Re: [pf] used to be "doing the right thing"; now "pay to clean up after

I'm not sure if this was posted to the list, so am re-sending it ...

David Mac,

I agree with your take (that it's regressive) on charging a fee in
exchange for requiring no personal responsibility, initiative, or
concern for others who follow you. I like having a choice --
Sometimes I want a hotel, where I pay a lot and I do nothing more
than what I feel like (although I invariably clean up all the hairs
in the bathroom, make the bed, and keep things tidy, because I
consider this doing my part); and sometimes I want something cheap
or free, in exchange for which I will do chores or whatever. It
seems like there, as well as here, we're losing the choice of doing
anything but paying.

Beyond that is my concern (and yours) that we don't seem to give a
darn about the people who come after us, either on a trail, in a
hostel, or on the Earth a generation from now. Which came first --
that we didn't care, didn't want to go to the trouble, didn't see it
as our responsibility to help others; or these larger,
organisational changes?

Maybe people never really cared about their fellows, but they didn't
have the money or the choice to do anything else. 

I'm always amazed at the way people leave public bathrooms -- pee on
the seat, paper towels on the floor or balled up on the counters,
toilet paper all over the floor -- I can't believe people live this
way at home, but in public places, they seem to have no thought for
others at all. I don't know if it's the idea that "it's someone
else's job to clean this up"? I do think that once a few people
litter or leave a mess or vandalise, etc., others follow suit lilke
lemmings. I know there have been studies where they've shown that
cleaning up vandalism right away reduces the chances of more
vandalism in that area, so it must be partly monkey-see-monkey-do.

~ Molly Wms.

David MacClement wrote:
> 
> 
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9936&newsDate=28-Feb-2001
>   is titled:
> "Nepal plans garbage levy for all its peaks."
> 
> · Ten to fifteen years ago the NZ government had to start charging a
fee
> for people tramping (hiking) through the NZ bush, to pay for upkeep of
the
> tracks and huts, and to collect and carry out the garbage.
> 
> · Before that, the users, trampers usually when organised by the
tramping
> clubs, did it themselves. You thought about the next user, and tried
to
> leave the hut in the condition you'd like to find it in at the end of
your
> hard day's tramp.
> 
> · The justification given is that there are now far too many people
using
> the tracks and huts, so cleaners and repairers have to be brought in
and
> then paid.
> 
> · Although there's something to that, there's also the distinct
difference
> in attitude to money now. It is used far more, to replace "doing the
right
> thing", a general feeling of fellowship with other similar people.
> 
> · The same thing happened, at about the same time, with Youth Hostels.
When
> I and my family used them in the early '80s they still operated as
they had
> from their beginning at the start of the 20th century: you cleaned and
> tidied your bunk, helped clean your room, and got one of the general
chores
> from the manager (like cleaning the kitchen), and did it before
leaving
> that day.
>   Now you pay far more per night, but have no chores.
> 
> · It's not only the loss of fellow-feeling, IMO it is a consequence of
a
> lot of people having much too much money. "Any problem? throw money at
it".
> For these people, including most New Zealanders, money is easily got,
and
> therefore easily spent, taking the place of your own personal effort
and
> time spent for the benefit of others like yourself.
> 
> · Most would see this "convenience" as a step forward; I don't. I
worry.
> 
> David.
> (David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz
> http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
> ************************************************
>

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