As a result of this weekend’s massive snowstorm in the Washington, DC area, economist Bryan Caplan wonders why he couldn’t find anyone to help shovel all that snow:
In my neighborhood, many households would pay unskilled workers $30/hour or more to shovel snow. I would, that’s for sure. But no one comes door-to-door offering these services. The obvious explanation is that (a) teens are the only unskilled workers in my affluent neighborhood, (b) these teens don’t need to do hard manual labor to make money, and (c) that the snow limits the influx of unskilled labor – teen or adult – from less affluent areas.
Questions: Does anyone live in or know of neighborhoods with an obviously positive equilibrium quantity of snow shoveling services? If so, what are their characteristics?…
I had the same thought. I did in fact hire a teenager to help me with the shoveling, but I only found him because he was the son of a friend. Interestingly, I paid exactly the $30 Bryan specified (but he worked for about 90 minutes, and thus got less money than Bryan thinks the market might bear).
Why the paucity of snow-shoveling labor in the DC area? Bryan’s explanations B and C probably play a role. But the really important factor is that DC is a warm-weather area where massive snowstorms are extremely rare. In cold-weather states, middle-class teenagers do often sell their shoveling services when a big snowstorm happens. I know because I did it myself when I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s, in an area at least as affluent as where Bryan lives. In a warm-weather area, few teenagers develop shoveling skills and there is little opportunity for a teen driveway-shoveling market to develop. Moreover, teens in cold-weather areas can develop relationships with particular neighbors who regularly need snow-shoveling help (e.g. – I routinely shoveled the walkway of an elderly neighbor who couldn’t physically do the job herself). It’s hard to develop an ongoing “repeat player” relationship if the neighbors only need shoveling assistance once every several years.
Jon Rowe says:
The first words that come to my mind are “search costs.” Some smart teen (or adult) business folk who want to capitalize off snowstorms should have some kind of online mechanism that pours requests in once a snow storm like this occurs.
Where are the Mr. Plows? In my neighborhood we had one who could do a driveway in 5 minutes. he did his immediate neighbors (lucky us at times) for free as a favor (to the chagrin of those teens who wanted to make $$ on those snow days).
December 21, 2009, 11:37 pmIlya Somin says:
Where are the Mr. Plows? In my neighborhood we had one who could do a driveway in 5 minutes.
There’s not much incentive to set up a Mr. Plow in an area where the service is only needed once every several years.
December 21, 2009, 11:39 pmJon Rowe says:
Ilya,
That makes sense. With our Mr. Plow, that was one of many hats he wore, and was a minor hat to boot.
December 21, 2009, 11:55 pmneurodoc says:
Chevy Chase Village, a very affluent area which had 2 feet of snow accumulation, has a listserv and at least one youth used it to announce his availability for snow clearing services. (Why do you specify “shoveling”? Wouldn’t the best financial return probably come from the use of a snow blower, so long as there was at least one significant snow storm per year?) Several Hispanics, who I imagine might otherwise hire out for various sorts of manual labor, came by offering to clear snow. I was surprised, and a bit annoyed, that my wife, who is generally not tightfisted like me, refused to pay $50 to have enough of our driveway cleared to permit one car out onto the street. As a result, I found myself laboring for substantially less than $30/hour and now have a sore back for my efforts.
I expect someone will come along to say that today’s teenagers are lazy, but it won’t be me.
December 21, 2009, 11:56 pmLTEC says:
I’ve lived in Toronto, Canada for decades, and I’ve never seen a neighborhood kid looking to shovel snow for money.
December 22, 2009, 12:05 amDaniel Charlies says:
Let it Snow… Let it Snow… Let it Snow.
More is better for the market apparently.
Maybe an enterprising lawyer could survey and contract for services in advance, akin to a living will. (“Do you want to be shoveled out if/when the time comes, or left alone?”) I was first thinking: find the elderly, but the market must be huge in those rare storms, with even the young professionals out of practice and all. And professionals means that high $30 hr. rate, no blinking.
