I never really stopped and noticed
before how the toilet paper is padlocked into the container in the
bathrooms at Coffman Union. Reminds me of how easy it probably
would've been to grab a few rolls out of the bin in the bathrooms at
the Freie Universität Berlin's Rost- and Silberlaube. Never really
seemed worth doing to me, though, even on the days when we were
running short on toilet paper and I didn't want to stop and buy some
on my way home. Running out the door with a roll or two of
obviously-stolen toilet paper in hand would've at best looked really
stupid, after all.
I can think of one other situation that
parallels this one, although you can't really tell who didn't pay
their fare on the U-bahn just by looking at them and U-bahn tickets
cost more than toilet paper. Anyway, one of my favorite things about
S- and U-bahn in Germany is that there are no turnstiles. It's more
annoying than one might think to have to hunt around in one's pocket
or bag for one's transit card (or worse, a little cardboard ticket,
especially if you're in Paris where they get bent or lost easily
'cause they're so tiny), THEN figure out which turnstile to use (even
if all it takes is a quick glance), and possibly grapple with a
barred revolving door, and potentially deal with malfunctioning
machines, all while you're trying to get somewhere. All in the name
of making sure people who didn't pay don't get on. I never liked
turnstiles much, and after living in Berlin for awhile I've grown to
resent them.
Not that Berlin just lets people ride
for free--every once in awhile, transit police sweep through the
trains checking people's tickets. It happens very seldom (I could
probably count the times I saw this happen in the ten months I was in
Germany on one hand), and yet I've heard more than one person say it
seems like it always happens to them on the one day they don't happen
to have their ID on them, or bought the wrong ticket. Not to assert
that there aren't plenty of "Schwarzfahrer" that might
manage to get away with it all the time--I have no idea. But plenty
of people do get caught, and the transit company doesn't seem to be
losing money over the lack of turnstiles.
It seems like there's a sort of general
tightfistedness in American culture (and probably plenty of other
countries, too, it's just that American culture is the only one of
them that I've experienced enough to really be able to say that sort
of thing about it) that isn't present in German culture (or if it is
and I didn't notice it, then it doesn't manifest itself in such
blatant ways.) Our public facilities seem to go way out of their way
to make sure that no one takes more advantage of them than they're
meant to, to an extent that makes me wonder if they spend more money
on precautions like turnstiles and padlocks and card readers than
they would lose from the moochers these devices are put in place to
ward off.
Even if the more precautious way is
more economical, by how much? Is it really worth the inconvenience
for the people who aren't looking to freeload (which I like to expect
are a majority of people using these facilities)? Or perhaps it would
be better to ask if giving everyone the impression that they're a
bunch of dishonest hooligans out to rip anyone off that they can in
the eyes of these institutions is really worth whatever economic
benefit the padlocks and turnstiles provide. Seems excessively
obsessive to me.
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