7 ms·
You'll own nothing and be happy
- ftxbro 3y agoi feel like ones saying this are the same ones telling us to eat bugs and live in pods
- rideontime 3y agoThen you've completely missed the point. > Auken later added an author's note to the story responding to critics, stating that it is not her "utopia or dream of the future", and that she intended for the essay to start discussions about technological development.
- anoonmoose 3y agoConfirmation bias + thanks for demonstrating exactly why this shouldn't have been posted on HN
- JohnFen 3y agoSo, nobody of consequence then? Because I haven't heard anyone demanding that I eat bugs and live in pods.
- ftxbro 3y ago> I haven't heard anyone demanding that I eat bugs and live in pods. they aren't demanding it, and it will always be framed as a choice. like how usa health insurance is a choice
- EddieEngineers 3y agoBefore people see this and immediately dive into the comments about the WEF, make sure to read the actual essay by Ida Auken. It was never meant to be some dystopian plan but a thought experiment on a gig economy that grew more famous than it should have. Edit: One thing I've noticed on HN is the dislike of 'Own nothing and be happy' while celebrating gig-economy companies that are essentially empowering this. Startups renting clothing or furniture in SF, at scale, combined with UBI (or benefits common in the part of Europe she's from) is what this article was thinking about.
- nailer 3y agoDirect link: https://web.archive.org/web/20161125135500/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/shopping-i-can-t-really-remember-what-that-is https://web.archive.org/web/20161125135500/https://www.wefor...
- VoodooJuJu 3y agoNo planner ever means for their plan to be dystopian. On the contrary, the planner likely has nothing but the best intentions. But intentions don't make their plan non-dystopian.
- at_a_remove 3y agoThis is something I always highlight. Grab your standard dystopian sci-fi, check the back history and realize that someone thought that something very much like it was a Grand Idea. Implementation details got in the way, sure, but damn, this system is so fine that hardly anyone could object, and you know what to do with people who object to Utopia.
- hdjjhhvvhga 3y agoWhile I agree with the spirit of your comment, in practice it wouldn't really be fair to blame Marx for Stalin and Mao.
- nailer 3y agoThe communist manifesto is a very reductionist view of economics that lends itself to false oppressor class/oppressed class narratives. Large scale death (not just Stalin and Mao but Pol Pot and many others) follows fairly easily from that narrative as the oppressed class can do no wrong.
- molotovh 3y agoNow if I could only remember what road it was that my mama said was paved with good intentions...
- 3y ago
- themodelplumber 3y ago> Monck said that the WEF removed all media related to Auken's essay from its web site "because of the online abuse and threats she had faced."[10] This brought to mind those who hold the opinion that "ideas are worthless". Mainly because Auken's idea seems quite potent all by itself, without anyone ever really seeing the implementation.
- warning26 3y agoWhy is this even notable enough to have its own Wikipedia article? Seems like bait for insane conspiracy theorists.
- blacksmith_tb 3y agoThe wiki article seems useful for understanding the origin of the conspiracy theories, so in that sense it's a good reference?
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoOne thing's for sure. If wikipedia were to delete his article, it could only lessen the intensity of the conspiracy theories surrounding the incident. Every Qanon moonbat would take the article deletion as the consensus decision that it wasn't notable, and then focus on more important things.
- warning26 3y agoHah, that is a very good point! I stand corrected!
- bjt2n3904 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoWe've banned this account for using HN primarily (exclusively?) for ideological battle and ignoring our request to stop. That's not allowed here, regardless of your ideology. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- bjt2n3904 3y agoMy (near decade long) comment history speaks for itself. I do not primarily use HN for a culture war, but I do engage it. Despite how I try to avoid the culture war, it beat a path to my door, and threatens my livelihood. Something something, "and when they came for me, there was no one left to speak". I maintain that I'm being banned -- not for engaging in the already present ideological battle on HN, but merely for engaging on the wrong side of it.
- dang 3y agoEvery passionate ideologue says that when we ban them, and of course the feeling is understandable—in fact it seems to be irresistible (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22always%20feels%22%20mods%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). But the truth is we've banned plenty of users with the opposing ideology to yours, and they complain about it bitterly also. Here's are some related comments with plenty of examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35668572 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35668572 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870
- m463 3y agoI think Kevin Kelley explored this in one of his books. What if you rented everything? I think owning things is basically the only way to fight rent seeking.
- VoodooJuJu 3y agoIt can't stop at simply just owning things, need to own good quality things, because a lot of things are built with planned obsolescence, which is still a form of rent-seeking. Explicitly renting things is almost preferable because it's more honest, rather than obfuscate the rent-collection behind planned obsolescence. But superior to both is owning quality things.