Or you call it insurance and charge the “cheaper” seasonal rate. With enough money in the pot, a good private service could have the labor in there, when needed.
In some towns with a lot of snow annually, they use the work-camp restorative justice labor. Boy are they fast when a team of 6 hits the drive… Probably fun to get out working too, instead of just being locked up for non-violent crimes.
December 22, 2009, 12:17 amTwirip says:
I apologize for going off topic here, but this seems important enough to warrant it.
Link.
The Democrats are inserting provsions in the healthcare bill requiring a super majority in both houses of Congress to alter it. In effect, a pocket constitutional amendment.
December 22, 2009, 12:28 amDaniel Charlies says:
Twirp,
Is that legal?
December 22, 2009, 12:30 amroad2serfdom says:
Did you check the yellow pages (or the internet version)?
December 22, 2009, 12:34 amTwirip says:
Might makes right, don’t you know?
December 22, 2009, 12:35 amIlya Somin says:
The Democrats are inserting provsions in the healthcare bill requiring a super majority in both houses of Congress to alter it. In effect, a pocket constitutional amendment.
I wouldn’t worry about this too much. Any repeal can simply be structured like this:
Section 1: Repeals the supermajority requirement (which, after all, is itself just an ordinary statute that can be amended by a majority vote of both houses).
Section 2: Repeals the substantive provisions of the health care bill, or whatever subset thereof the new congressional majority wants to get rid of.
December 22, 2009, 12:37 amDaniel Charlies says:
Twirp,
The Dems are mighty?
December 22, 2009, 12:50 amTwirip says:
The language in question says things like: “it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”
That’s to be the law of the United States, mind you. Can you “repeal or otherwise change” something which says it cannot be changed or altered? Obviously the Democrats think there is enough chance that the answer is “no” that they are willing to try this manoeuvre.
December 22, 2009, 12:54 amThatGuy says:
I grew up in an affluent DC suburb, and I know who does the shoveling: kids like me whose parents didn’t just hand them money. Those of us who had to work for a living when we were teenagers seem to have turned out better than those with dad’s credit card, but I can’t substantiate that with hard numbers.
December 22, 2009, 12:54 amTwirip says:
I believe it would have to be repealed in its entirety. Which I would not mind, but many Senators are very attached to it.
December 22, 2009, 12:58 amIlya Somin says:
The language in question says things like: “it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”
THis language can itself be repealed by a majority vote, as can any statute passed by the senate, or for that matter any senate rule.
December 22, 2009, 1:03 amDaniel Charlies says:
You oughta start a new thread Ilya…
December 22, 2009, 1:10 amMikhail Koulikov says:
But the really important factor is that DC is a warm-weather area where massive snowstorms are extremely rare. In cold-weather states, middle-class teenagers do often sell their shoveling services when a big snowstorm happens. I know because I did it myself when I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s, in an area at least as affluent as where Bryan lives. In a warm-weather area, few teenagers develop shoveling skills and there is little opportunity for a teen driveway-shoveling market to develop.
This is exactly the thing. The teenagers in the DC area who would think of a snowstorm as an awesome opportunity to make some cash are also the teenagers that a) would not necessarily *want* to go out to (or bother spending the time to go out to), say, Langley or Friendship Heights, and b) people in Langley/Friendship Heights would not want to see / be comfortable with seeing wandering their neighborhood’s streets at six or later p.m.
December 22, 2009, 1:35 amtheobromophile says:
Ditto Daniel. :)
For the fun of the snow thread:
I grew up three towns over from Prof. Somin, but never rented out my shoveling services. After shoveling my own driveway (anyone else have a father who expanded the driveway so you could play half-court basketball on it?!), I was far too tired to want to tackle anyone else’s. Also, when I was a teenager, my track coach mandated that we all go out and run on snow days, so I was maxed out on physical activity.
Most people who want someone to clear off their driveway, even in my less-affluent-than-Lex town, pay someone with a plow.
