<story><title>Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm</title><url>https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2021/03/pay-toilets-and-nyt-free-market.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whatastory</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t want to seem too accusatory, but this just felt like an angry rant without much research.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to a few places on this earth, and while I know there are some Europeans who&amp;#x27;ll proudly talk about how paying for toilets helps keep them clean, I haven&amp;#x27;t noticed them being any better than gas station bathrooms in the US. Some are okay, some are total disaster sites. The only difference is someone or a machine standing at the door taking your money.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, in East Asia, I&amp;#x27;ve never encountered a pay toilet. I&amp;#x27;ve also really only encountered truly dirty toilets in the middle of very remote parks. Japan, Taiwan, and Korea all have excellent free toilets. Even China does pretty decently. Parks and urban areas across the country have toilets that are well maintained, and I noticed public bathrooms even in the middle of residential areas around Beijing that were hosed down a few times a day.&lt;p&gt;So no, I don&amp;#x27;t agree that the only way to fix things is to revert to literal nickel and diming. Learn from the countries that manage their systems better instead of giving up and saying it&amp;#x27;s impossible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cwwc</author><text>Yes, the toilets in Taiwan are great —- and free. They have masses of public toilets in park, along with cleaning attendants. But here is the rub —- in the US, they would be overrun with homeless (I’m not saying this is bad; just that it would be the reality) while in TW the people who are attending to them would likely be homeless were they in the US. Is part of this cultural? Yep, probably. Is part of it structural? I think so —- because there are roles for people in TW, the “lowest rung” of society, while the only role stateside is along the side of the road or perhaps a MCD worker.</text></comment>
<story><title>Pay toilets and NYT: a free market microcosm</title><url>https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2021/03/pay-toilets-and-nyt-free-market.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whatastory</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t want to seem too accusatory, but this just felt like an angry rant without much research.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to a few places on this earth, and while I know there are some Europeans who&amp;#x27;ll proudly talk about how paying for toilets helps keep them clean, I haven&amp;#x27;t noticed them being any better than gas station bathrooms in the US. Some are okay, some are total disaster sites. The only difference is someone or a machine standing at the door taking your money.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, in East Asia, I&amp;#x27;ve never encountered a pay toilet. I&amp;#x27;ve also really only encountered truly dirty toilets in the middle of very remote parks. Japan, Taiwan, and Korea all have excellent free toilets. Even China does pretty decently. Parks and urban areas across the country have toilets that are well maintained, and I noticed public bathrooms even in the middle of residential areas around Beijing that were hosed down a few times a day.&lt;p&gt;So no, I don&amp;#x27;t agree that the only way to fix things is to revert to literal nickel and diming. Learn from the countries that manage their systems better instead of giving up and saying it&amp;#x27;s impossible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bbreier</author><text>This is about the same as I felt after reading this-- and his comment explaining Tokyo&amp;#x27;s free public toilets, &amp;quot;No homeless, no drugs, no crime, 100% politeness rate?&amp;quot;, all but confirmed those suspicions for me. It reads more like an ideological rant than a considered treatise on potty economics.</text></comment>