Sunday, January 10, 2010

New Garbage Cans

In case you didn't know, I live in the city of Toledo, Ohio.

There's not much to know about it. It's the home of the Toledo Mud Hens, possibly the most famous minor league baseball team in the world. It's also the home of Tony Packo's, the most famous Hungarian hot dog restaurant in the world. It's also the home of Jamie Farr, the actor famous from M*A*S*H, from which show the above mentioned things derived their fame.

I might also add that Packo's deserves its fame (you GOTTA try the Hot Dog Sauce). The Mud Hens, maybe not so much. Seriously. How much fame does a Minor League baseball team (even a Triple-A team) deserve?

(And I would also add that Jamie Farr sold out his home state by being a spokesman for the amendment that allowed casino gambling to invade our state. I will never watch another episode of M*A*S*H).

But my beloved city is suffering under the current economic crisis. Jobs are scarce. Tax revenues are down. And there is a flight from the city to its suburbs.

But we have new garbage cans!

The city is hard at work giving every house two new garbage cans that can be emptied by automatic trucks.

These cans are huge. They are over four feet tall, and made of very hard plastic. No normal human can possibly lift one of these things when it's full.

This situation is lose-lose. City sanitation workers that lose their jobs to these automatic trucks will no longer be able to pay taxes that, among other things, help maintain these trucks. And when they break down, there won't be workers to clean up the overflow of trash that will result.

I have NEVER been able to understand the rationale behind basing economic recovery strategies on REDUCING the number of available jobs.

If you can figure it out, I'd appreciate if you'd explain it to me.

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