Now, specific to DC: your snow usually doesn’t stick. People in DC probably do what I did in Virginia: if you don’t (or can’t) shovel, just drive over the snow, secure in the knowledge that it will melt the next day. Up in New England, even if the snowfall is so light that a car can get through, trying that trick gets you melted, then frozen, tire tracks – frozen tire tracks that stay frozen for weeks.
December 22, 2009, 2:00 amThe Economics of Snow Shoveling | Liberal Whoppers says:
[...] more here: The Economics of Snow Shoveling Share this [...]
December 22, 2009, 3:58 amTruePath says:
Actually he probably got the amount Bryan supposes the market might bear.
Presumably the teenagers shovel at a slower rate than a full grown adult. I suspect the work he did is probably equivalent to no more than an hour of labor by an adult used to physical work.
—
One solution is to drive to Home Depot and hire some of the unskilled labor that waits there. However, I suspect that once you consider working on the scale necessary to justify this a plow is actually the better investment.
I suspect that what’s really going on is that the market is largely locked up with long term contracts and most people eventually just sign a plowing contract.
December 22, 2009, 5:05 amArkady says:
Where I live now, snow falls very rarely, and when it does, it’s usually a few inches that are gone in a few hours. But a couple of years ago, we had a 20″ snowstorm. I called my brother-in-law back East and told him, jokingly, that if could get out here in 24 hours (he has a plow on his truck), he could make about $100,000 because there wasn’t a snowplow in the entire city. And if he had come with a truckload of snow shovels, he could have made more. :)
December 22, 2009, 5:41 amTweets that mention The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » The Economics of Snow Shoveling -- Topsy.com says:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jon Warren, Eugene Volokh. Eugene Volokh said: The Economics of Snow Shoveling: As a result of this weekend’s massive snowstorm in the Washington, DC area, ec.. http://bit.ly/5wvsMC [...]
December 22, 2009, 6:39 amdata says:
For help in the study, I live in a very different part of DC and had a different experience. I live on 9th St, on the border between Shaw and east Logan Circle. A few middle-aged folks knocked on my door yesterday morning, shovels in hand asking if I wanted the steps and front walk outside my rowhouse shoveled. Walking around yesterday morning, I saw many folks out and about with the same idea in mind.
I think the labor market is a bit more efficient here insofar as the area is much more economically diverse than the “affluent” neighborhoods of DC. In the blocks surrounding me, you have million dollar houses within close proximity to subsidized housing, and everything between. This perhaps yields a much more efficient utilization of available labor.
December 22, 2009, 8:16 amJohn Armstrong says:
Funny, I’m currently living in Columbia, MD, in a very safely upper-middle class neighborhood without a lot of “unskilled labor”. Many of us were out periodically through Saturday’s storm to shovel our driveways and keep on top of the problem ourselves, but some people were unable to do so. A number of families are aging, or those who would normally shovel are injured, and they cannot clear their own driveway.
But a funny thing happened. Over and over, those of us who finished shoveling our own driveways went to our neighbors who needed help and helped them. Just walked over and cleared a driveway with no need for any compensation beyond helping those around us in their time of need.
What a cruel, selfish, and isolating “neighborhood” Mr. Caplan must live in.
December 22, 2009, 8:16 amBill says:
Truepath said:
“One solution is to drive to Home Depot . . . .”
Haven’t you assumed the can-opener?
December 22, 2009, 8:26 amPete Freans says:
In Philadelphia where I live, we had a plethora of snow-shovelers offering their services. My neighborhood is a more affluent middle class area abutting a lower-income area several blocks away. Many of those lower-income residents traveled to my area to shovel snow. And they did a fabulous job too.
After 23 inches of snow, I’m buying a snowblower.
December 22, 2009, 8:26 amJosh says:
For what it’s worth, in my suburban neighborhood in Bergen County, NJ, we have plenty of Hispanic guys who walk around with shovels offering to clear your driveways and walkways. It’s a fairly competitive market.
