SO!
Jennifer sets out her recycling every morning around 5 am, and it gets picked up by Cheryl, who is homeless, and redeemed for cash. This is just fine with Jennifer. She feels good about herself because of it. Then Jennifer takes an Uber to work. She used to take taxis, but they cost too much. She's very glad that Elon Musk is pressuring the city to build a tunnel using funds for public transit. It'll make the bus cost more, but that's okay, it'll still be cheaper than an Uber, and maybe they higher price will keep homeless people from sleeping on it.
When she gets to work, she has to decide how to promote the campaign for a greener city. One of the most successful and well-received initiatives was an incredibly tiny tax on plastic bags. If you can't be bothered to remember your reusable bag, you deserve the slap on the wrist that is the 10 cent fee per bag. Another way she's making the city better is by encouraging the city attorney to prosecute minor infractions, like unpaid parking and speeding tickets. Only people that make mistakes this way are punished. And the sums are just enough to remind folks that there are consequences to their behavior. A single $72 dollar fine isn't going to break anyone's bank after all. Even at minimum wage, that's still less than a day's work. Enough that you won't do it again. It should be higher she thinks, after all, it's barely noticeable to people earning the median wage.
On her way home, she sees a black man yelling very loudly at a black woman. Always a hero, she calls the cops, and then walks away, sure that the cops will help them resolve their domestic dispute peacefully.
She shakes her head sadly as she passes a man whose legs have a diameter of a basketball, sure that the little sugar tax will help him if it helps anyone to quit.
And then she sees it. A beat-up station wagon with dozens of parking tickets. Must be abandoned, she thinks. She calls to have it towed. SHE IS HELPING.
And then, in the rear window, she sees a Trader Joe's bag containing a coincidentally similar amalgamation of bottles and cans. There's three La Croix on top, just like she drank and dropped on top this morning. She can just see a Carlo Rossi label...
If
you're feeling sad after that, first of all, do what you can, think long and hard about how the choices we make every day affect the most vulnerable, even when they benefit us.
Also,
come on by for some more jolly content:
Feel free to share these images! And thanks to 