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Most of those people own their own businesses. I doubt the general garbage collector on the truck, in particular, is making "very good money".
Not too bad in downstate NY. After five years, typical salary is $70k/year for a NYC garbage collector (union wages). Long Island might be even higher, the counties certainly pay a lot for garbage service. The garbage service companies may or may not still be mafia controlled.
The overall problem I have with these lists is that you can have, at one extreme, a metro like Washington DC that is chock-full of mid-level government bureaucrats from average schools somehow eclipsing a place like New York, which is the overall migration point of most of the Ivy League. I can assure you, people working in New York do not lose much sleep worrying about being out-smarted by people in DC, but quite the opposite is true.
Except ivy league transplants make a small portion of the metro population. The metro is well educated, but the people in "elite jobs" make up a small portion of the educated workforce. New Yorkers aren't worried about competition from other cities, they don't really think about cities much unless they're planning on leaving. A few people made threads on the NYC forum: "what do you think of city X?" Response: "We don't"
Not too bad in downstate NY. After five years, typical salary is $70k/year for a NYC garbage collector (union wages). Long Island might be even higher, the counties certainly pay a lot for garbage service. The garbage service companies may or may not still be mafia controlled.
LOL, NYC is always the outlier! I'm sure garbage collectors who work for municipalities make more than those who work for private companies. Our garbage is collected by a private co that has a contract with the city.
LOL, NYC is always the outlier! I'm sure garbage collectors who work for municipalities make more than those who work for private companies. Our garbage is collected by a private co that has a contract with the city.
And are the five families, of umm Boulder, involved with these private companies?
And are the five families, of umm Boulder, involved with these private companies?
G*d only knows, not a huge influence here, though there is some influence in Denver. Louisville, CO is actually a historically Italian town, but I don't know if said families were a big influence in the coal mining business, which is what got the town started.
I may get totally flamed for this, but it seems that here on CD, the only city that cares what's going on in other cities is Pittsburgh! I can tell you Denver isn't worrying too much about what's happening anywhere else. It's both the benefit and negative of living in an isolated city!
I guess you're right that probably most major metro areas are like this.
In the DC area, it's not just the political class of people, but also the local residents and even people living in the "hood" who have this bubble mentality of not caring about what's happening anywhere else. Most people seem absolutely content with their jobs and their lives and that's it. Even Baltimore - just 35 miles away - is not that often on the radar of DC area folks.
All of which is kind of strange considering that this is the nation's capital, is connected to and is supposed to serve the rest of the country, and has people coming from all over the nation and the world. But this is what I've experienced growing up here and living here.
Maybe it is psychologically impossible for most people to relate to things which are physically far away from where they are.
This is why I don't understand when someone says college degrees are useless nowadays .
It's still pretty essential to have if you want a good salary and a position you can move up in, especially if you're in the bigger markets like DC, Boston, San Fransisco, etc.
But you really need to be in the bigger markets. If you want to live in a small town or rural area where there are few jobs for which a degree is beneficial, then the degree is not going to be helpful.
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