Warmer weather kicks off free junk season, when people put their discards out on the curb with a “free” sign, enticing passers-by to believe they’re getting a bargain instead of hauling off someone else’s trash and saving them a trip to the dump.
Free junk is a recent twist, something that didn’t happen so much 30 years ago, when people minded their own junk. Now we offer our crap to strangers.
Free junk maybe evolved from “big trash day,” an annual promotion of refuse companies that would lift their two-can limit for one day and carry away your old sofa or washing machine at no extra charge.
As capitalism is inherently predatory, some thrifty or less-fortunate folks started scouting their neighbor’s junk before the trash man arrived. People did this discretely at dusk or dawn because “trash-picking” was insulting to one’s dignity.
This was a generation ago, when people understood shame and honor, when a fat, philandering, bankrupt businessman could not be elected president.
Free junk arose during the 40-year assault on the middle class by the nation’s wealthy, ruling class. Once you’ve worked a demeaning job at low wages, picking through your neighbor’s trash isn’t a big blow to your pride. Dignity and pride are expenses in the U.S. economy. Some folks can’t afford them. They don’t pay the rent.
In a previous era, if you had something usable to get rid of, you’d sell it at a yard sale or advertise it in the paper or phone up the neighbors to see if they needed or wanted it.
Engaging with another person was involved, a short conversation perhaps about why you were getting rid of something and why it still had value. Things had value. People had value.
Free junk came as consumer items became less expensive, in part because they are made in places where life and labor are cheap. Giving away stuff anonymously is cheapest yet, as it frees us from our junk without the encumbrance of acknowledging others, their need of our things or the reasons for their needing our things.
Free junk is like taking fish waste to the beach, trusting that some scavenger will come along and carry it away.
Like “self-checkout” at grocery stores or “philanthropy” by corporations that won’t pay a living wage, it’s an insult camouflaged as benevolence.