I think picking up trash is quite often something that’s useful, if you see some laying around and it would be easy to get rid of it.
The transaction costs to hire someone to do 1 minute worth of picking up trash are pretty high.
For systematic effort I think you are right. At the same time I think it makes sense to feel responsible for the world around you in a way that goes beyond “picking up after one self”.
Just because you didn’t cause a problem doesn’t mean that you are not responsible for fixing it.
It does not seem like we are really disagreeing here in principle, only in degree. I fix trivial things like paper cups in some shared space, reprimanding people I witness littering, but I won’t go out of my way to pick up every cigarette butt on the street nor do I devote my life to ending poverty.
Basically I live according to the principle to fix my own yard for a somewhat arbitrarily extended definition of “yard”.
I think picking up trash is quite often something that’s useful, if you see some laying around and it would be easy to get rid of it. The transaction costs to hire someone to do 1 minute worth of picking up trash are pretty high.
This is not about picking up after one self—which I advocate—but about systematic efforts like cleaning up a neighbourhood.
For systematic effort I think you are right. At the same time I think it makes sense to feel responsible for the world around you in a way that goes beyond “picking up after one self”.
Just because you didn’t cause a problem doesn’t mean that you are not responsible for fixing it.
It does not seem like we are really disagreeing here in principle, only in degree. I fix trivial things like paper cups in some shared space, reprimanding people I witness littering, but I won’t go out of my way to pick up every cigarette butt on the street nor do I devote my life to ending poverty.
Basically I live according to the principle to fix my own yard for a somewhat arbitrarily extended definition of “yard”.
I would agree with that.