I am a big fan of “Dirty Jobs” on Discovery, perhaps because I spent a good deal of my adult life doing a dirty job and it remains one of the best experiences of my life. Last night, Mrs. Trzupr and I were viewing Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe’s first mission was at a California electronics recycling facility.
Now I love (in the most platonic way possible) Mike Rowe. He is a great, personable, television host. But, watching him attempt to disassemble computers and monitors – in the name of going “green” – I felt sorry for Mike. It was the antithesis of the efficiency of the assembly line. It was the penultimate, inefficient disassembly line. How could this possibly make any sense?
As it turns out, it doesn’t. Cheryl (aka: the smokin’ hot Mrs. Trzupr) spent a little time on line and found that electronic recycling in the state of California is subsidized by the state, in the form of a tax that is attached to the purchase of every piece of electronic equipment in the state of California. Officially, the state says that electronics recycling is “free”. Apparently that fee doesn’t cost anyone anything.
What is completely insane here is that there is no real reason to establish this subsidy. Despite what you my have heard, the percentage of land devoted to landfills in the United States is far smaller than the amount of land devoted to golf courses. And, even more happily, today’s landfills are so tightly controlled that there is no way that any dangerous chemicals deposited in the landfill will escape into the general environment.
There is, in other words, no reason to subsidize anything so ridiculous as electronics recycling. Doing so is nothing more than an exercise in environmental masturbation. It may make some people feel good, but as far as actually making a difference or saving the planet?
Not so much.
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Yes… excellent Rich. What does it say when the government spends more money encouraging people to tear things apart rather than build things? He’d be better off busting rocks.
I too have a manly, plutonic love for Mike Rowe and always like it when he realizes that he a job is sort of pointless. You will actually see him get that “what’s the point” look on his face.
A few weeks ago they had him in CA recycling mattresses which required trucks and drivers for pick up, a fully staffed factory for disassembly, addtional trucks to deliver the disassembled parts to recycling centers. You cannot tell me that with that much overhead that it is even close to being profitable, and of course with it being part of the sanitation department it is fully subsidized by the taxpayer. Yet more examples of the government paying one person to dig a hole and paying another to fill it in.
By plutonic, do you mean it is radioactive or like a cold distant planetoid in an eccentric orbit?
I believe Veruckt is saying he loves Mike Rowe as much as he loves Mickey Mouse’s dog.
I’m here all week.
Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
Sorry – I meant “server”.
“Waitresses” died circa 1995.
Zombies got em.
Damn zombies.
I just love Mike Rowe…growr……….hottie.
Hey Wanks Mike Rowe deserves a hubba hubba post.
I recall being lectured by one of Mrs. Firefly’s cousins. She was showing me her home, in Deutschland, and going on and on about the ways they recycle and conserve heating fuel and electricity. We were staying with them and it took about 30 minutes to teach us how to throw which trash where. After a tour of yet another section of the home and yet another assortment of colored trash bins, each with its own particular function, she turned to me and haughtily said, “You see? You don’t do all of this in America.” I looked at her and asked, “Have you ever flown from New York to San Francisco?” “Ja,” she replied. “I’ve flown across America.” I responded, “Did you notice a shortage of landfill?”
Flying over is the problem. You just don’t get a sense of how big and empty parts of this country are until you do it at about 80mph. Flying means you start in a city, get on a metal tube for a few hours, then go into a different city.
A few weeks ago I drove several times between Salt Lake and Denver. Anyone who thinks we are running out of landfill needs to visit US 6 north of Green River, or I-80 anywhere between Evanston and Laramie. Turning those areas to landfill would improve their esthetics greatly.
And I think the only reason Nebraska exists is to keep Iowa and Wyoming apart, and add 8 hours to any drive from east to west.
Raoul,
I agree there is a very different perspective driving. I think all Americans should drive coast to coast, at least once. It’s a great nation! I also love flying over it. You see a lot from the air you don’t from the road, and vice versa. I hope to one day ride a bicycle across from east to west and kayak the length of the Mississippi.
You didn’t mention the war did you Rufus?