- JohnFen 3y agoYour point is well taken, but even in a world of planned obsolescence there's a significant different between owning and not owning. If I own the thing, I can do anything I want with it. If I don't, I can't.
- pickledish 3y agoGood repairability would be another way to combat it! "Buying stuff that lasts forever" and "buying stuff you can fix when it breaks" are both good ways to avoid the cycle of temporary crap
- fuckyah 3y ago[dead]
- rsynnott 3y ago> Auken had previously written in 2014 about a hackathon at the WEF that proposed "FridgeFlix", a startup that would allow users to lease all of their household appliances from a provider that would also service and upgrade these appliances. This _kind_ of used to be how appliances worked in some countries; many people rented a TV and VCR and so on. At a certain point, the cost structures changed, it was cheaper to buy, and the appliance rental places largely went out of business. Arguably, this is a bit surprising, because equipment leasing for _companies_ is still big business. I assume someone will try the consumer version again sooner or later.
- majormajor 3y agoWashing machines/dryers are commonly rented in the US, especially in places where there isn't a long expected tenancy like apartments near campuses or other young-adult-heavy places. Fridges sometimes, but much less frequently. Save both the cost of the appliance plus the hassle of dealing with taking it cross country if you move far and were otherwise able to fit all your shit in a car. > "a provider that would also service and upgrade" The "and upgrade" part is a pure fantasy, though. Never seen one of those give you the good stuff!
- JohnFen 3y ago> The "and upgrade" part is a pure fantasy, though Dystopian fantasy, in my view. The trends of the software industry over the last several years have brought me to a place where "upgrading" is now a concept that fills me with dread.
- DethNinja 3y agoIs it possible to build a system where nobody owns private property but is happy? Very unlikely but theoretically possible. Main problem is that current ruling class is mostly comprised of psychopaths and what they actually mean is that “We will own everything, you will own nothing, and you will be happy or else!” I think “You will own nothing, and be happy” can be utopic but we will first need to eliminate genes that cause psychopathy first.
- incomingpain 3y ago>Is it possible to build a system where nobody owns private property but is happy? Very unlikely but theoretically possible. They exist all over Canada. They all start out lovey dovey, permaculture, etc and end up poverty stricken. Canada's recent success in reducing poverty has been 100% shutting these down.
- eesmith 3y agoCooperatives. The coop owns the building/land, and as a member you have the right to live there. > Research found that housing cooperatives had residents rate themselves as having the highest quality of life and housing satisfaction of any housing organization in the city. ... Other research has found that housing cooperatives tended to have higher rates of building quality, building safety, feelings of security among residents, lower crime rates, stable access to housing and significantly lower costs compared to conventional housing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_cooperative#Research_on_housing_cooperatives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_cooperative#Research_o...
- debacle 3y agoAs someone who considers himself an old school hacker, I'm anti-power and anti-establishment by my very nature. The WEF, G7, G20, etc, are powers' playground. And "mainstream altruism" is almost always terrifying to me as an individual. I don't consider myself a libertarian by any means, but I think modern society does need to give more credence to the individual.
- what-no-tests 3y agoI remember a Phillip K Dick story set in the future in which the characters in the story kept having to insert coins into their various household appliances to make them work. Not quite the same, but similar.
- agersant 3y agoThe name of the story is Ubik, in case anyone is looking for it.
- what-no-tests 3y agoWait -- why is this story "[flagged]"?
- dang 3y agoUsers flagged it. We can only guess why users flag things, but in this case I don't think it's hard to guess, since the topic is not only flamebait, it's a flamebait cliché. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- bjt2n3904 3y ago[flagged]
- EddieEngineers 3y agoI've noticed a few articles I would assume are okay have been flagged recently. I wish there was a view where you could see what had been flagged to check for bias.
- qingcharles 3y agoI'm wondering the same thing. I read the article. Nothing suspect there that I can see. Was thought-provoking.
- screye 3y agoOptimists always over play their hand. Convincing people in cities to not own cars would be the biggest win any of these global orgs can achieve. It is still likely impossible. But, it is an easier sell. Convincing people to use shared spaces instead of having their own lawns or shared parking instead of a garage is similarly a valuable goal. Both would be big steps in the 'own nothing' direction. It can easily be sold on its own. NYCers would choose an massive central park over a sq-ft each of private garden space any day. But these people have to try selling the most dystopian framing of such policy decisions, and the baby gets thrown out with the bath water.
- tonymet 3y agoWhat we need is to name the movements, name their proponents and debate them in public. Discussion, debate, referendum etc. Instead we have a lot of ethereal players pushing policy that's affecting billions without any democratic process