Covid-19 Lesson 1

I will rather haphazardly go through all the things we learned from Covid-19; mostly it's things we knew before, but never appreciated. Let's make some time and get it all out into the open to give the brain some air. The first lesson is about invisible people. Are you thinking homeless? There are people even more invisible, isn't that frightening?

Lesson 1 has nothing to do with charity and everything to do with litter, crap, and garbage. I am talking of the pillars of civilization without whom rats would be the dominant species on this planet. Humans are litterbugs, throwing away stuff that could have been reused, throwing away stuff where it should go into readily available bins, throwing stuff away out in nature when camping, driving, cycling, walking, hiking, or climbing.

First heroes to be mentioned therefore are street sweepers who keep our streets clean as well as their understaffed shifts allow. They dal with all the garbage humans throw away without squandering a thought about where it is going over night. And, you might have guessed, the street sweepers are part of the huge army of the lowest paid workers in any country in the world. Cleaning up the Starbucks cup thrown away by a fat cat banker for almost no pay is not fun.

Out in the country side, we have park wardens and the much suffering owners of farms, tourist spots, and forests. While their pay is usually higher, their shifts are even more understaffed than what is usual for street sweepers. And the area they have to cover is often inhuman.

Beside too much littering outdoors, every household produces tons of garbage every year. Where do you put it? Use the garden to pile it up o rot? The bin men will sort it out. Every day, they fight the battle of getting all the unnecessary stuff off you, with all its hazards and stench. And yes, they again belong to the worst paid people in any country in the world. But without them, rats would have overrun us ages ago.

Having dealt with what is going on outside and what is coming from inside to the outside world, there are the janitors in all the hospitals, office buildings, state buildings, and so on. Without them none of us would ever go to a toilet in a school or anywhere else public. Public buildings and offices would look like pigsties. And again, janitors are paid near to nothing.

Covid-19 has made me mindful of these important jobs. It's better to pay for more street sweepers, more bin men, and more janitors and prevent disease at the source, than for one more useless real estate agent, banker, insurance broker, or state agency employee. And their work should be paid adequately to the importance of it.

Further reading
Spanish Flu And Covid-19
How Economy Works
How Money Came To Dominate Our Lives