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My parents collect cans for a living

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Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#371

I used to collect cans and bottles. Nowadays I don't know where you'd even take them to redeem them; there isn't enough money in it to justify paying sonebody to sort them; an entire truckload of cans wouldn't pay for the gasoline to drive them to the store.

Isn't the idea that one takes the bottles when you go to the store anyway? At least that's what we do. We've cut down on bottle use also, but even so there's a load from time to time, and I've started buying joghurt that comes in reusable glass jars so whenever I get new ones I return the old ones.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#372
post #319
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may find some books on the economic history of the US interesting. I suspect Jessica's parents immigrated and have very little formal education. Possible causes: trade liberalization means low skill workers in the US are competing with similar workers across the entire world. Simultaneously: 10th, 25th, and even median wages have barely moved in well over 20 years. Many of the jobs previously open to unskilled pe…

I think it’s important to consider how we got here, but I think it’s more important to consider what we can do about it. Many social policies could make life easier for people like Jessica and her family.

I don't think you can think about what to do in any serious way without understanding how we got here. Including American attitudes towards the social policies you're likely thinking of.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#373
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the heck made you throw such a condescending accusation? I can really find nothing in the OP's comment that would justify such a reaction..

Quoted post unavailable.

they might as well have posted on an article about growing up homeless living in a tent to talk about how they loved to sleep in tents, all the time, on the weekends when they were camping as a kid, much fun!

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#374
post #328
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a little bit annoyed with the direction of your argument. To counter argue, it is obvious in this case that the value that you get from this “underclass” is more that the cheap labour, it’s also an educated young person with passion and depth of experiences that you would struggle to get from “people already here” alone. What has been coming out “in the wash” for the duration of your history, I assume you commen…

In what specific way is an imported poor person better than a local poor person? There are plenty of generationally poor people in America already, so how does America benefit vs. by helping the poor that are already here to a higher extent. After all, citizenship or permanent residency means that you have a higher claim on your fellow-citizens' taxes that are set aside for the purpose of human development. Second, t…

Economics does not work with specific comparisons for me, I.e. not in comparisons between this and that person. In your theoretical comparison, both are able to contribute given the proper opportunities, as a country you have the resources to give them both opportunities. The blocker as far as I can tell from an outsider’s perspective is that the society is conditioned against supporting each other.

I am myself a highly skilled immigrant (different country). It is convenient to be able to pick and choose, but this can end up in a kind of immigrant monoculture. I know of less skilled at the time of entry immigrants that have achieved more than me, by sheer passion and entrepreneurial spirit. Education is a good indicator but not the end all. Finally, this selection will work for first generation, what you get from the following generations is correlated perhaps, but not defined, and statistically as per my previous answer, the US got pretty good outcomes with minimal controls at the point of entry and with a pure aspirational system of values that self-selected success (big discussion now that we move on this and it’s relationship with generational poverty).

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing I said indicated the immigrants were rich or poor, the majority are poor though. My point was if there's a nicer system than the US, immigrants will be flocking there too. Luckily we have numbers on the rates of which people immigrate to which countries, and the average wages of citizens of those countries. > Indian-Americans are the richest ethnic minority in America because migrating from India pretty much…

> 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…

As I understand, lower class/cast Indians have to win a lottery to get a decent education.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#376
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Min pant"(roughly translates into "my cans) Sounds more like "my deposit" to me.

Sure, I find it easier to translate English to Swedish than the other way around I guess. Though they are referring to your soon to be recycled cans and bottles when semi-agressively trying to steal them from you.

It would be "my pawn", translated more literally.

Some people find this amusing.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#377
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In DK it goes up to 3 DKR for a 1,5 liters bottle of soda that you might pay 15-25 dkr for.

All these deposits are so low. Germany has 25 cent on non-beer plastic bottles. Which means when buying a 1,5 liters bottle of water, the bottle is worth more (25 cent) than the water in it (19 cent). Bottle collectors are quite common, haven't met any rude ones myself, but they are even speed-collecting trough the trash cans of trains stopped making stops at the station.

The prices are in Danish crowns, and aren't that far away from the German ones, although some consideration should be made for the higher cost of living here.

Glass bottles, normal cans: 1kr = 13¢

Small plastic bottles: 1.5kr = 20¢

Large plastic bottles (≥ 1L): 3kr = 40¢

https://danskretursystem.dk/en/about-deposits/deposit-marks-...

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't it the people that gather around them to listen that block the streets? That's usually my experience.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#379
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some years ago, New York passed a law on recycling. For some reason, people seemed to be surprised when it turned out that those showing up at the grocery store with carts full of recyclables were neither lawyers nor stock traders, but rather the homeless.

in California there are fewer dropoffs in stores but the bottles tend to come from residential recycling bins, which were raided while they were waiting for a truck to pick them up.

It's still a positive, at least if the recycling system works similar to in the EU.

Here, food containers have fairly strict limits on what recycled waste can be used to make them. Returned bottles and cans are clean enough to be made into new food packaging, but ordinary household recycling waste is not.

Re: My parents collect cans for a living

#380
post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Cans need to be collected 2. Everyone needs a living wage Hope this helps.

> 2. Everyone needs a living wage I think everyone would agree with this, but phrased slightly differently I don't think everyone would agree: "Every method of making money must be capable of generating a living wage for the person using that method"

>> 2. Everyone needs a living wage

> I think everyone would agree with this

Are you kidding? You'd have to be insane to agree with that. Some people are already independently wealthy. Some people -- a really large number of people -- are supported by other people.

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