Oddbean

There used to be 50,000 pay toilets in cities across America until a group of college students in 1970 decided it wasn't fair to have to pay for a natural bodily function and successfully lobbied to get them banned. Now you can't find public toilets in many US cities and if you want to use a restroom you'll need to use one inside a business that, you guessed it, will require you to be a paying customer. Capitalism always seems to find a way. https://image.nostr.build/4cfbe97e836800692b6b9b484b165e1fb51de193ae2241999c092ee689eabb71.jpg https://image.nostr.build/cd6f144241726cc6aa1f6d77ca0310eb346b96e749ce8d519215c75134ce2e65.jpg

Several months ago I was driving west out of Detroit on the highway. Had to take a leak so I pulled off at the government funded rest area. It was about 11 PM in the evening when I pulled in. The parking lot was packed, only three or four spaces were available by the entrance out of maybe 100-120 spots. People were parked there sleeping in their cars. Being the Midwest we don't have a great culture of car camping/van life like in the west. Out there people typically would spread out on residential or commercial streets or in the parking lots of big box stores. So I guess you could say the public toilet sorta played a roll in this modern day hooverville thing I came across.

In Spain and in Portugal in September there were no public toilets. They were either vandalized, closed or charging 1 euro (or more ) for the privilege so there is plenty of pissing in the street. Surprisingly Madrid would power wash the streets every morning... but they did have an ESG conference at the time that might have been a California move.

We have free public toilets across New Zealand. Part is we don’t have the homeless problem as the US has. The other counter to this narrative is that there are lots of pay public toilets in the US, I know Portland and San Francisco have paid public toilets today.

NYC doesn’t have nearly the issues with the homeless/unhoused that the rest of the nation has. The reason is we have a right to shelter almost no one else has. The City has to provide shelter even if you’re an undocumented alien shipped here by a red state. While we have some free public toilets - it’s the right to shelter that makes the biggest difference.