It's easy to get used to it. As soon as someone flushes the toilet and leaves the stall, the cleaning lady rushes in to wipe down the seat, sanitize the door handle, and mop up the spill. You won't see a toilet clogged with... never mind... neither will you have to stand in yucky water from who-knows-where.
To be honest, I do appreciate the ready labor force that is available to man or "woman" every public restroom in Hong Kong. In some places you'll find two or three full-time janitors for every restroom. That's right, their entire day is spent within that enclosure. The only sounds they'll hear are the sounds of toilets flushing, faucets running, paper towels being snapped, and the motorized whiz of a hand-drying machine. Then it occurred to me the reason why Hong Kong can afford to keep its restrooms in sparkling, sweet-scented condition twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, is that labor is cheap, and there are plenty of workers.
Once I saw a TV interview in which a successful Hong Kong businessman discusses the "necessity" for poverty in Hong Kong (all this spoken aboard his private yacht). He said that without the poor, there would be no one to fill the jobs that are so indispensable to the infrastructure of Hong Kong. I guess I'm beginning to understand the full implication of what he meant.
Hong Kong businesses are built atop the foundation of a large, unskilled labor force that is willing to work long hours with low wages. That is how we still get street sweepers (yes, they still use brooms made with a bamboo handle tied with long twigs) sweeping our sidewalks one square foot at a time. That is how there are still people unsticking gum on the shopping mall floor with a toothbrush. That is how there are sales ladies standing at every frozen food counter trying to hand you frozen fish ("Really, I can get it myself."), and gloved men at the entrances to apartment complexes (not to mention hotels) to open the glass door for you, while the full-time door cleaner is shining the glass for the two-hundredth time that day. This is why Hong Kong does not need or want automation or mechanization. If you replaced twenty of these street sweepers with a machine, where would the laborers go?
The upside to this--yes, there is an upside, if you must know--is that there are still occupations which have all but disappeared in America. There are still shoe cobblers and affordable tailors (not just for the rich and famous either). In Hong Kong, you can still fix your old computer for much cheaper than the price of a new one. In fast-food restaurants and cafes (even places like McDonald and Starbucks), it is not mandatory that you clean up after yourself--most people don't. Somebody is always ready to come and bus the table. And, like I said, public restrooms are always clean. (Perhaps they need to be, with memories of recent epidemic outbreaks and the risks still lingering.)
When you have to pay a minimum wage (at a level that actually means anything), you certainly can't afford to staff every restroom with a janitor any more. And what a disaster that would be!
3 comments:
We're fortunate to have so many workers constantly cleaning - with over 7 million people on this tiny spot of land, it could get messy fast. But it's hard to swallow what the wealthy businessman said, that poverty is necessary. On the other hand, HK has a relatively low unemployment rate. Another issue with multiple angles.
Wow! That's a weird job...but I guess that makes sense.
This is so interesting. I remember in high school and college that people would argue against the minimum wage because businesses would simply find a way to cut back on necessary workers rather than pay more workers the higher wage. I've also read editorials that pondered whether or not technology has made unemployment worse. I was raised in a very conservative, GOP home, but as I get older I find myself leaning towards socialism, mainly because corporations are so darn greedy. But then friends point out that the government can be just as greedy as the corporations. So then I just feel confused and wonder what on earth can be done.
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