Unpopular opinions (non road related)

[kernals12]

I wish someone could invent a pill that eliminated the need for sleep. Just imagine what you'd do if you had an extra 8 hours in a day.

Just imagine how employers would exploit that...

Don't forget, kernals12 thinks technology is reducing, or will reduce, the number of hours people have to work.   

[Max Rockatansky]

I wish someone could invent a pill that eliminated the need for sleep. Just imagine what you'd do if you had an extra 8 hours in a day.

Just imagine how employers would exploit that...

Don't forget, kernals12 thinks technology is reducing, or will reduce, the number of hours people have to work.   

So basically the same since the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.  I'm pretty sure that graph isn't including exempt status, it does get abused by employers constantly.

[jmacswimmer]

I wish someone could invent a pill that eliminated the need for sleep. Just imagine what you'd do if you had an extra 8 hours in a day.

Just imagine how employers would exploit that...

Don't forget, kernals12 thinks technology is reducing, or will reduce, the number of hours people have to work.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlNIVXpIns

[hbelkins]

Retirement is a curse, not a blessing and we would all be better off if we could remain fit enough to work until we die.

Retirement is a blessing, and would be more so if it weren't wasted on the elderly. Better if we could work things so we can enjoy retirement while young, and return to work when we get tired of retirement and/or run out of money.

(speaking as someone who got to retire relatively early, from a workplace which used early-outs and buyouts to replace us expensive old farts with cheaper and more energetic young squirts)

These two seemingly opposite statements are equally true for me.

I would retire right now if I could.

and...

I don't ever plan to retire. I'm going to continue working until the day I die.

Also, here's an opinion that isn't necessarily popular.

This forum suffers from selective moderation.

[hotdogPi]

This forum suffers from selective moderation.

I do see the occasional partisan selective moderation, but it's usually deciding not to moderate those on the left, not overmoderating those on the right. This forum is definitely not overmoderated.

[kphoger]

I wish someone could invent a pill that eliminated the need for sleep. Just imagine what you'd do if you had an extra 8 hours in a day.

In the middle of the night?  No thanks.  Winter is bad enough already because of that.

[Flint1979]

New York has the best State Parks, and it's not even close.

Lakeside Beach State Park is the best one right?

[kphoger]

New York has the best State Parks, and it's not even close.

I've heard there's a nice one in Orleans County!

The rest are so great that NY wins even without all the great ones in Orleans County. 

New York has the best State Parks, and it's not even close.

Lakeside Beach State Park is the best one right?

Well, he did say 'great' but stopped short of saying 'best'.

[1995hoo]

I wish someone could invent a pill that eliminated the need for sleep. Just imagine what you'd do if you had an extra 8 hours in a day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLTg2nHZEHQ

[formulanone]

This forum suffers from selective moderation.

...not enough Wawa and Louisville threads for you this week?

[kernals12]

We don't need garbage trucks. My town has gotten by just fine with self service waste disposal for over a century.

[Max Rockatansky]

We don't need garbage trucks. My town has gotten by just fine with self service waste disposal for over a century.

Most cities I've lived in have gone through garbage strikes and couldn't make a two weeks between pickups before being overrun by trash.  People aren't going to do something en mass if it is made difficult for them (a problem frequent with recycling programs). 

As an aside...   Considering the high percentage of how much recycle material actually gets disposed of in more conventional ways the lofty status recycling holds for many is overblown.

[Scott5114]

We don't need garbage trucks. My town has gotten by just fine with self service waste disposal for over a century.

Most cities I've lived in have gone through garbage strikes and couldn't make a two weeks between pickups before being overrun by trash.  People aren't going to do something en mass if it is made difficult for them (a problem frequent with recycling programs). 

As an aside...   Considering the high percentage of how much recycle material actually gets disposed of in more conventional ways the lofty status recycling holds for many is overblown.

I grew up in a town where you had to (and still have to) pay for a key to a smelly dumping facility outside town hall. You basically unlock a door and are granted access to a fenced-in area (later upgraded to a building you drive thru) where there are dumpsters you throw your household trash in. If you have anything big to throw away like a couch or something you leave it inside the fenced area and the town deals with it when their dumpsters get emptied.

