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I believe that's a reasonable assumption for this discussion (that's not my personal opinion, btw). But trying to justify that statement will start a flame war

by NhanH 12y ago

I believe that's a reasonable assumption for this discussion (that's not my personal opinion, btw). But trying to justify that statement will start a flame war and distract from the topic, so let me try to say that sentence in another way: Parking spot is a commodity. And just like other commodity in life, everyone values it differently. What's wrong in letting people paying for what they think it's worth for? The rich will always have advantage in buying commodity, and that's a fundamental issue in our society, but that's an entirely separate problem to fix, and the solution isn't telling people to stop producing commodity. In this specific case of parking lot, it's bad either way because a private company is skimming profit from public space.

metaphorm 12y ago
"The rich will always have advantage in buying commodity, and that's a fundamental issue in our society, but that's an entirely separate problem to fix" its not at all an entirely separate problem to fix. society should not be structured so that rich people are always, fundamentally advantaged in every dimension. we should not commoditize everything.
- gjm11 12y ago
  Indeed we should not commoditize everything, but parking spots and restaurant reservations don't seem to me like great examples of things so important or fundamental that we should try hard to decouple them from money.
  - metaphorm 12y ago
    public parking spaces on city-owned land are part of the commons and are supplied as a public benefit by the city to the whole community. that is very much an example of things that should not be commoditized, or else we end up with yet another tragedy of the commons. restaurant reservations are not a public benefit, and I think its fine to commoditize them IF AND ONLY IF it can be done in a way that is fair to the restaurants and the customers. we shouldn't tolerate a service that is based on lying to restaurants.

by NhanH 12y ago

metaphorm 12y ago

"The rich will always have advantage in buying commodity, and that's a fundamental issue in our society, but that's an entirely separate problem to fix" its not at all an entirely separate problem to fix. society should not be structured so that rich people are always, fundamentally advantaged in every dimension. we should not commoditize everything.

gjm11 12y ago
Indeed we should not commoditize everything, but parking spots and restaurant reservations don't seem to me like great examples of things so important or fundamental that we should try hard to decouple them from money.
- metaphorm 12y ago
  public parking spaces on city-owned land are part of the commons and are supplied as a public benefit by the city to the whole community. that is very much an example of things that should not be commoditized, or else we end up with yet another tragedy of the commons. restaurant reservations are not a public benefit, and I think its fine to commoditize them IF AND ONLY IF it can be done in a way that is fair to the restaurants and the customers. we shouldn't tolerate a service that is based on lying to restaurants.