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In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor's Trash
Three blocks from Mark Zuckerberg's $10 million Tudor home in San Francisco, Jake Orta lives in a small, single-window studio apartment filled with trash.
There's a child's pink bicycle helmet that Mr. Orta dug out from the garbage bin across the street from Mr. Zuckerberg's house. And a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a coffee machine — all in working condition — and a pile of clothes that he carried home in a Whole Foods paper bag retrieved from Mr. Zuckerberg's bin.
A military veteran who fell into homelessness and now lives in government subsidized housing, Mr. Orta is a full-time trash picker, part of an underground economy in San Francisco of people who work the sidewalks in front of multimillion-dollar homes, rummaging for things they can sell.
One Zuck's trash is another man's "like new".
(Score: 4, Touché) by Nerdfest on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:41PM (2 children)
In general, it sounds like the problems were not caused by Communism, but by corruption.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Sunday April 07 2019, @06:15PM (1 child)
Funny, from my point of view, it was Communism that caused the corruption, not the other way round.
Had the communists not banned private sale of such goods, the black market would not have existed. The fact that high level party members were involved just showed that even the government didn't believe Communism was working anymore, but had to "keep up appearances".
Before the final collapse of the USSR, the place felt a bit like China does now. Communist in public ideology, structure and name, but de-facto a market economy under the surface.
Once communism was consigned to the dustbin, we could openly import and trade those goods, the black market shrunk to just stuff that is illegal, and knock off cheap versions of the original goods. It is a shadow of its former self, where everything from medicines and cars to fashion and electronic goods had to go through the black market.
Is there still corruption? Most definitely. Decades of communism has entrenched it well, but things are improving, as newer generations are brought up without needing back alley deals to get the basics in life. It will probably take a few decades and a couple of generations to really clean up, but things are on the right path. Saying that, corruption will always be there where there is a concentration of wealth and power, and that does not depend on ideology or the economic and social system in place. It is human nature.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @08:00AM
BTW, i lived in romania when young... the poeople are grabage.
the only reason capitalism works is that you have so much "engineerd" shit on television, that u never actually see who the "little" people around you are.
i feel sorry for individuals, as some are too good for this world, but most just belong in a concentration camp.
garbage people have always survived on the strength of other....
it reminds me of a saying: "survival of the FITTEST, not the most FIT"
the fittest is the garbage, not the FIT one who puts himself at work.
little people are shit. watch TV and believe in capitalism
stupid fuck
/zug