The commentary below relates to this article: Surviving in New York, 5 Cents at a Time
I wrote the following elsewhere yesterday:
The article is sort of light on real data:
Neither labor professors, shadow economy experts, nor sociologists who specialize in Chinese Americans, have conducted studies on the phenomenon of canning.
According to employees at Sure We Can, a large number of canners are elderly Chinese immigrants. Half of the regular canners at Sure We Can are Chinese, the other half are mostly Hispanic. “Since more redemption centers have opened, the Chinese have dispersed. But we still have about 30 Chinese regulars now,” de Luco says.
I saw nothing that really indicated how much per day these people made or what it meant in real terms of what it buys them. It did offer this:
Ruo made $60 that day. Normally she makes $80, Ruez says. She makes the most money out of all the canners there.
Ruo has enormous pride and is refusing aid from her adult children. The article indicates she has a place to live for free ("pro bono") and refuses the Western food available for free at the center, choosing instead to cook for herself at home. She works four hours a day, seven days a week by choice and probably earns close to $29,000/year -- which is not enough to live on very well in New York but with a free apartment, she is probably fairly comfortable in some ways. She likely pays no taxes. I am unaware of any way that to wind up with a 1099 for turning in recyclables. The article indicates some canners do it "to feel useful" again because they can't work a regular job.
I was curious because I was just writing yesterday about earned income and self respect/self determination for folks on the street. I find it hard to talk about such things. I think the real solution for poor people -- for our most disenfranchised -- is things like self respect and agency and those are usually the first things that most homeless service organizations try to take away. They typically try to run your life.
I am not saying this woman has the best life ever but she has some things, like pride and quality home cooked meals, that a lot of corporate drones might envy. My life has been better on the street than it was as a corporate drone. If there is something terribly wrong with America, I think that is it, really. A lot of people feel horribly trapped, like a gerbil on a treadmill, running hard just to try to stay in place and often failing. They have a high priced car to get their job because you can't get there from here with public transit and between car, home costs and just eating etc they are just surviving, not really enjoying life or pursuing their dreams.
I would like to resolve my problems and get off the street. But I am really seriously convinced that Ben Franklin was right: Sacrificing freedom for "security" does not work. This country was founded on cottage industry. I think we need to get back more to that paradigm to reclaim our heritage and become a healthier nation on many levels.
I will note also that she may not even qualify for food stamps. The article indicates she cannot apply due to her address, where she does not pay rent, being used already by someone else for collecting food stamps. But the reality is that if you have $2000 in savings, you also do not qualify and she is saving up money in hopes of some day returning to China and living off her savings. How much she has in savings is not stated in the article but a goal of living off your savings is a pretty big goal, so she may well have over $2000.
Of course, the article is trying to make these people who recycle for the income look pathetic. It does not serve their goal to indicate that although she has no job benefits, like health care or paid time off, and although the work is physically hard and very dirty, she actually makes about $20/hour working part time and it sounds like her life has some basic comforts and security of a sort that many Americans lack.
My goal on this site is to promote self sufficiency and personal agency as a means for homeless people to solve their own problems and get what they want, including get off the street should they so desire. Not everyone wants off the street. I do want off the street but I first need to resolve my health issues, so I don't actually want off just yet.
Yes, assistance of some sort (for example, with developing and promoting my various websites) is more than welcome but I do not see myself as a charity case and I do not think encouraging others to treat me as such is a good path forward. Charity is helpful as a crisis management thing. It does not give people self sufficiency, independence and a middle class life.
Last updated September 11, 2019.
I wrote the following elsewhere yesterday:
The article is sort of light on real data:
Neither labor professors, shadow economy experts, nor sociologists who specialize in Chinese Americans, have conducted studies on the phenomenon of canning.
According to employees at Sure We Can, a large number of canners are elderly Chinese immigrants. Half of the regular canners at Sure We Can are Chinese, the other half are mostly Hispanic. “Since more redemption centers have opened, the Chinese have dispersed. But we still have about 30 Chinese regulars now,” de Luco says.
I saw nothing that really indicated how much per day these people made or what it meant in real terms of what it buys them. It did offer this:
Ruo made $60 that day. Normally she makes $80, Ruez says. She makes the most money out of all the canners there.
Ruo has enormous pride and is refusing aid from her adult children. The article indicates she has a place to live for free ("pro bono") and refuses the Western food available for free at the center, choosing instead to cook for herself at home. She works four hours a day, seven days a week by choice and probably earns close to $29,000/year -- which is not enough to live on very well in New York but with a free apartment, she is probably fairly comfortable in some ways. She likely pays no taxes. I am unaware of any way that to wind up with a 1099 for turning in recyclables. The article indicates some canners do it "to feel useful" again because they can't work a regular job.
I was curious because I was just writing yesterday about earned income and self respect/self determination for folks on the street. I find it hard to talk about such things. I think the real solution for poor people -- for our most disenfranchised -- is things like self respect and agency and those are usually the first things that most homeless service organizations try to take away. They typically try to run your life.
I am not saying this woman has the best life ever but she has some things, like pride and quality home cooked meals, that a lot of corporate drones might envy. My life has been better on the street than it was as a corporate drone. If there is something terribly wrong with America, I think that is it, really. A lot of people feel horribly trapped, like a gerbil on a treadmill, running hard just to try to stay in place and often failing. They have a high priced car to get their job because you can't get there from here with public transit and between car, home costs and just eating etc they are just surviving, not really enjoying life or pursuing their dreams.
I would like to resolve my problems and get off the street. But I am really seriously convinced that Ben Franklin was right: Sacrificing freedom for "security" does not work. This country was founded on cottage industry. I think we need to get back more to that paradigm to reclaim our heritage and become a healthier nation on many levels.
I will note also that she may not even qualify for food stamps. The article indicates she cannot apply due to her address, where she does not pay rent, being used already by someone else for collecting food stamps. But the reality is that if you have $2000 in savings, you also do not qualify and she is saving up money in hopes of some day returning to China and living off her savings. How much she has in savings is not stated in the article but a goal of living off your savings is a pretty big goal, so she may well have over $2000.
Of course, the article is trying to make these people who recycle for the income look pathetic. It does not serve their goal to indicate that although she has no job benefits, like health care or paid time off, and although the work is physically hard and very dirty, she actually makes about $20/hour working part time and it sounds like her life has some basic comforts and security of a sort that many Americans lack.
My goal on this site is to promote self sufficiency and personal agency as a means for homeless people to solve their own problems and get what they want, including get off the street should they so desire. Not everyone wants off the street. I do want off the street but I first need to resolve my health issues, so I don't actually want off just yet.
Yes, assistance of some sort (for example, with developing and promoting my various websites) is more than welcome but I do not see myself as a charity case and I do not think encouraging others to treat me as such is a good path forward. Charity is helpful as a crisis management thing. It does not give people self sufficiency, independence and a middle class life.
Last updated September 11, 2019.