Scrap (2006)
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Moxie Marlinspike recounts moving to Pittsburgh in winter and meeting scrappers.
Marlinspike shares a circa-2006 journal entry about moving to Pittsburgh from the West Coast, naively excited for winter. The unrenovated house lacked heat; he installed gas lines with frozen thread sealant. A cast-iron bathtub placed outside vanished overnight, stolen for scrap metal. Months later, scrappers Ron and Wade hauled away another tub and a furnace for $0.04 per pound, nearly crushing him during a claustrophobic panic in the basement stairwell.
What commenters are saying
Commenters relate the story to modern scrap metal theft, noting copper at ~$5-6/lb drives theft of electrical equipment and train cables in Europe and Colombia. A subthread discusses the myth that poverty stems from laziness, arguing hard work alone does not guarantee wealth and that luck, risk, and inheritance play major roles.