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posted by martyb on Sunday April 07 2019, @12:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the garbage-in-garbage^W-money-out? dept.

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".


Original Submission

Related Stories

Google Pledges to Build 15,000+ Homes in San Francisco 13 comments

Google announces $1B, 10-year plan to add thousands of homes to Bay Area

The housing crisis in the Bay Area, particularly in San Francisco, is a complex and controversial topic with no one-size-fits-all solution — but a check for a billion dollars is about as close as you're going to get, and Google has just announced it's writing one. In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai explained that in order to "build a more helpful Google," the company would be making this major investment in what it believes is the most important social issue in the area: housing.

San Francisco is famously among the most expensive places in the world to live now, and many residents of the city, or perhaps I should say former residents, have expressed a deep and bitter hatred for the tech industry they believe converted the area to a playground for the rich while leaving the poor and disadvantaged to fend for themselves.

Google itself has been the subject of many a protest, and no doubt it is aware that its reputation as a friendly and progressive company is in danger from this and numerous other issues, from AI ethics to advertising policies. To remedy this, and perhaps even partly as an act of conscience, Google has embarked on a billion-dollar charm offensive that will add thousands of new homes to the Bay Area over the next ten years.

$750 million of that comes in the form of repurposing its own commercial real estate for residential purposes. This will allow for 15,000 new homes "at all income levels," and while Pichai said that they hope this will help address the "chronic shortage of affordable housing options," the blog post did not specify how many of these new homes would actually be affordable, and where they might be.

Another $250 million will be invested to "provide incentives to enable developers to build at least 5,000 affordable housing units across the market".

They should build an arcology or giant pod hotel.

Also at NPR.

Previously: "It's a Perfect Storm": Homeless Spike in Rural California Linked to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley Charter Buses Vandalized by Pellet/BB Guns or Rocks

Related: Soaring Rents in Portland, Oregon Cause Homelessness Crisis
City of San Francisco Says It's Illegal to Live in a Box
San Francisco Restaurants Can't Afford Waiters, so they Put Diners to Work
In San Francisco, Making a Living from Your Billionaire Neighbor's Trash
A Rogue Coder Turned a Parking Spot Into a Coworking Space


Original Submission

Apple Pledges $2.5 Billion to Help Address California's Affordable Housing Crisis 31 comments

Apple wants affordable housing in California—but laws stand in the way

Apple has pledged $2.5 billion to help address California's affordable-housing crisis, the company announced on Monday. In recent years, the San Francisco Bay Area has become the most expensive housing market in America. Los Angeles also suffers from housing costs far above the national average.

Apple's $2.5 billion package includes several different initiatives. Apple will offer a $1 billion line of credit to organizations building housing for low-income people.

[...] Apple's commitment follows on the heels of similar announcements by other technology giants:

  • In January, Microsoft said it would provide $500 million in grants and loans to promote affordable housing in the Seattle area and aid the homeless.
  • In June, Google announced a $1 billion initiative, including $750 million worth of Google-owned land, to support the development of at least 20,000 new housing units "at all income levels" in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • In October, Facebook unveiled its own initiative to offer $1 billion in grants and loans to support the construction of 20,000 housing units in the region.

Apple's initiative is larger than the other programs and appears to be more focused on low-income housing.

But there are some problems that can't be immediately solved with money:

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:01PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:01PM (#825756)

    The US is starting to look more and more like a third-world country.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by NateMich on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:15PM (5 children)

      by NateMich (6662) on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:15PM (#825762)

      It must be all those billionaires.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:48PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:48PM (#825773)

        That's precisely the problem.

        In America, if you're working class, you can go off and put your life on the line for the interests of the billionaire class. Maybe you'll get free college out of the deal. If you get a limb blown off, get PTSD, get any number of things that happen in war, when you come home, the billionaires, as a thank-you for defending their imperialist interests, will tell you to FOAD. They don't care if you go homeless. They don't care if you're starving. They don't care if your PTSD goes untreated and is a significant barrier to entry to a McJob.

        The billionaire class contributes nothing of value to society, and yet they believe they are entitled to the vast majority of the wealth the working class creates.

