So much for economic rebound

Trash day today...

I'm working from home, and happened to look out my front window just as I saw a reasonably well-dressed gentleman dive headfirst into my large recycling bin. I watched him come up for air, cans and bottles in hand, and observed him then move on to the next bin on the street, to retrieve whatever bottles and cans my neighbours might have discarded. After I watched him do this to a couple more bins, I decided I didn't want my street becoming known as dumspter-diver heaven, so I wandered out and politely asked the man to refrain from pursuing his goals on our street. He was very cordial, well-spoken, and apologetic, but also proud. He explained that he was unemployed, and needed to buy his mother a birthday card. My initial sense that this was a decidedly weak-ass explanation was balanced by his clean-cut appearance, and the fact that the car in which he was storing his trophies was a late-model sedan. This was either truly a man down on his luck, doing the best he could; or a wily entrepreneur who knows of a bottle bank somewhere in the SF Valley that pays more than 5 cents per...

Either way, I take it as ominous that we are now seeing well-dressed dumpster divers in upper middle class neighborhoods, collecting the detritus of their peers, with impunity. Makes me long for Sweden...