Why Finland is Fantastic – Reason #4,494: The Trashman
In my home state of Maryland, the trashman is owned and operated by the state. It’s an American pastime to joke about the trashman – they’re always late, they do a messy job, they bang up your trashcans, they never leave the cans sitting up straight – but what are you going to do about it? They have a monopoly, there’s no competition, you have no choice.
In Finland on the other hand, we can pick and choose our trash collectors (although I don’t exactly know how it works in remote parts of Finland). If one does a lousy job, we call up their competitor. If the residence leave their trash stations messy, the Finnish trashmen will happily clean it up…for an extra fee of course. In Maryland if your trash stations are messy, the trashmen won’t clean it up and it becomes more messy the longer it sits out there.
Helsinki has very clean streets and alleyways, Baltimore does not – and although you can’t blame the trashmen for all of this, I believe they are a factor – or rather, the system (public vs. private trash collection) is the factor. Finland has shown that privatization has once again outshined the state!