When I moved out, to the city of Norman, I had a couple of apartments that had a dumpster on site, so instead of driving five miles to dump the trash I had to walk a few hundred feet. When I moved into a freestanding house, they had polycart service (trash and recycling!) picked up by garbage/recycling trucks, and I only have to walk the few dozen feet to push them to the curb.

I like the garbage trucks. It's just annoying when I forget it's Friday and forget to put them out on the curb, or can't remember whether it's recycling day or not. If I had to drive five miles to the town dump I'd probably be too lazy to actually do it until my garage gets kind of smelly. And that would be a problem, especially since I don't have a pickup truck like my parents have.

[formulanone]

Alabama takes in a tremendous amount of recyclable material from other states, to the point where it's a decent economic engine. Even though I try to recycle when possible (it's a free service where I live), the sad fact is that much of the material is unusable, and basically creates more trash...sometimes 80-90% of it is unusable out of ignorance or lowered demand for recycled glass and plastic; they're a decreasing export in recent years.

[SectorZ]

We don't need garbage trucks. My town has gotten by just fine with self service waste disposal for over a century.

I've always wondered how your town survived that. I can't see the average Range Rover driver loading their trash bags into the back and having to drive (especially if far away since Wellesley put the dump literally on the border of Needham) stinking up a six-figure vehicle. When I lived in a much poorer place than Wellesley but on an "unapproved" new street I had to drive my trash to a dump for 4 years. That pissed me off to no end but I was also paying for trash pick-up and not getting it.

Does anyone pay for private pick-up in the town?

[kernals12]

We don't need garbage trucks. My town has gotten by just fine with self service waste disposal for over a century.

I've always wondered how your town survived that. I can't see the average Range Rover driver loading their trash bags into the back and having to drive (especially if far away since Wellesley put the dump literally on the border of Needham) stinking up a six-figure vehicle. When I lived in a much poorer place than Wellesley but on an "unapproved" new street I had to drive my trash to a dump for 4 years. That pissed me off to no end but I was also paying for trash pick-up and not getting it.

Does anyone pay for private pick-up in the town?

Yes, some people do private pickup.  And we like the dump. There are places you can drop off old books and furniture for someone else to take for free. It's just a part of town life. And I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

[kphoger]

I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

I wonder if that works out with emissions.  How many private vehicles driving to and from the dump equal one garbage truck doing the same?

[Dirt Roads]

We don't need garbage trucks. My town has gotten by just fine with self service waste disposal for over a century.

The jointly operated landfill in Virginia that is run by Frederick County, Clarke County and the City of Winchester was so efficient that it was impractical to pay for garbage and recycling.  They took everything, and even if they couldn't recycle it they would segregate the recycling such that the raw materials would be available to be mined later if ever needed.  Some folks found it to be a pain to sort every nit-picky thing, but it was great once you got the hang of it. 

[kkt]

I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

I wonder if that works out with emissions.  How many private vehicles driving to and from the dump equal one garbage truck doing the same?

Yes.  Adding up all the costs of everyone taking their own to the dump, including their time, having garbage collection looks like a pretty good deal.  It's not the biggest utility bill....

[1995hoo]

A lot of people here went ballistic when the county stopped collecting glass bottles as part of recycling. Instead, there are dedicated purple bins in various locations around Northern Virginia where you can drop off your glass. One of them is the big purple thing seen in this Street View image. Some people groused about having to make a separate trip (dumb argument, in my view–I combine it with other errands, such as dropping off the bottles when I'm on the way to the grocery store), and a lot of people now put their bottles in the trash.

Based on that, I tend to think very few people here would be willing to take their trash to the dump themselves, even if the locations were convenient (neither landfill is convenient for the majority of county residents, and that's really pretty sensible when you think about it–most reasonable people do not want to live near a landfill). The county doesn't provide trash collection to most areas, BTW. In my neighborhood, the HOA arranges for it and bills it as part of our monthly dues. In my mom's neighborhood, the individual homeowners have to arrange for it themselves, though they all use the same one and were able to negotiate a better rate as a result. (I remember 30 or 35 years ago when the people who live across the street from my mom moved in. They didn't know you had to arrange for trash collection and they were astonished on trash day when everyone else's was taken and theirs wasn't.)

