The Swap Shop - Small Scale Socialism at Its Finest.

A few years ago, Carroll County had a great idea and added a Swap Shop to their Recycling Center.  Here, citizens could drop off usable items of almost any description for others to pick up and use.  This, I thought, was the ultimate "recycling center" and I visited it regularly, dropping off all sorts of stuff (and of course, picking up a few things along the way. I even found a used copy of my text book - the ultimate success for any author, I am sure.)  In the course of the past year, I have grown to recognize many and talk with other visitors and I have observed the day-to-day drop off and pick up cycles.

But "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and now the swap shop is closed and boarded.

Why?  What happened?  

"Free(dumb)" happened.  That's what!  What was meant as a way for people to share turned out to be an easy target for abuse, as is often the case. 

Individuals eventually recognized that there was "gold in them thar hills" and some would arrive with their pickups and grab anything that was metal, hauling it to the scrap yard.  Hence, a perfectly good/repairable bike, tiller, or lawn mower, well suited to a teenager or home owner, was exchanged for its weight equivalence, $2 (?).  One enterprising individual thought that he could make money by cutting the wires and cables from the back of  electrical devices, thus making them totally useless to anyone but the most persistent  swapper.  Others, were obviously grabbing anything which they thought they could resell on Craigslist, eBay or in their own shops.  Arguments and fights started from the typical the childhood  "I saw it first!" scenarios.  And lastly and perhaps most egregious was the use of the shop as a dumping ground for trash.

While I recognize that one man's junk is another's treasure, such was not the case here.  Since Carroll County charges all of $5 a ton to dump "stuff" in its land fill, individuals would simply pull into the Swap shop and dump their stuff rather than pay a buck or wait their turn in line.  Obviously, this dumping necessitated a clean up which cost the county money.

Now, Goodwill will take over the operations of the Swap shop. Charging for items, they will no doubt filter what gets dropped off.  While this makes good sense, considering the above, Goodwill will likely filter many things that are repairable and usable, thus negating a good portion of the recyclable items.

Being "free" all to often means not recognizing what something really costs and the fact that such costs are born by everyone. For those who don't care to recognize this fact, "free" is a way of life with the subtitle "give me, give ME, GIVE ME!" This is true for individuals as well as corporations.  "Background expenses" as I would call them, exist everywhere.  Their costs are ignored or invisible.   In this example as with welfare and as with non-cost items such as environmental discharges, somewhere, sometime, somebody(ies) will have to pay for it.

Like vultures, people consume free lunches, leave the garbage and ignore the costs.  At least vultures fulfill a reasonable function in nature and have no ability to recognize the bigger picture. 

  

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