Shiny stuff and designer societies

28 Oct 2015

      New threat, this is offtopic.

So I think people took my meaning wrong. I meant to say "don't hate people
for behaving as the system rewards them to do", and then to ask "what kind
of system would make people behave as you like?".

2015-10-27 21:47 GMT+01:00 Shelley :
...
Suggestions, in no particular order:
I feel like you are ignoring the cost of time, underestimating people's
expenses, and arbitrarily hate cars and meat.
...
- Don't buy the newest iCrap (or car or tv) every time they shit one out:
you *don't * need it, I assure you.
For most "the latest iCrap" is not a significant expense. 200 euro's a
month or so (phone + laptop) is quite doable, especially given how much
time one spends with iCrap devices. Resale value is nonzero, too, so
really, quite doable.
...
- Learn how to fix and repurpose things.  Take good care of your things so
they last longer.
I know how to fix/repurpose most things. Actually fixing things often
doesn't compare favorably with just buying a new one - time spent at 10
euro's per hour makes most repairs very borderline effective.
...
- Freecycle, trade with others
Trade what? I do secondhand shopping and selling when appropriate, that
should be good too.
...
- Shop at second hand and thrift stores for most things.
Do, for the things it makes sense for. It takes more effort as you
frequently will not find what you were looking for. (protip: great for
amplifiers and speakers)
...
- Think before you buy.  Try to support true fair trade/fair wages and buy
locally whenever possible.  Hint: it's usually possible.
Fair trade/wages are determined by the capitalist market, not by me. I'm
simply not that arrogant. If you don't believe in markts you have more work
cut out for you than just buying fair trade branded products. (Protip:
fairtrade is just another way for things to be shiny)

Buying local is even more meaningless. If transport costs do not outweigh
production costs, go ferry it in from Australia, China, Chile, etc. You're
making the efficient choice by doing so.

- Use a bike or public transit whenever possible.  Get rid of your car and
...
use things like Zip Car for the few occasions when you need to use a
personal vehicle.  Share a car with friends if you truly need it for
kids/work/whatever.
Public transport or Zip Carring add to stress, cost more time, are not
reliable and are not portable storage. I'd like an electric car, but the
initial purchase is so high it skews things like tax and insurance.

Idk why you hate cars so much. They're pretty damn useful, give you lots of
freedom and independence, and just help you get around so much better than
public transport. Their prices also compare with other forms of transport.

(bikes are slow and only really work in villages or compatible cities)
...
- Prepare your own damn food.  Go vegan.
Preparing my own food is a waste of time, other people are cheaper, mass
production is cheaper, I'm very mediocre at cooking.

Going vegan is an interesting choice, all evidence points to it being much
much much better for the environment, etc. but meat is still quite
affordable and quite complimentary to meals. If it truly were 100x easier
on the environment I'd expect to see that in the price, and I hardly do. I
assume there's some sort of sponsoring going on, and until it stops I'll
keep on eating delicious and healthy meat.

(Hey, you asked for suggestions: these are mine.)

Thanks for playing :)

Razer mentioned a TV, I don't own one. I have a sizeable monitor. Much
prettier than most TVs. I might get a projector someday, it's fun to watch
movies together like that.

Razer also fuzzes about collectivism vs individualism. They used to have
collectivism in many nations. They all lost. I think a society design that
involves individual incentives (the best of capitalism; advanced finance,
legal persons, markets, competition), global optimization (the best of
communism; managed competition, fine tuned production, >designed markets<),
and collective ambition (the best of government/academia; being able to
strife together and make deep, long term investments) would be ideal.

Lodewijk andré de la porte

Razer

Juan

nonomos

Zenaan Harkness

Razer

rysiek

Razer

rysiek

tags

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