I Don't Want To Be a Garbage Man
I just had a semi-argument with someone about garbage men, one that I’ve had many times before and will probably have many times before I die. It’s always the same conversation:
Me (watching a garbage man hop on the back of a filthy trash truck):
“Wow, it must suck to be a garbage man.”
Person I’m talking to:
“Whatever, they make great money.”
This to me is the epitomy of idiotic logic. First of all, let me say that I’ve heard this reasoning from a wide range of people - people that I know who actually have reasonably well paying jobs, as well as people who make minimum wage.
Let me clear one thing up: garbage men do NOT make great money. They make slightly more than public school teachers do. Ok, by some standard, that is decent money. It’s livable. It probably allows them to live in modest poverty, while affording certain luxuries, such as the daily tetanus shots they need to get from coming into contact with used condoms and needles or the work clothes they have to buy every week to replace the old, diaper-mess stained attire.
Furthermore, it wouldn’t suck to be a garbage man any less if they made $100,000 per year. Aside from the fact that the acrid stench of garbage probably becomes permeated into your skin, you have to…. well, no, that should be enough. Reeking of garbage indefinitely is a pretty notable occupational hazard.
I cannot possibly imagine any garbage man who loves his job. It’s a necessary public service, but who the hell is passionate about garbage? If the people who say this to me think that trash collecting is this great, high society gig, then they should apply.
This isn’t a personal attack on garbage men, by the way - in fact, I think they should be paid well. They have to work in Toronto’s filthily hot summers and bitter cold winters, and are essentially at the bottom of the employment food chain.
All I’m saying is that it sucks to be a garbage man, regardless of the fact that they’re supposedly all wealthy.