Urban legend in New York.
A few years ago a Southern kid got a scholarship to Columbia University. Their dad loaded up the pickup truck and drove them to New York. Driving back to get to the bridge, Dad got lost and ended up on the Upper East Side. It happened to be trash night. Dad saw a half dozen air conditioners being thrown out, as well as a few other nice things. He loaded everything into the pickup and drove back home. A little work and he had six working air conditioners.
He ended up renting a cheap garage in Brooklyn and went out 'hunting' in the rich neighborhoods every trash night. Resold the stuff and made a tidy pile.
Less legendary, but I was there for this one:
Had to rent a truck at the end of college to move myself and two friends out of an apartment. We swung by the main campus on our way out to find, as many know, literally everything you might think of just laying in piles. Since we had extra space in the truck we loaded in around 25 TVs and computer monitors, an air conditioner, and a few decent-quality pieces of furniture. The screens we sold for cash when we got to our destination, and I had the furniture for probably 10 years.
The stuff people through out because it's inconvenient to keep or transport is mind-boggling.
Manufactured Scarcity is easier to maintain than actual scarcity when you've been dumbing down and radicalizing the religiously terrified half of the population for generations — if not centuries, NGL.
