Hobonomics

A couple years ago when I was visiting mainland China as a tourist, I took some time to talk to this hat vendor on the streets. He was selling bucket hats that said "Beijing 2008" in rainbow colors, the symbol of China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic games, which by coincidence, I am watching on channel 3 right now. Beijing 2008 was a big deal at the time. It would be a symbol of China's entry into the modern world, the pride of 1.3 billion nationalistic individuals, and an opportunity for the Chinese to show their capitalist aptitude. (which they have so far performed with a ferocious tenacity for entrepreneurship)

Anyway, I asked this street vendor where the recycling bins were, as I had some empty water bottles in my backpack that I wanted to dispose of. He laughed and tossed my bottle into the sidewalk. Before I even had a chance to say anything, a dirty looking man came and picked up the bottle, threw it in his cart filled with bags of other beverage containers, and walked off. This is why there are no recycling bins anywhere in the People's Republic of China.

But the greater point is about the guy pushing the cart around. Just who was that guy anyway? He is a member of a special sector of society: The Recycling Homeless. Welcome to Hobonomics 101, where the laws of monetary incentive, material needs/wants, and free-market competition fall apart and are replaced by dumpster diving, class discrimination, and ultimate freedom.