[kernals12]

I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

I wonder if that works out with emissions.  How many private vehicles driving to and from the dump equal one garbage truck doing the same?

Yes.  Adding up all the costs of everyone taking their own to the dump, including their time, having garbage collection looks like a pretty good deal.  It's not the biggest utility bill....

But you gotta consider the benefits of free books and furniture

[kphoger]

I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

I wonder if that works out with emissions.  How many private vehicles driving to and from the dump equal one garbage truck doing the same?

Yes.  Adding up all the costs of everyone taking their own to the dump, including their time, having garbage collection looks like a pretty good deal.  It's not the biggest utility bill....

But you gotta consider the benefits of free books and furniture

Why?  Your town has that thing going on, but that doesn't mean other towns would.  More to the point, however, that sort of thing can coexist alongside regular trash pickup.  I used to live in a place that had one day a year on which residents could put pretty much whatever they wanted out on the curb, and it would get collected.  In the meantime, there was plenty of free furniture sitting there for anyone to take home.  This was a pretty well-to-do area, so it wasn't unheard-of to find oak furniture out on the curb, ready for the taking.  Also, my city has a system of post-mounted boxes around town in which residents can take and leave books.  Drop one off, pick one up, completely free.

[1995hoo]

I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

I wonder if that works out with emissions.  How many private vehicles driving to and from the dump equal one garbage truck doing the same?

Yes.  Adding up all the costs of everyone taking their own to the dump, including their time, having garbage collection looks like a pretty good deal.  It's not the biggest utility bill....

But you gotta consider the benefits of free books and furniture

Why?  Your town has that thing going on, but that doesn't mean other towns would.  More to the point, however, that sort of thing can coexist alongside regular trash pickup.  I used to live in a place that had one day a year on which residents could put pretty much whatever they wanted out on the curb, and it would get collected.  In the meantime, there was plenty of free furniture sitting there for anyone to take home.  This was a pretty well-to-do area, so it wasn't unheard-of to find oak furniture out on the curb, ready for the taking.  Also, my city has a system of post-mounted boxes around town in which residents can take and leave books.  Drop one off, pick one up, completely free.

I've heard of this becoming a thing in more places recently. I believe it's called the "Little Free Library" concept.

[SectorZ]

I'm guessing that if people have to take care of their own garbage, they'll produce less of it, which is good for the environment

I wonder if that works out with emissions.  How many private vehicles driving to and from the dump equal one garbage truck doing the same?

Yes.  Adding up all the costs of everyone taking their own to the dump, including their time, having garbage collection looks like a pretty good deal.  It's not the biggest utility bill....

But you gotta consider the benefits of free books and furniture

Why?  Your town has that thing going on, but that doesn't mean other towns would.  More to the point, however, that sort of thing can coexist alongside regular trash pickup.  I used to live in a place that had one day a year on which residents could put pretty much whatever they wanted out on the curb, and it would get collected.  In the meantime, there was plenty of free furniture sitting there for anyone to take home.  This was a pretty well-to-do area, so it wasn't unheard-of to find oak furniture out on the curb, ready for the taking.  Also, my city has a system of post-mounted boxes around town in which residents can take and leave books.  Drop one off, pick one up, completely free.

I've heard of this becoming a thing in more places recently. I believe it's called the "Little Free Library" concept.

Someone around my way was stocking them with toilet paper last Spring instead of books.

[Scott5114]

But you gotta consider the benefits of free books and furniture

I think that's pretty overrated. Occasionally there was eye-catching stuff at the Goldsby dump, but I can't remember us ever taking anything home after giving it a cursory look-over and discovering why it was thrown out (usually it was broken or otherwise worn out). Certainly didn't justify the added time and energy of having to dump it ourselves.

The only time I got someone's cast-off stuff for free actually happened here in Norman (trash pickup city), when someone the next street over ended their garage sale by marking everything left over down to $0 and leaving it unattended. I got a nice set of small octagonal dishes out of it. There was furniture and stuff too, but it was clear why it hadn't sold.