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Yeah, I did this at 16 at a gas station and got paid 8.75 an hour, there are lots of people out there doing this type of work in the private sector. Its not gla

by mym1990 23d ago

Yeah, I did this at 16 at a gas station and got paid 8.75 an hour, there are lots of people out there doing this type of work in the private sector. Its not glamorous thats for sure but supply/demand will dictate the labor market. The government doesn't deem it infeasible because hiring is difficult, its because they aren't willing to pay a reasonable wage for the work.

lotsofpulp 23d ago
Obviously there exists a price at which people will do it. But if the government isn't willing to pay it, it seems unfair to expect businesses to pay it.
phendrenad2 23d ago
How many likely Heptitis-infected needles and excrement smears did you clean up? per week or per day? Try 10x that and see if 8.75/hour is still setting your 16 year old mind with visions of dancing Super Nintendos and Segas.
- mym1990 23d ago
  Go touch grass, you seem a little angry for a forum.
mrngld 23d ago
I won't do your homework for you but there's people that have done the work of reporting out the numbers it takes to operate a clean government bathroom. It's not just "reasonable wage" territory. It's "civilization can't afford this" level expensive, the type of problem you can't throw money at because it's so bad it's obvious that the real problem and solution exists elsewhere. And it's only in the West that public restrooms are that expensive. Japans are less expensive because the locals use them like civilized people and they don't have enormous on-going cleaning and repair costs. So, the problem isn't in paying the cleaners. It's upstream. No pun intended.
- mym1990 23d ago
  I don’t disagree that the problem is difficult and has various surface areas to address, but everyone can’t blame the drug users when even putting up the stall costs north of $500,000. That’s just governmental bureaucracy at play. Additionally, not all areas of the country are infested with the “homeless and drug addicts”. People can spin that all they like but areas where people take care of their local services are plentiful. Lastly, don’t talk to me about prohibitive pricing in government initiates. When we stop spending hundreds of billions bombing other countries, then come talk about things being too expensive. Nice condescending comment about the homework though, you must have been pleased with that one.
- CWuestefeld 23d ago
  Why is it so infeasible for government to keep their facilities clean, while Buc-ee's can have sparkling clean facilities and still turn a profit?
  - lotsofpulp 23d ago
    Infeasible for a government would mean it is sufficiently expensive that it is not politically popular to spend that much money on public bathrooms. Also, Buc-ees does not offer free bathrooms in urban, dense areas with higher proportions of mentally ill and drug addicted populations, so that comparison makes no sense.
    - CWuestefeld 22d ago
      I used Buc-ee's as an example because they're famous for their clean bathrooms. But there certainly exist clean bathrooms in urban areas. I'd venture to say that those aren't all in high-end establishments that exclude any "riff-raff". It's possible to find clean toilets in urban McDonald's or Wal-Mart; maybe not all of them, but certainly not none either. And regarding expense on public bathrooms: * San Francisco spent $1.7M on a single toilet * Seattle spend $5 installing 5 toilets. * NYC's public restrooms routinely cost $2M-$4M Now, those are building projects rather than ongoing operations. But it shows that governments are willing to spend absurd amounts on toilets. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but there's something about government (mis)management in the issue.

by mym1990 23d ago

lotsofpulp 23d ago

Obviously there exists a price at which people will do it. But if the government isn't willing to pay it, it seems unfair to expect businesses to pay it.

phendrenad2 23d ago

How many likely Heptitis-infected needles and excrement smears did you clean up? per week or per day? Try 10x that and see if 8.75/hour is still setting your 16 year old mind with visions of dancing Super Nintendos and Segas.

mym1990 23d ago
Go touch grass, you seem a little angry for a forum.

mrngld 23d ago

I won't do your homework for you but there's people that have done the work of reporting out the numbers it takes to operate a clean government bathroom. It's not just "reasonable wage" territory. It's "civilization can't afford this" level expensive, the type of problem you can't throw money at because it's so bad it's obvious that the real problem and solution exists elsewhere. And it's only in the West that public restrooms are that expensive. Japans are less expensive because the locals use them like civilized people and they don't have enormous on-going cleaning and repair costs. So, the problem isn't in paying the cleaners. It's upstream. No pun intended.

mym1990 23d ago
I don’t disagree that the problem is difficult and has various surface areas to address, but everyone can’t blame the drug users when even putting up the stall costs north of $500,000. That’s just governmental bureaucracy at play. Additionally, not all areas of the country are infested with the “homeless and drug addicts”. People can spin that all they like but areas where people take care of their local services are plentiful. Lastly, don’t talk to me about prohibitive pricing in government initiates. When we stop spending hundreds of billions bombing other countries, then come talk about things being too expensive. Nice condescending comment about the homework though, you must have been pleased with that one.
CWuestefeld 23d ago
Why is it so infeasible for government to keep their facilities clean, while Buc-ee's can have sparkling clean facilities and still turn a profit?
- lotsofpulp 23d ago
  Infeasible for a government would mean it is sufficiently expensive that it is not politically popular to spend that much money on public bathrooms. Also, Buc-ees does not offer free bathrooms in urban, dense areas with higher proportions of mentally ill and drug addicted populations, so that comparison makes no sense.
  - CWuestefeld 22d ago
    I used Buc-ee's as an example because they're famous for their clean bathrooms. But there certainly exist clean bathrooms in urban areas. I'd venture to say that those aren't all in high-end establishments that exclude any "riff-raff". It's possible to find clean toilets in urban McDonald's or Wal-Mart; maybe not all of them, but certainly not none either. And regarding expense on public bathrooms: * San Francisco spent $1.7M on a single toilet * Seattle spend $5 installing 5 toilets. * NYC's public restrooms routinely cost $2M-$4M Now, those are building projects rather than ongoing operations. But it shows that governments are willing to spend absurd amounts on toilets. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but there's something about government (mis)management in the issue.