Shhh! Don’t tell them. They just think the last 60 years have been a minor setback in the 1,000 year Reich. With a thousand year regime not every year is going to be a 1938.
Rich… “Pointless Jobs” would be a great show.
Pretty much defines my day job Floyd.
(Rich returns to pushing large piles of paper toward the EPA).
+JMJ+
Mike Rowe? “Green”? That’s really odd.
He’s PETA’s Public Enemy #1 and is adamant that “Brown” is better than “Green” any day.
Have you seen this show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqgRmhRjt7k
Enbrethiliel ,
Mike’s main mission seems to be making people understand the value of honest hard work. His whole Mike Rowe Works project is set up to highlight manual labor and “the trades”, he doesn’t seem especially enthused about the green jobs thing and has made multiple jokes at the expense of global warming.
+JMJ+
Precisely why I love him so much, Veruckt. <3
He accepted my friend request on facebook. I feel so happy now. I love Mike Rowe.
Rich raises an interesting point: I think my favorite work has been “dirty jobs.” My father still insists his favorite job was hauling trash. I did assembly line work in a factory and that was almost more than I could stand. It was monotonous and required no mental effort and very little physical effort, but I think my favorite jobs have had a high, physical labor component to them; mixing and wheelbarrowing concrete on a construction site, building stuff.
I think my favorite work was delivering papers. My folks wouldn’t let me have a route, but a friend had one. I would get up at 5:00am on weekdays and help him do his for free. He’d pay me to do the route when he was on vacation. I loved it! Each apartment, house and business was a new challenge in the angle of approach and the type and force of throw. Yes, delivering papers in the city while on a bicycle may just be my favorite job. To this day I love riding 30+mph on my bike in crowded, city traffic. I tried to get a job as a bike messenger during summer break in college but the factory job came through first.
As the Clash sang:
“It’s no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages.”
My Dad had more fun and felt more positive about life when he had a Gill net in his hands and was hauling Buffalo (yes that is a fish), Carp and or hauling out Mudcat and Car Fish up on Set Lines. Or running his trap line. When he went to management he became a herder of Squirrels. Politics replaced creativity.
The thing about doing a dirty job is that you find out things about yourself you never knew. In my case, I spent about 10 years as a stack tester, which involves climbing up big industrial smokestacks, hauling up a bunch of test equipment and running tests all day to determine what emissions are going up the stack. It’s physically and mentally demanding and, most of the time, you test in the crappiest conditions around – cold or hot or smelly or dangerous. Rule of thumb was 2 out 3 people who took the job quit in the first 3 months. For me, a somewhat nerdy (shut up Floyd) city boy, finding out that I could do that kind of job, and be damned good at it, was a huge confidence builder in my life. There is a definite value to manual labor – and I still enjoy it.
Think Mike Rowe had to tow the Discovery network “green line” – hence the “green” dirty job.
Saw an episode of “Little People Big World” where they replaced their appliances and light bulbs with more “energy efficient” ones. Part of TLC’s “Green Weak.” Guess some minimum wage worker in Cali got to tear those appliances apart, too.
Best episode of Showtime’s “Bull Sh_t” covered garbage and landfills. Love how Penn just skewers those “Greenies.”
“Saw an episode of “Little People Big World” where they replaced their appliances and light bulbs…”
I assume that involved a lot of ladders.
Hi-yoooooo!!!
I’ve had very much the same experience with manual labor. As a child I detested it but this year I took to building my own furniture (a bad ass bookcase and a couple of end tables so far) and I love it, you truly feel like you have accomplished something. Conversely when I leave the soul crushing confines of my taupe cube in the afternoon I frequently wonder what I did all day and question the meaning of life.
I think about this often. Most of us earn a living doing “unnatural” things. Our bodies certainly respond negatively, but I think our minds and psyches can too. We are not engineered to sit at desks all day, stare at screens and do repetitive tasks that don’t require independent thought. Many of us spend 8 hours a day going against the Engineering God or Darwin gave us. It has to have negative results. I guess the main question for each of us is, “can we counter those negative effects in our non-working lives,” and “does the income offset the negative effects?”
