[L_Rahman]

My uncle is one of those people who sits in subway booths. He does almost nothing.

He makes 80k a year.

My political ideology is deeply in favor of the working class. I believe in strong worker protections, in the unionization of labor in most industries, and that capital controls a disproportionate amount of wealth and power in this country.

But I must also insist that these costs are unfair and insane.

[pravda]

He makes a lot more than 80k a year!

He's also getting about another 70k in benefits, for a total compensation well into the 6-figures.

People wonder "why is the subway so filthy?" Well, if you wanted to hire people to keep the subways clean, they would have to be paid $100K+ in total compensation.

Ok, so why not hire a private company to keep subways clean? A private company would be able to pay free-market compensation to hire cleaners.

Can't do that either! Subways must stay filthy!

[JumpCrisscross]

> People wonder "why is the subway so filthy?"

Because we run our system 24/7. We can’t flood our stations with bleach like they do in D.C.

[pravda]

From the NYT article comments:

"In terms of cleanliness, which is also an issue of public health - why doesn't MTA have a dedicated crew of 4 or 5 people with a power washer, soap and squeegees to move methodically through each station, working on the weekends or overnight? "

Can't have it, because the MTA is not in the moving-people-business, they are in the wealth-transfer-business.

[cr1895]

In fact, MTA have been investing in vacuum cleaning systems for the tracks with the aim of reducing fires that lead to delays. You're being disingenuous. Here's an article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/nyregion/with-new-vacuums...

So it's frankly absurd of the commenter to say that just 4-5 people could manage this task. One manager mentioned in the article leads a team of 300(!) cleaners.

[pravda]

That's the subway tracks. They are forced to clean debris off the subway tracks, otherwise the trains can't run.

But where the people are, the stations, they don't keep them clean. That's what the commenter was refering to.

[pavel_lishin]

They do have those teams. I've seen them work; they've got power washers, and they blast the stations. They cleaned my previous-local station once every few months, at least.

The stations don't stay clean because they move millions of people per day, not all of whom are clean. Today I saw a kid throwing up on her way into the station; she and her mother were somehow polite enough to pause above a drain to do so. Combine that with people tracking upstairs dirt in, and littering, intentional and accidental (I dropped a candy wrapper while getting my kid home; I'm not stopping to pick it up mid-tantrum), and you've got a pretty messy situation.