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So thieves broke into your storage unit again

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Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nearby park has tons of space with grass. And why would I want space for a vehicle when I have public transportation that is much faster?

[flagged]

>dont have to be screamed at by a crazy homeless person on the train

This was a great reminder of how differently public transport is perceived in different places. Don't recall the last time I've seen someone (much less a homeless person) scream there, maybe once >10 years ago? (for reference, I commute by public transport every day)

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#202

I’m stunned by the idea of making the pawn shop whole. As I understand UK law, if you buy stolen goods, the original owner can just claim it back and you take the loss - simply to discourage buying with knowledge it was stolen. I guess the pawn shop would go out of business but it does seem if you let them act as a fence you are solving for the wrong problem

Often there is a fairly large delta between what they pay and what the sell for, I always assumed part of that premium was absorbing some risk the item was stolen and would have to be returned. Under this system, why not buy stolen goods and try your luck?

"Oh hello guy who looks like he sleeps rough, I would love to buy your thousands of dollars worth of power tools that you can't even tell me what they are for pennies on the dollar."

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#203
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow the logic? How does above-market-value insurance discourage people from having insurance? I don't get the comparison to gambling either, that reads more like an appeal to emotion than actual reasoning.

As for gambling. The point isn't gambling is evil, but that others think gambling is evil, so being associated with gambling is bad for business.

If it's bad for business then don't do it? That doesn't justify an international code.

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#204
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't have space in your apartment or home for items you want to keep, then where else are you supposed to store things? On ebay? Sell the stuff now, buy it again if you need it. Doesn't work for everything, of course, and I don't practice it, I've got tons of space and tons of clutter.

So you're going to sell your surfboard and buy new ski equipment every winter, and sell your skis and buy a new surfboard every summer? As well as the rest of your bulky seasonal gear? Sounds expensive.

Surfboards mounted on the wall are a common decoration, so there is off season storage.

You can rent skis for a season for $400, I suspect most rental places are than $100/month.

But skis especially can usually fit in the back of a closet or under a bed.

Kayak? Get a season pass for the rental place.

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#205
post #85

Don’t buy insurance from the same company giving you the service. Insurance is for you and you should pick it from your own choice of company and you should tailor the policy for your own needs. Same with financing. In my case, I get a lot of my insurance from a guy in my town and he has an office that I can walk into if I need help.

How to with rental cars? I don't own and no local insurers will offer me non-owner insurance. I have to get the crappy expensive insurance at the rental car desk.

There are yearly policies you can get if you just rent cars. GEICO has them for example

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#206
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? My understanding is that overfishing and climate change are prime and valid examples of the tragedy of the commons. You seem to be claiming that the problem is with systems of management, but the entire point of the tragedy of the commons is that it happens when there isn't management. Which is abundantly the case at the global level of international waters and a shared atmosphere, because there is…

The planet's air and international waters are truly public resources, at least currently. I'm not sure if I would call them a commons. Speaking of which, Elinor Ostrom's book, Governing the Commons, outlines the conditions for the successful management of a commons. Notably neither private ownership nor governmental control is ideal, the best outcomes are by cooperative organizations where those with a direct stake i…

> I'm not sure if I would call them a commons.

I don't understand why not. That's the literal definition of a commons in the political economy sense -- a public resource everyone can take from freely. (As opposed to a public resource that is managed via licenses, auctions, limits, etc.) On what basis would you not call them a commons, in political economy?

The entire point of the "tragedy of the commons" is the tragedy of overfishing, the tragedy of CO2 levels, because nobody is in charge of managing it.

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#207

The storage unit industry is one of the most awful, customer hostile industries I've encountered. It's impossible to get the local facility on the phone, publicly listed phone numbers are all redirected to a national call center where reps are unable to even accurately quote prices. TFA covers the insurance kickback scam. Then after I moved into my unit, I discovered 75% of the units in my facility could be broken in…

I think there are three use cases:

1. You are temporarily moving to a place outside your local area, or to a much smaller place. I was moving around for a year and a half, so I left my furniture and non-valuables in a storage unit until I would be settled again.

2. You live in a small unit in a big city. $100-$150 for an extra 50 square feet a month might be cheaper than the equivalent space and is a great choice for occasionally used items. if it's 4 dollars a square foot for living space or 2 dollars a square foot for storage space, that's a deal.

3. Short term holding: You're moving out of your rental in July, in AirBnbs until September when you've closed on your house.

If you're in a suburban house and don't have enough space, that's a bad reason to have a storage unit.

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How to with rental cars? I don't own and no local insurers will offer me non-owner insurance. I have to get the crappy expensive insurance at the rental car desk.

> How to with rental cars? Some credit cards like American Express offer their own insurance as part of the membership fee as long as you pay for the rental with their card, and decline the coverage offered by the rental car company.

This is typically (including in the case of AmEx) collision insurance only, not liability insurance. You still need liability insurance from somewhere.

Re: So thieves broke into your storage unit again

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that there is a distinct group of people who commit all the crimes (as was suggested), and we can solve the problem of crime by locking all of them up, than you are mistaken. Or rather, that group is "everyone." It's an easy trap to fall into for two reasons. It would appear that you and those you know aren't capable of being criminals. This is more comforting than it is true. Everyone, including good pe…

> Everyone has the potential to do something horrible; the problem of evil isn't that it's present in a certain group who we can imprison, the problem is that it's present in us all. But some people are actually more predisposed towards criminality than others. We aren't blank slates.

The extent to which criminality (or any particular human behavior) is driven by circumstance or "nature" is (and for millenia has been) a matter for considerable debate.

It's clear that both contribute, which is important because that means there are neither "ur-criminals" nor "not-criminals". While some may, by their nature, be more likely to commit a certain type of crime, none are free from the possibility of doing so under some circumstances.

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