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Gaaark on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:37PM

          by Gaaark (41) on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:37PM (#825946) Journal

          A. Men.

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 5, Touché) by sjames on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:34PM

        by sjames (2882) on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:34PM (#825908) Journal

        The third world has it's share of extremely wealthy people. Many of them get that way by ruthlessly exploiting others unimpeded by laws enforcing fair play. Often it involves slipping some money under the table to make sure legislators and law enforcers don't notice. Is that starting to sound familiar?

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:17PM (1 child)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:17PM (#825969) Journal

        Yup. Third world countries are characterized by a few wealthy dictators at the top with all the power and money, while everyone else suffers. I know what you were trying to do here, but it backfired and blew up in your greasy basement-dwelling face pretty hard :)

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 08 2019, @05:32PM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday April 08 2019, @05:32PM (#826260) Homepage Journal

          Another dumb Tweet by Muffin Girl. I'll tell you, I'm no Dictator. If I was, Jeff Bozo wouldn't be the richest "person" in the World, believe me. I would. And, I wouldn't be meeting with Mitch & Nancy, I'd just sign my name, so beautifully, to very special Documents and whatever I wanted would happen. Like it happens for President Xi of China.

          And if you look at, how many Billionaires in the different countries of World. U.S.A. has the most -- by far. China is #2. #3 is Germany( Trader Joe's ) and #4 is India. And possibly Narendra's becoming a Dictator, Angela's becoming a Dictator. But, I really don't think so. I hear they have "democracy" there. In Germany, in India. By the way, California has more Billionaires than Germany, I wouldn't call either of them 3rd. World. And I got a great reminder about that on Friday when I did very successful Fund Raiser in beautiful Beverly Hills. In New York City we have the ultimate in luxury. But, Beverly Hills is 2nd.. Big bucks!!!!

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:06PM (#825778)

      When I lived in China there was never the thought to take something to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I would just throw it and some needy person would dig it out of the trash. For clothing, i’d Set it by the trash so it wouldn’t get dirty.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:36PM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:36PM (#825807) Journal

      The US is starting to look more and more like a third-world country.

      So you think this wouldn't happen, if the US were becoming more prosperous? If trash is valuable, someone will mine it.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:11PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:11PM (#825819)

        Yes, khallow, that's precisely what we think!!!

        In b4 reduce, reuse, recycle. Dumpster diving is not a safe or efficient way to accomplish this. You're basically saying, "Eh, who cares? Capitalism does the 3 Rs just fine. That's what homeless people who are denied even basic human dignity are for." Homelessness is a desirable and healthy part of society, if you're khallow!

        • (Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:18PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:18PM (#825820) Journal

          Dumpster diving is not a safe or efficient way to accomplish this.

          Compared to what? Everything has its costs and inefficiencies. At that point, it's more efficient than sending the thing to the landfill, right?

          You're basically saying, "Eh, who cares? Capitalism does the 3 Rs just fine. That's what homeless people who are denied even basic human dignity are for."

          Should we take away yet another way for the homeless to get basic human dignity? Why are you so cruel to the homeless people, AC?

          Homelessness is a desirable and healthy part of society, if you're khallow!

          Sigh, read the summary

          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.

          So not homeless who are dumpster diving this time.

        • (Score: 5, Informative) by HiThere on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:47PM

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:47PM (#825840) Journal

          The problem is that there appears to often *be* no safe and efficient way to recycle. FWIW, GoodWill Industries has stopped training people to repair things. And they won't even resell things that are visibly used. Much of what is put in "recycling" is just dumped into a garbage dump AFTER spending time sorting it so that it *should* be reusable. Etc.

          A lot of this isn't transparent, but I've become somewhat disenchanted with recycling as repeated stories have come out about how it just wasn't actually happening.

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:22PM (2 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:22PM (#825766) Homepage Journal

    It happens to me all the time. I'll be eating a hamburger and someone will ask, "oh sir, when you're done can I have the wrapper?" And when they ask nicely I always do it. I'll sign my name and that makes it MUCH more valuable for them. It's also a great way to keep in practice with my signature. So it looks PERFECTO. MAGA!!!

    • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday April 08 2019, @02:30PM (1 child)

      by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Monday April 08 2019, @02:30PM (#826171) Journal

      You know this isn't the *real* realdonaldtrump because he consistently reads and replies to articles and posts that don't even mention his name!

      • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 08 2019, @05:46PM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday April 08 2019, @05:46PM (#826270) Homepage Journal

        Mark's going to be 35 years old next month. He's a Billionaire. And he was born in the State of New York. So he will, very soon, qualify to run for President. And I don't read the story in the Corrupt Failing Fake News New York Times. Normally I don't. But if Mark runs I'll have my Campaign people look into, is there any truth to that story? Because it makes Mark look really really bad. It makes him look INCREDIBLY WASTEFUL. A guy that throws away a perfectly good Coffee Machine, a Vacuum Cleaner that still picks up dirt, and so much more (allegedly ). TRUMP2020 doesn't do Fake Dossiers. But we'll use any dirt that checks out. Very important in politics. It's known as Opposition Research!!!!

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:26PM (9 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:26PM (#825768)

    Not really all that new. When I was younger I would pick up electronics all the time, although usually for my own use rather than reselling. Of course, these days people take computers/electronics directly to "recyclers", preventing any kind of re-use. Rich/stupid people throw out good stuff all the time.

    It would be funny and ironic if zuckerturd threw out something with private and/or incriminating information.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Unixnut on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:44PM (7 children)

      by Unixnut (5779) on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:44PM (#825788)

      Indeed, in fact as a schoolboy and uni student, I spent quite a bit of time dumpster diving, or buying broken electrical equipment, fixing it and then using it or selling it on.

      I take the thing home, take it apart, see what is wrong, if I can fix it, great, if not, I got a bunch of components and an enclosure to use for some other electronic project.

      My best profit was when I bought a relatively new home cinema amplifier (6 channel) for £35. Based on the description it sounded like a PSU issue. So I got home, took it apart, had a look at the PSU and found one capacitor that had leaked out. Replaced that with another of identical specs (whole job took less than an hour), and the amp worked perfectly. I used it for a few months, then sold it for £650.

      The only reason I sold it, is because while dumpster diving around an old building site, I came across a power amplifier, a bit dented, a bit scratched, but took it home. After a check out I plugged it in and it worked perfectly. I then found out that its actually a very desirable piece of kit, second hand on ebay the amp was above £1,500, and here I got it for free. I still have it, more than a decade later, and (just checked now on ebay), they are selling for £1,700 or more, so still quite desirable.

      Then there was the (back the) plasma televisions, which people threw out usually due to bad caps in the PSU, but I could fix. Not only did I make a tidy profit on the side by picking trash essentially, if you went to my flat you would think I was rich. High end hifi, plasma TVs in every room, and a home cinema system (the LCD projector was found in a dump outside a university, it had problems with the focus ring, but a quick fix on the motor wiring sorted that out). Back in the early 2000s most people still had CRTs, and the average plasma TV was £3,000 a pop.

      All good things come to an end however, and this ended when the EU introduced the "WEEED: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Electrical_and_Electronic_Equipment_Directive" [wikipedia.org] legislation. The way it was implemented in the UK meant that people were forbidden from throwing electrical equipment in the dumpster (garbage men, being government employees, would refuse to take it, and would take a photo to send to the council, who would then fine the people). Manufacturers were also required to take away and dispose of any equipment you are replacing, so all those rich people who would throw out equipment at the slightest whim, just had their stuff picked up for free, cutting the rest of us off from a source of decent, repairable stuff.

      Second was the idea that anything "disposed of", was not allowed to be reused or repurposed. So when I used to visit my local dump, new rules meant I was forbidden from picking anything out of the trash. Before, when I went to throw something away, I would occasionally find something in good condition, or worth salvaging, and would do so. After WEEED, there were serious fines if you as much as tried to take something out of the dumpster. Indeed, if they saw a decent looking piece of equipment, they would go with sledge hammers and destroy it before anyone tried to salvage it. I almost wept once as I watched them destroy a really decent set of Mission speakers, because the guy before me had carefully dropped them in the dumpster.

      After that, I stopped visiting the dump, and indeed the whole "reuse, recycle" concept kind of faltered. The legislation making the problem worse, rather than better, as only governments seem able to do.

      Saying that, I still dumpster dive. In fact I salvaged a lovely pine dining table from the tip just yesterday (non electrical equipment is still ok to throw away), with a bit of sanding and a new coat of varnish it should look really good. Most of my furniture is also hand made, usually from wood found on the tip.