I’m a rather cheery bloke, I go about my lot in life with a smile. The oldest Firefly is getting close to choosing Colleges and a prospective career. I recently told him that I chose something that wasn’t an ideal, but had high demand and fit a lot of the things I’m good at, and enjoy.
He was stunned. “You mean this isn’t your ideal career,” he asked. I laughed out loud, and said, “Oh no! There are a lot of things I’d much rather do for a living.” He was stunned, and asked me to list a few.
I know I’m lucky to earn what I earn for the minimal amount of blood, sweat and tears it requires. Certainly 99.9% of the humans who have walked this Earth would trade their quality of life and life expectancies for my gig, but still, it is unnatural and I often wonder what price that carries?
Rufus,
I think, to use a mildly caustic term, is castrates us in a way. By our late 20s most of us have had our spirit and sense of adventure broken in some way, we stop wondering what lies on the other side of the fence and just start hoping they’ll let us stay in the pen. This causes people to feel listless and I even attribute it to consequences in our personal lives such as depression and divorce. We don’t see the fruits of our labor and therefore do not feel validated in our work or our lives and with so many bosses and supervisors above us, most feel like they do not have control of their own destiny and that’s a tough thing to rationalize.
It all reminds me of the old saying “even if you win the rat race you’re still a rat.”
Great when we buy our flat screen for the bedroom…we are getting it at the PX. This is stupid………
This may tie-in to the article Outlaw recently posted about “aviators” flying remote, pilotless attack aircraft. First, I agree that some of the spouses were way out of line, and second, I agree with Outlaw that those “aviators” had it made compared with their comrades in the field, and, not that there is anything “natural” about piloting a helicopter or fighter aircraft, but just like a grown man sitting at a desk typing on a computer or pushing paper, there is something unnatural about fighting a war through a joystick and computer monitor and maybe that un-naturalness will lead to more problems.
When the vast majority of our society have not experienced real labor what will our society be like?
I’m not sure if this is related or not, but awhile ago I saw a TV show about places in the city where you could take your dog so it could “herd.” They interviewed owner after owner whose dogs were going insane in apartments or homes with small yards. The breeds were natural herding dogs. Then, the owners discovered this place where they could pay by the hour and their dogs could herd and their dogs behavior completely changed at home. Herding dogs aren’t meant to live in apartments. They can, but it does things to them psychologically. Bad things. Aren’t there examples of troubled, urban teens being taken to ranches for forced labor and doing well?
“It’s no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages.”
There is also a certain profit to be had from electronics dismantling. There are those who make a profit from “mining” the gold from switches and contacts, and the copper from the wiring and circuit boards.
My “dirty” job was working my way through college as a nurse’s aide on the graveyard (literally sometimes) shift, 7-11 pm. I cleaned more bed pans and mopped up more urine and vomit than I ever would have imagined. I learned many times over that these “old” people deserve and require dignity and respect, and yet they are young at heart.
One of my favorite memories is working New Year’s Eve. I was 19 years old. A call light came on right before midnight, and I answered it right away. You learned not to wait because you don’t know what the situation is: someone has either fallen and can’t get up or she needs a bed pan. Anyway, I go to the room of this 97-year-old woman who usually doesn’t speak or interact with anyone. But here she is smiling with two plastic cups filled with brown liquid. I had no idea what it was, and it burned like hell going down. I was blown away by this woman who still celebrated life and was looking forward to the future.
I decided then and there that when I reach my 90’s I’ll be pounding down shots on New Year’s Eve. You all are welcome to come. I’ll leave the call light on.
That’s a great story, pshaw! My great grandfather lived to be 98. Everyday he got on his knees and prayed. Every day he drank schnapps. And every day he sang. The only time he didn’t have a smile on his face was when he was praying. He worked as a gravedigger well into his 70’s. He earned his living digging graves for many folks younger than he. I wish I had known more Polish so I could have talked with him more.
Resquiat im pace, Dziadek!
+JMJ+
That’s a great story, Pshaw! =)