December 22, 2009, 9:01 amAssistant Village Idiot says:
I suspect the established relationships are the more lucrative. As a teenage boy in NH in the 60′s, we often heard about or even met some kid who had raked in big dollars cold-calling (heh) in neighborhoods after a big snow. I even fell into a few better-paying individual jobs myself, but these were rare.
Neighborhoods were stable and the more likely scenario was that after finishing your own driveway and walk, you were sent up the street to some older person’s house, who usually paid you, but according to the scale of their memories of the job’s worth in the 1940′s. After all this, if you still wanted to shop for more jobs, there were slim pickings indeed. Kids from houses with little to shovel likely got themselves on the market earlier.
I am guessing that those teenagers with more forethought did better: calling the night before to likely customers nearby; keeping track of what various people had paid in previous storms; explaining to parents the advantage of your doing other places first and promising in blood to finish when you got back; getting up early. Of course “forethought” and “teenager” do not often occur in the same sentence.
December 22, 2009, 9:12 amMichael Wagner says:
I suspect a different agent. As my daughter is heading off to school, I have been ruminating about the dearth of neighborhood babysitters we experienced raising her.
My purely anecdotal evidence is that most of the kids with the appropriate work ethic were already working regular hours (mostly in food service).
As the food service job can offer more regular employment than I can, it makes perfect sense for the kids to stick with their $7/hour jobs for 15 hours a week rather than abandon those jobs for a singular opportunity like a severe snowstorm in DC.
The recent economic downturn may have changed things – we have been out of the babysitter market for 5 years or so now – but in the recent past, the babysitting pool consisted of kids too young to work fast food and kids who lacked the motivation to accept an available fast food job. The responsible hardworking kids – the ones I sought to employ – were already working.
December 22, 2009, 9:19 amkarrde says:
I’ve seen neighborhoods in the Detroit suburban belt in which there is a mix of helpful neighbors and enterprising teens. The area gets large snow-storms, but at a rate that is somewhere near once per year.
I’ve also seen a small University-Town in which snow-shoveling was a big business. (Mostly due to yearly average snow-falls above 200 inches. The town was located on the shore of Lake Superior, in a region which saw cold weather and regular snowfall from November to March.) In that town, it seemed that every pickup truck had a plow attached during wintertime. A large number of wintertime residents were University students who rented, and would not have heavy snow-moving equipment. Thus, the students (and/or their landlords) would contract out regular snow-removal to a local resident with a truck.
I’ll agree with the hypothesis that the regularity of snowfall (especially in amounts exceeding an inch) is a major factor.
December 22, 2009, 9:25 amwm13 says:
Confirming what Josh said above, my fellow workers who live on Long Island report that there is a considerable population of Hispanic laborers who show up after snowstorms with shovels and blowers, offering to clear driveways.
In NYC, most people of my socioeconomic class live in either co-op apartments or townhouses. In the apartments, the regular building staff shovels the sidewalks. With respect to townhouses, there is usually someone in the neighborhood who establishes regular relationships with the local homeowners, and shovels their sidewalks whenever there is a storm, although I do know a few people with seven figure incomes who shovel their own walks.
December 22, 2009, 9:37 amMarshall Plan says:
If I wasn’t busy studying for and taking prof. Anderson’s exam, I would have been shoveling…for money. I’m a 2L, who is more unskilled than that?
December 22, 2009, 9:44 ambyomtov says:
Here in Cambridge it’s fairly common for various people – not primarily teenagers – to come around and offer to shovel the snow for approximately the amount Caplan mentions.
December 22, 2009, 10:07 amTo Have and Have Not says:
DC is a warm-weather area????? Compared to Buffalo or Minneapolis, maybe. I suspect that a whole lot of people from Dallas, Birmingham, or Atlanta wouldn’t find it “warm,” much less those folks from Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, or San Diego.