      I guess I can't help myself. So much raw material, just left there for the taking. I would sooner spend money on tools, than on pre-made items. The tools last longer and are of more productive use than a single item that wears out and has to be thrown away.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:20PM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:20PM (#825797)

        Unfortunately, for every TV, etc. that someone like you was able to salvage, repair, and reuse, there were tens of thousands just going into landfill.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:39PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:39PM (#825811) Journal
          Even if that were true, so what? It's still a dumb idea.
        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:53PM (3 children)

          by Unixnut (5779) on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:53PM (#825815)

          > Unfortunately, for every TV, etc. that someone like you was able to salvage, repair, and reuse, there were tens of thousands just going into landfill.

          Even if that is true, the directive just made it worse. Before, some of it was being salvaged by people like me (and I was not the only one, there was an entire community of people doing this), whereas after it was all going to the landfill. As was found out recently, all the "recycled" stuff that was disposed of according to legislation like WEEED, was actually not recycled, but just dumped in China/India and third world country landfills, to much local environmental pollution.

          Plus the stuff that was deliberately destroyed went from being something reusable, to being nothing but garbage.

          The destruction and recycling of items is in every way worse than reusing, if you consider impact of the environment and energy use. Even if item is properly recycled, you would need to ship the recycling items to a recycling plant, then energy to split the device into its constituent compounds and elements, refine and reprocess the raw material, form it into raw stock, ship it to a factory, melt it down again, and then fabricate another product, which than has to be shipped to a store, bought, shipped to the new end user, and then used. Each step takes up energy, resources and materials, impacting the environment.

          The most environmentally friendly thing you can do, is just repair/reuse the original item. Recycling only reduces the environmental impact of raw material mining, nothing else. That is a good start, but it is less than a quarter of the environment and energy impact of the entire modern production process.

          • (Score: 2, Disagree) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday April 08 2019, @02:40PM (1 child)

            by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Monday April 08 2019, @02:40PM (#826174) Journal

            Have you ever considered that there some "people like you" might not be quite "like you"? Perhaps not everybody is as competent at repairing advanced electronics as you apparently are.

            It's all very well digging hardware out of the rubbish and making repairs until some overconfident amateur makes a wiring mistake and electrocutes someone / burns the building down.

            This is why they don't let you pick junk off the dump any more. It boils down to safety and liability.

            • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:33PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:33PM (#827115)

              What? Your argument makes no sense AT ALL. Not unless people are forbidden from repairing their OWN devices.

              I'm just as likely to burn down your apartment building with a TV that I've been gifted from a neighbour as one I cull from the sidewalk.

              Use your brain. Unixnut did. You just look like an idiot, when you say idiotic things like you did above.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:30PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:30PM (#827113)

            you're one of my new soylentil favorites, unixnut.

            your way of doing things is what I look for in every meatspace person I let into my spheres.

            Good on you for having a brain and using it to simultaneously improve your own lot and the planet's!

      • (Score: 2) by arslan on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:31PM

        by arslan (3462) on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:31PM (#825973)

        You should move down under to Oz. You'd be rich again. We still dump everything on the kerb.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:10PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:10PM (#825896) Homepage

      This happens regularly in my neighborhood, and its definitely a good thing. On a regular basis pickup trucks with Mexican plates will pick up all the furniture people moving out leave in the alleys, then take it to Mex and then reupholster it and sell it. And with Craigslist's "free shit" category, it is super easy to offload obsolete but functional items.

  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:59PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @01:59PM (#825776)

    Just like the movies

    • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:25PM (4 children)

      by crafoo (6639) on Sunday April 07 2019, @03:25PM (#825799)

      Still better than communism.

      • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:07PM (3 children)

        by Unixnut (5779) on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:07PM (#825818)

        Shit anything is better than communism. Even living as a poor student and dumpster diving out of rich peoples garbage, I had a better quality of life than my parents officially did under communism.

        I say officially because there was always a capitalist black market under communism, where you could buy the latest western fashion, Japanese TVs, HiFis and other "bourgeois" goods, sometimes run by party officials (indeed many channels were set up for them originally, then kind of made their way down the chain to the "workers" themselves).

        • (Score: 4, Touché) by Nerdfest on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:41PM (2 children)

          by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:41PM (#825863)

          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)

            by Unixnut (5779) on Sunday April 07 2019, @06:15PM (#825871)

            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

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @08:00AM (#826094)

              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

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:59PM (1 child)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @02:59PM (#825792) Journal

    If I've got something someone could put work into and get working or possibly resell, I make a point of putting it out early or over the weekend. It is often gone before trash day.

