The NSW Revenue Conspiracy

One of the benefits (or permanent psychological scars, depends on your perspective) of growing up with Southern European heritage is that you learn to find the conspiracy in everything. Especially when it has anything to do with money. Others would refer to this as "looking beyond the dominant paradigm'. I'll tell you what it really is: lazy thinking; a great excuse for not practicing your civic duties; expressing your inner cheapskate.

Case in point: The missing railway station rubbish bins in Sydney. Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, virtually all bins at Sydney metropolitan train stations disappeared. Already-filthy train carriages reached new levels of squalor. The underlying assumption was two-fold: It is for our own security; and you should be carrying some kind of receptacle to carry those empty-but-still-leaking coffee cups, you wasteful destroyer of nature! If there was public outrage, it was silent. Many simply shrugged, "well dem terrists drop bombs in bins you know!" (Perhaps choosing to ignore the fact that most terrorist attacks consist of explosives delivered by vehicle or strapped to a person).

It was in light of these developments that my father, seasoned veteran of anti-bureaucratic outrage and virtuoso whinger, posited his theory that the missing bins were proof of a conspiracy to lighten our wallets and fill the coffers of local and state government. "It's very simple you see," he'd start yammering. "They take the bins away, and force you to litter. The rate of littering increases dramatically. Then the issuing of fines increases. The result is that the government gets slightly richer."

Well now those missing rubbish bins are back. Railcorp has relented and decided to reintroduce them, possibly ushering in a new era of relaxation in the face of terror. I haven't yet asked my father what he thinks, but I can guess he may not have even noticed - train carriages are swimming in more filth than ever. The litter-bug scumbags won, not the terrorists!