Snowstorms like Saturday’s are (thankfully) fairly rare, but the DC area gets pretty cold, and stays that way, from December 1 through the end of March. And the average annual snowfall ranges, depending on the area, from 15 to 22 inches. So while Buffalo- or Syracuse-area accumulations are rare, there is a regular enough accumulation in the DC area that, I would think, it should prompt industrious young snow-shovelers to action. Maybe you need to cast the net a bit wider…
December 22, 2009, 10:10 amgerbilsbite says:
I’m in Wheaton, just north of the Beltway, and a team of about 8 teens came door-to-door on my block and did a hell of a job. Dug out my driveway, cleared the walkways, shoveled the porch. But since the county didn’t send the plow down our street, my neighbors and I–in a great bit of collective action–spent yesterday evening breaking the six inches of ice covering the road.
December 22, 2009, 10:30 amgracchus says:
I have been surprised to see how many highly educated professionals in affluent areas of DC-Maryland lack the foresight to move their cars to the end of their driveways before a much heralded snow. That simple step minimizes the amount of shoveling necessary
December 22, 2009, 10:31 amAultimer says:
I see a few factors that limit the marketing of shoveling services in upper-middle class neighborhoods:
1. the kids inclined to shovel snow for cash can make a satisfactory wage clearing their own home (the folks will pay)
2. the average UMC drive & walkway in a large storm eats most of the labor capacity of a teenager
3. the best customers (able to afford, but not to perform the work) don’t much live in UMC-burbs – the smart kids skip the able-bodies adult homes and go to the old empty-nesters.
I saw all these at work in the 5 houses surrounding mine. When I was a kid, Dad bought a monster snow blower. He charged me one clear driveway (ours) for a full day’s rental of the machine. Good econ lessons abounded.
December 22, 2009, 10:33 amEdward A. Hoffman says:
And let’s not forget that teens in warm-weather areas are less likely to have access to shovels.
When I was a kid in Massachusetts, my family had several shovels — enough so we could each have one even if one or two broke or disappeared into a snow drift. In fact, we had multiple shovels of multiple varieties, since shovels that are great for light, fluffy snow are not so great for the wet, heavy stuff. As a result, whenever I wasn’t actively shoveling my own driveway I could grab a suitable spare and go looking for work. A family in DC might have only one or two shovels; they would have to spend more time on their own driveways as a result and the shovels would not be as available to any entrepreneurial teenagers.
December 22, 2009, 10:38 amSparky says:
I dunno — last time I was in Washington, D.C., right after a snowfall, entrepreneurs sprang up everywhere, selling knitted caps and gloves. And remember, those guys had to have a supply chain already in place.
Why should snow shoveling be different?
P.S. Teenagers have to “develop shoveling skills”? Are you kidding me?
December 22, 2009, 10:43 amAK says:
Only the residents of comparatively affluent neighborhoods can afford to pay someone to do this type of manual labor. The people who do regular manual labor in these types of neighborhoods are Hispanic (read: illegal) laborers. This is for a variety of reasons: because they charge less than teenagers, are better at their work, and won’t sue if they get hurt or complain to their parents if you abuse them verbally or physically or don’t pay them.
The consequence of this is that teenagers – while perhaps not lazy – aren’t accustomed to going around offering their services. It can be a little uncomfortable to knock on someone’s door and give a sales pitch.
A big snow comes, and suddenly the Hispanics can’t make it to Whitelandia to toil. The local teens don’t have any experience laboring or marketing their services, so they don’t fill the gap.
December 22, 2009, 10:48 amDavid Bernstein says:
I lived in an affluent part of Fairfax County for five years and not a single teenager ever came offering to do any service, ever. Not snow shoveling, not yard work, not babysitting, nothing. Instead, they sometimes came begging for money for their school band, sports team, whatever. At first I sympathized, but later I would respond that they could wash and vacuum my car and I’d pay them, but no handouts.
By contrast, my current neighborhood in Arlington has a very high median home price, but also has many residents left over from before the bubble, when many houses were under 200k. Many teens are willing to shovel snow, babysit, do yard work, etc.
December 22, 2009, 11:09 amChrisIowa says:
Yes, sparky, there are techniques to manual labor that make it more efficient.
