Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products • Hacker News Board

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#101

Post by paulie_a » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #93

rossdavidh wrote: post #75

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…

I worked somewhere that did this. Every month there was much more money left than bagels sold. We gossiped about this for a while. Eventually an anonymous note was left (paraphrased as best as I could remember): "Some people are forgetful or hungry or in a rush. I don't want these times to sour this workplace because people grow to think someone is stealing."

In the past I would round up because I don't carry change.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#102

Post by tomcam » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 10:58 PM UTC

Very common here in Western Washington (Microsoft country). We get honey, flowers, and produce that way

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#103

Post by rootusrootus » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 11:07 PM UTC

vram11 wrote: post #98

jt2190 wrote: post #16

Even retail establishments with staff and security systems balance the extra costs of these “loss prevention” measures against customer convenience. The goal is never perfect security but sufficient security. Large retailers typically set targets on loss and try to minimize them, within reason. Farm stands that operate like this have simply found a reasonable cost/benefit trade off. (There’s an apple orchard near Bos…

Loss from stealing was called 'shrinkage' by retail industry people, in Sam Walton's autobiography 'Made in America'. As you say, they expected to have some. I wonder why it can't be prevented 100%.

Because stopping retail theft 100% requires an inconvenience to normal customers that is off-putting and will cause them to go somewhere else.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#104

Post by cameronbrown » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 11:10 PM UTC

girvo wrote: post #94

sunseb wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean that at all! I am simply suggesting that mixing multiple cultures, religions and belief systems is harmful to the identity and the self-trust of a nation. For example, in my city, they are building new pavements. They are building them high enough so a crazy Islamic guy can't run into pedestrians with his car (like one did in France and in Germany). As a Swiss citizen, I have the right to say I am not ha…

Van attacks aren’t limited to Islamic extremism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_van_attack

Sample size n=1 there especially when there are many more examples of the opposite.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#105

Post by gumby » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 11:21 PM UTC

Not sure what’s so extraordinary about this — I’ve used such rural systems in France, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the USA.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#106

Post by markvdb » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 11:34 PM UTC

sunseb wrote: post #74

lazyasciiart wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other hints: increased population, increased levels of education, more flavors of ice cream available...

Foreigners now account for 80% of the prison population in Switzerland: 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... https://brainstats.com/average-iq-by-country.html

Please vet your sources if you want an audience here.

Whatever message you wanted to get across drowned because of the Breitbart quote.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#107

Post by sunseb » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 11:54 PM UTC

markvdb wrote: post #106

sunseb wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreigners now account for 80% of the prison population in Switzerland: 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... https://brainstats.com/average-iq-by-country.html

Please vet your sources if you want an audience here. Whatever message you wanted to get across drowned because of the Breitbart quote.

Sorry I didn't know Breitbart. I posted a link to this website, because it was in English and most of the sources I have are from Swiss newspapers (in French or in German). For example, this link (from the Swiss national TV) :

https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/fribourg/9345276--les-prison...

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#108

Post by trash_44390 » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 12:03 AM UTC

radiator wrote: post #83

netsharc wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IS "globalization" and "multiculturalism" just euphimisms of "Those damn non-white people!"?

Different people have different honor systems, different cultures. Trick or treat? https://imgur.com/KJvJgT2

Different cultures produce different outcomes and arise from different biologies under the pressures of different environments.

We live in cowardly times where the instant gratification of believing you're the morally superior person outweighs everything else.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#109

Post by kenneth » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 12:03 AM UTC

sunseb wrote: post #8

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).

Being from Gimel (a small town in Vaud), a lot of the stories in the article remind me of happy memories growing up.

Switzerland has been struggling with an identity crisis of late as a lot of poorer immigrants from war-torn places (Albania when I was growing up, Maghreb and Middle East now) have been moving in to the cities, oftentimes not respecting our old traditions. Theft and petty crime is on the rise, and almost always at the hands of those poorer immigrants. It's led to a backlash that hasn't really brought out the best in us.

It's sad to see the cohesion and trustworthiness of the Swiss society disappear, though I guess it was somewhat inevitable.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#110

Post by kenneth » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 12:08 AM UTC

Growing up in Switzerland, when we lived on the outskirts of Bern, we would get our milk from such a dispenser at a farm. It was a 5min walk to the farm, and we'd bring our own bottle and fill it up from a spout. The milk was fresh and unpasteurized, so we'd have to leet it sit in the fridge for a few hours to separate it from its cream.