish speaking aliens encourage human trafficking through unsafe conditions, Turbo, Colombia, Darien Gap, Cayotes in general and sponser cartels, - etc, worker extortion, unsafe work places (e.g. company hires illegal aliens, pays under minimum wage, no safety regards and if there's any talk out of line - it's just a call to ICE/DHS and th…

"baitclicky poverty porn that sounds bad"

I'm not sure you know what either "baitclick" or poverty porn are, and I'm very sure that you are misinformed about immigration in the United States, no matter how close to it you feel. Regardless, you don't get to dismiss facts simply because they make you feel bad.

There are not in fact significant support networks for legal immigrants, even refugees. There are informal community supports and nonprofits, but you have to live in the right place (and as a refugee, you don't get to choose).

More importantly, are you even aware that poor Spanish speaking people immigrate here legally without being refugees? They win greencards in the lottery every year or they get sponsored by family (that old bogeyman of chain migration!). (The author lives near her grandparents, perhaps that's how they arrived!)

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#369

Post by lazyasciiart »

rootsudo wrote: post #227
lazyasciiart wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long-winded way of saying you think America should not allow poor people to immigrate because they might cost society too much, and poor Spanish speaking immigrants are probably illegal anyway.

It's valid. Refugees are refugees and are granted legal status. Illegitimate Spanish speaking aliens encourage human trafficking through unsafe conditions, Turbo, Colombia, Darien Gap, Cayotes in general and sponser cartels, - etc, worker extortion, unsafe work places (e.g. company hires illegal aliens, pays under minimum wage, no safety regards and if there's any talk out of line - it's just a call to ICE/DHS and th…

And you can't pretend to be OK with poor people immigrating legally when you also have this opinion:

"why should the United States have to socially assist someone that is new"

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#370

Post by valarauko »

999900000999 wrote: post #343
valarauko wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent comment says LA, so perhaps its possible there?

It definitely was. And LA was affordable up until 10 years ago, then things got rapidly worse.

What changed? NYC has been pretty unaffordable for a very long time - what changed in LA?
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