December 22, 2009, 11:31 amDavid Chesler says:
A few years ago when we had a snow during Easter vacation I collected my kids and our shovels (like Edward Hoffman says, this is Massachusetts and we’ve got the spare and last year’s and the back-saver that doesn’t and the coal shovel for ice…) and said “Watch this” and we did our trick-or-treat route. I figured people would pay just for the opportunity to see kids shoveling (sort of like it’s not the quality of the costume or the carol, but the effort and tradition.) We had one bite, someone whose husband was laid up that week – she said her own pre-teen boys weren’t interested. Otherwise even the old lady who lives alone didn’t take us up on it – she said her son would be coming by the next day.
December 22, 2009, 12:14 pmBesides the one job (and I did most of it, which was OK) we did some cleanup at the house of another kid we called for, and that was it.
My older son now gets about one shoveling job every couple of winters, and maybe a couple of lawn-mowing jobs each summer, all from one recently-divorced neighbor. (My daughter and my younger son would like to get paid too, but they’d rather be inside on a computer.)
This isn’t a rich neighborhood, but there isn’t a demand-chain either. People already have their solutions worked out, because it snows every winter and they can’t depend on kids coming by, and they’ve already got either a service or a blower or their own shovels.
He’s bigger and has more expensive tastes every year, maybe he can be aggressive and get some regular customers this year. His only potential customers would be people who could do it themselves but aren’t looking forward to it.
David Chesler says:
Headline: Carpet-bagger price gouges, takes advantage of snowbound people.
December 22, 2009, 12:22 pmVader says:
I’ve noticed a similar thing in my neighborhood with youth employment generally. You can’t find kids to work in local businesses flipping burgers, or deliver papers, or other such traditional kid jobs. The local McDonald’s ships in kids from the nearest minority neighborhood to staff themselves up.
The usual explanation I hear is that the hours spent working at a job aren’t worth the hours taken away from doing homework to get into college. I have my doubts about that explanation, but it seems rather sad if true. I value college, but I also value real-world experience, and flipping burgers is a great way to get some real world shoved in your face.
December 22, 2009, 12:30 pmChrisIowa says:
I my neighborhood, everyone but me has a snowblower, so it isn’t productive for kids to go around looking for shoveling jobs. I’m one of few that don’t have a snowblower and in my case, I actually enjoy shoveling most snows. Most snows are less than 6 inches deep, and for those I can get my walks and driveways done in not much more time than everyone else who uses a snowblower. On one occasion a couple years ago, the first snow of the season which was about 4 inches, a neighbor pulled his snowblower out at the same time I started shoveling. I was done with my walks and driveway before he got his snowblower started. Maintenance problem.
So the economics of the situation for me is: do I want a snowblower for one or two snows per year that are 12 inches and over that become difficult? I would probably also use it on the other snows, just because I have it. I would also use more snowmelt, since snowblowers don’t clean as well as a shovel, and its a pain to clean the sidewalk with a shovel after a snowblower has been over the walk.
December 22, 2009, 12:41 pmbyomtov says:
The people who do regular manual labor in these types of neighborhoods are Hispanic (read: illegal) laborers.
Because no one named Juan could possibly be an American citizen.
December 22, 2009, 1:01 pmSmooth, like a Rhapsody says:
Arkady: we had a 20″ snowstorm. I called my brother-in-law back East and told him, jokingly, that if could get out here in 24 hours (he has a plow on his truck), he could make about $100,000 because there wasn’t a snowplow in the entire city.
Headline: “Carpet-bagger price gouges, takes advantage of snowbound people.
…Women and minority drive way owners hardest hit”…
December 22, 2009, 1:15 pmFTFY
JK says:
My experience from growing up in Vermont was that you didn’t see much door-to-door shoveling for the same reason that you don’t see door-to-door lawn services: in an area with significant snow, people prearrange for snow removal. Just like you don’t wait for you lawn to grow to find someone to cut it (if you’re not inclined to cut it yourself), you don’t wait for an inevitable snow storm to arrange for snow removal. No one is going to go bang on a hundred doors to find the one person who forgot to arrange for snow removal.