    The scavengers are good at not being spotted, but if you put it on the curb it's fair game. Couple of times I've put out items and called for a large item pickup only to call back the next day and say nevermind as it was gone.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Monday April 08 2019, @12:35AM

      by anubi (2828) on Monday April 08 2019, @12:35AM (#826006) Journal

      I got rid of quite a few of my "treasures" this exact same way. Earlier this month, it was an old Tektronix 535 lab scope. Have not even powered it up for over ten years. My little battery powered digital scope does it all now. That thing was so heavy I was lucky to get it to the curb without help from my neighbor's kid.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:18PM (#825821)

    I'm amazed Zuck doesn't have razor wire and dobermans between him and his "neighbors"

    Down in the flats, he just buys all the property around him.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:53PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @04:53PM (#825843)

    >spent more than a dozen years in the Air Force
    If he could have made it to 20 years he would have a pension.
    https://www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/plan/eligibility.html [dfas.mil]

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:22PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:22PM (#825855)

      So the AF has an interest in getting people out before they hit their 20 year anniversary?

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:12PM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:12PM (#825897) Homepage

        Being in the Air Force means having to work with a bunch of sniveling pussies. A lot of people make similar decisions to leave the military, if the military doesn't invent excuses to fuck you like it did with the Army and Marines after Gulf War II.

  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:31PM (4 children)

    by looorg (578) on Sunday April 07 2019, @05:31PM (#825860)

    Dumpster diving for fun and profit? One would think these richy rich type people like Zuck would be aware of an take proper precautions with their waste so it just doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Shredding all the documents etc or just incinerating them. So what this guy, and other like him, takes are things to large to dispose off in a normal fashion? Perhaps there is a business here, clearly there is since the person in the article appears to live of it. Couldn't they just get rid of the dumpster diving? Just ask them and tell them that I will come and fetch all the things you don't want anymore. No charge. I do wonder tho why the rich people just don't donate all their excess here to charity? Why not have them come and fetch all the clothing and such?

    That said I do wonder who in their right mind would want to pay extra for something just cause Zuck might have once wore it or what not. Second hand stuff is second hand stuff no matter whom wore it before you.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @07:02PM (#825891)

      I do wonder tho why the rich people just don't donate all their excess here to charity?

      The poorer others are the richer they are. Why should other people get nice stuff without paying a lot for it? Their time is worth so much they don't have time to do such stupid meaningless things. Etc etc etc.

      Rich people are a sorry bunch.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 07 2019, @08:41PM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 07 2019, @08:41PM (#825931) Journal

      I do wonder tho why the rich people just don't donate all their excess here to charity?

      What would a charity do with it? I have no clue how wasteful Zuckenberg is, but at one point, I had to get rid of half a ton of cheap sci fi/fantasy books (let's say a certain vice got a little out of hand and I had to move). Libraries wouldn't take them. I didn't have the resources to figure out who would or how I'd get those books to them. So I gave up and paid someone $500 to throw them away.

      Point is that donating stuff to charity is hard once it gets past mundane items. Nowadays, most of the stuff I get rid of, I can donate via Goodwill or dump on a "free pile" for my coworkers to sort through.

      But having said that, if anyone is recycling esoteric stuff, I figure the Bay Area would.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:53PM

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:53PM (#825954) Journal

        Drop them off at a 'Value Village' or whatever (charity store): they'll take it and make a profit off it. Up here in Canada (is value village in the states?) Value village supports Cerebral Palsy (how much %$wise is donated?...dunno).

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @01:43AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @01:43AM (#826031)

        Jails and prisons usually will take books, and they need them badly.

  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:56PM

    by Whoever (4524) on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:56PM (#825956) Journal

    Doesn't Zuckerberg live in Palo Alto? He bought a house, then all the immediate neighbors' houses with the objective of building a large compound.

    This house in SF is probably his second home, so the stuff in the garbage probably comes from live-in servants.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 07 2019, @10:37PM (#825975)

    Forget learn to code, now you can put your original skills to good use! Worst case is "learn to solder".

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @12:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @12:59PM (#826129)

    But in a progressive state that should celebrate it,

    "Trash picking is illegal in California — once a bin is rolled out onto the sidewalk the contents are considered the possession of the trash collection company,"

    It's always interesting when the folks who want to save the world seem to be breaking it in the process.
    Fortunately, they don't much enforce the law.

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