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by burritas 1281 days ago
How do we make cleaning septic tanks more enjoyable?
7 comments

By making it it well and entertaining.

There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to it. Septic sucking is a function of capital costs not labor costs.

Why's there a need to? If it's highly unpleasant and there's a shortage of people willing to do it then surely it's a perfect opportunity for the development of self-cleaning tanks... As it is most of the truly unpleasant jobs of previous centuries don't exist anymore - if someone had found a way to make gong farming pleasant (look it up!) then flushing toilets and town sewerage systems might never have been invented...
By paying enough
Pay more. Design the tank and the equipment so it's not a dirty job. All doable if you are willing to spend some money.
By paying a lot more.
Cheaper to hire a felon or immigrant. I'm not saying I agree with this arrangement.
Which is why nobody should be in such a weak position. It's exploitation pure and simple.
I don't disagree that it's exploitation, but I think you obscure a very complex problem with "nobody should be in such a weak position".

I'm not sure any economic or legal arrangement could do away with weak positions like that entirely.

UBI would go a long way towards pulling the very poor up out of the cycle of "I'll take whichever bad choice is least bad right now because I'm desperate."
We don't have that cycle in Germany at all. Yet we don't see any of the promises of UBI materializing.
Re a very complex problem with "nobody should be in such a weak position".

It is only complex if avoiding questions about the value of human dignity, and the inability of laissez faire capitalism to deliver that, need to be avoided.

This is the crux of the issue. Most everything else herein is chin music.
Also avoiding realities of human nature.
I think libertarian socialism does exactly that but in this case what's being argued for is JG (and UBI) which would help empower many, so we shouldn't be arguing against those things (not saying you are.)
Around here, the septic tank cleaners tend to be owner-operators. They own their tank truck and cleaning business, and they make decent money.
Robots and or increased pay.