I’d recommend mention that your interested in shoveling to a friend with appropriately aged children, or even putting up a small sign the day before a big storm. I bet there are plenty of kids who would shovel your driveway for $30, but waiting for someone to knock on your door after the snow fall seems like a pretty unreliable strategy.
December 22, 2009, 1:16 pmFedya says:
Perhaps you all need a Wovel. ;-)
(I’m still not certain whether the Wovel is real, or just a really good hoax.)
December 22, 2009, 1:56 pmJames says:
I live in a solidly middle-class neighborhood in Fairfax, VA and I saw at least two pick-up trucks of day laborers knocking on the doors of unshoveled houses looking for work while I was out shoveling my driveway.
I’m guessing that our neighborhood attracted laborers because it was close to a main artery and the local roads were very well plowed because it is on an express Metro Bus route. I would bet that the farther removed your street is from the key roads, the less likely that laborers made it to your area.
December 22, 2009, 2:41 pmwws says:
“Sparky: P.S. Teenagers have to “develop shoveling skills”? Are you kidding me?”
“Yes, sparky, there are techniques to manual labor that make it more efficient.”
So what, do you take classes at DeVry for that?
and here I thought a shoveler got more efficient by going out and doing it and figuring it out themselves – if they can’t, well then they work a little more than those who can.
December 22, 2009, 4:22 pmCrunchy Frog says:
A 3L?
December 22, 2009, 4:47 pmsmurfy says:
Were you advertising? Do you really want someone coming door-to-door selling vacuums? Wouldn’t it be a lot more comfortable for you to order one online, when and if you need it? I don’t think the enterprising door-to-door salesman is something we should be encouraging our kids to become.
I am quite the Boy Scout when it snows too, but I always worry I am opening myself up to personal injury liability by making other people’s walks more slippery than they were when I arrived.
December 22, 2009, 7:17 pmsmurfy says:
sorry John, I screwed up the double quote and miss-attributed the first one to you.
December 22, 2009, 7:18 pmsoccer dad says:
I live in not too distant Baltimore, but there are no shortage of entrepreneurs who canvas the neighborhood.
December 22, 2009, 8:31 pmpot meet kettle says:
well, the kids of welfare queens can’t really drive their gold plated cadillacs to work in the snow, can they?
December 22, 2009, 8:53 pmChrisIowa says:
Not all of what can be called skills are learned in school.
December 22, 2009, 9:10 pmDouglas2 says:
Well in my town, I suppose that they don’t come knocking on doors because of the law that bars hawkers, solicitors, and peddlers from doing so.
December 22, 2009, 10:38 pmRoger Sweeny says:
I live in a middle-class neighborhood near Boston and work with a lot of similarly situated people. After the big storm last week, many were observing that no one came around offering to shovel and that the situation had changed over the decades.
Why? As JK mentions, many people now pre-contract for the winter with someone who owns a plow-blade, the same way they now pre-contract for the summer with someone who has power equipment to take care of their yard. These are often the same people. Interestingly, they substitute capital for labor.
Perhaps as important, young people are not nearly so comfortable on the streets nowadays. They are driven to and then drive themselves to activities. Your neighborhood is not a place you play in and know the people in. Grabbing a shovel and knocking on nearby doors is not an idea that comes naturally.
And I suspect many residents are less than thrilled about strangers showing up at their front door.
December 24, 2009, 1:08 pmThe Hedgehog Concept. says:
This was what I needed to know. I love this kind of inside info.
January 24, 2010, 7:00 pmThe Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Snowmaggedon and Snow-Shoveling Entrepreneurship says:
[...] why there weren’t any teenagers going around door to door offering snow-shoveling services. I pointed out that kids in other parts of the country do in fact do this, and that it wasn’t happening in [...]
February 10, 2010, 10:26 pm