Sometimes, a little more perspective helps to do the right thing. A little more knowledge about how things are interconnected. They should teach it in school, to see the big picture.
For example:
People in my neighborhood are upset about the amount of dog excrements on the sidewalk. They have dogs themselves and do not pick up the leftovers. Instead they complain that the governments should clean the streets more regularly.
The government has now increased the cleaning schedule to twice a week, which remedies a little bit the problem.
Taxes will soon be increased in order to pay for the increased cleaning costs due to the new schedule.
People around the neighborhood are already complaining about the new tax plan. Even though they formerly requested an increased schedule themselves. And they do agree that the people doing the job should be paid.
Why did nobody ever think about picking up and throwing away their dog excrements themselves? Nor expects the same from other dog owners. Perhaps because it is easier to complain to an anonymous government than to call the attention of the lady next door.
Still, if we expect the government to keep the street clean without any civilized behavior from our side… we will have to increase the cleaning schedule at least to 4x a week. Which will be even more expensive.
So I’ll just take some extra newspaper with me when walking Pacco to lend it to other dog owners who “forgot” to take something with them. Who knows, perhaps the example makes the differences.
And then please, I’d like to include the interdependencies of costs into the schedule of the civic education classes.
Minimalist Musings in Mataró 