71–80 of 162 posts
Honesty boxes are common here in UK countryside too. Same as any country tho', it probably wouldn't work in the towns and cities. I guess the number of people in a city make it more likely that there'd be enough 'cheaters' to ruin the whole enterprise and not make it worthwhile.
My first exposure to the honor system was at Caltech. It worked very well there, and it was really nice to not have to obsessively lock your dorm room door every time you walk out. I've since used the honor system in my business dealings, and it works well enough to allow me to continue with it.
One of the reasons this worked so well at Caltech was that every freshman's first night included an introduction to lock picking. If you locked your door, you might expect a polite note like "I noticed your door was locked. Thanks, it gave me a chance to test my lock picking skills."
My favorite was the bathroom, which had a sign on it with a rotating pointer, and 4 quadrants labelled:
1. men
2. women
3. don't know
4. don't care
where you selected one on entry. For the 70s, it was way ahead of its time :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, and the next logical question would be: what has changed in Geneva these past 30 years? Hints: individualism, globalization, multiculturalism. My father told me that when he served for our national army back then, soldiers just left their weapons alone in front of the train station while they were having a coffee before going into the train.
Other hints: increased population, increased levels of education, more flavors of ice cream available...
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/08/foreigners-make-...
IQ scores are falling and have been for decades, new study finds:
https://www.sciencealert.com/iq-scores-falling-in-worrying-r...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Geneva thirty years ago there were newspapers for sale on the street using this system.
Yes, and the next logical question would be: what has changed in Geneva these past 30 years? Hints: individualism, globalization, multiculturalism. My father told me that when he served for our national army back then, soldiers just left their weapons alone in front of the train station while they were having a coffee before going into the train.
As a Swiss guy, I must say I only see this in rural areas. It wouldn't work in big cities like Geneva I think (too many people living in urban areas who don't respect our wonderful country and that's a shame).
This is actually fairly common in rural areas in America too. Maybe someone sets up a bunch of pumpkins, apples, etc at the end of their driveway (which in rural America can be measured in KM) and a box to put money in.
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.249591,-121.909198,240m/data...
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x808e340f2c491c5...
Sometimes there will be someone out at their fruit stand, but most of the time it runs on the honor system with a money slot where you pay for your produce.
I ran into this in California at a small farm along Highway 1 a few miles north of Santa Cruz. It's a scenic ocean side rural locale but near all the big Bay Area cities and frequented by day visitors from there. There was a shack with a good variety of their produce laid out, with price labels. Up front there was a cash box, with about $40 already in it, and a sign that said pay here. This was late '90s. I really ho…
I never thought it was strange or newsworthy as a result.
The book "Freakonomics" details a similar bagel-selling system, where they would put bagels in the break room of workplaces, and you would pay on the honor system. After years of collecting data, the owner realized he had been doing a real-time, real-life experiment on how honest people are. You don't know WHO took without paying, but you can tell HOW MANY of your bagels were paid for. There's analysis of how it vari…