Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous

#561

Post by Kalium » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 11:49 PM UTC

LMYahooTFY wrote: post #560

Kalium wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! You're very right. I've not communicated well. Please allow me to clarify. I should rephrase: this is the first experience I've had of what is commonly described as "community". I hope that clarifies matters. I am not describing a community encountered as an artifact. I am describing the experience of being a member of a community . I hope this helps! Do let me know if I can help clarify more. The comment…

And thank you for your reception and elaboration. It seems as though we are illuminating more nuance of the varied interaction and outcome of communal constructs. I find what you've elaborated to be true and insightful, and reminds me that our perspective can always miss significant factors that may determine our outlook to be optimistic or pessimistic. I wonder if what the aforementioned comment suggested is still u…

> I wonder if what the aforementioned comment suggested is still unresolved; would some or all of us lose incentive and/or mechanisms that temper and shape our proclivity to compromise and coexist despite still unaltered and conflicting values and behaviors?

Would some of us lose the pressure to conform? Yes. And I think this is all to the better.

Ultimately, I think that conformity is what this entire conversation is all about. I do not value conformity and I reject the notion that forcing people to conform is a societal gain.

Re: Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous

#562

Post by olleromam91 » Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 2:39 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #167

This is beyond ridiculous. The crux of the article is: > Each of these changes is beneficial, yet I worry that Americans are, slowly but surely, losing their connection to the idea of private ownership. The nation was based on the notion that property ownership gives individuals a stake in the system. It set Americans apart from feudal peasants, taught us how property rights and incentives operate, and was a kind of…

Record companies own music...do they not have stake in the system?

Re: Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous

#563

Post by c22 » Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 5:23 AM UTC

dionidium wrote: post #532

c22 wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I meet my friends at a public bar it is always very loud and I have trouble hearing them. Some of my friends zone out watching the sports on the tvs. Some of my friends are always trying to pick up a date. A couple of my friends completely detest the experience and wont even show up. At the end of the night I'm out $40-$50 and I have to figure out a way to get home. When I hang out with the same friends at their…

We're way off in the weeds now, but you've described a bad bar. There are more than 60 thousand of them in the U.S. Go to a better one.

I was generalizing for rhetorical effect. I've been to hundreds of bars and it's true that they don't all have sports on TV, or TVs at all, but they all have some feature that impacts my ability to enjoy myself in the company of my friends. I have had some enjoyable solo bar experiences, as well as visits with a singular friend.

Re: Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous

#564

Post by dijit » Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 9:07 AM UTC

ModernMech wrote: post #52

dijit wrote: post #22

I share the observation that we are living in a "rent economy" of the things we pay for, especially intellectual property or creative works. I've noticed it happening slowly over time, but there are dangers[0] even if you believe you "own" your media. There are no good solutions, people are willing to trade ownership for convenience because /mostly/ you're getting the same value- why do you care if you can't access t…

I'm exactly the opposite. I'm happy that all my media is digital. If it's gone one day, I'll find new media to love and enjoy. If it's something I can't live without, I might hang on to it for a while, but I've been around long enough now that I know something I "can't live without" today is just another thing that will be forgotten and replaced eventually. I've found that every physical thing I own has an ongoing co…

You misunderstood my comment; I don't mind if it's Digital, but I want to -own- the digital copy.

then, yes, there's the ongoing cost of storing it and backing up, but not cleaning it, and most digital media is easy to sort and find..

Re: Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous

#565

Post by ryanwaggoner » Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 2:03 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #558

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having made the jump, this mentality seems insane to me :) Spotify is $10 / month, the price of one album. For that, I get an essentially infinite [1] library of music that's basically always available to me whenever I want, curated playlists, discovery features, sharing features [2], etc, etc. It all just works, I never have to think about it, etc. By contrast, unless I'm pirating music, what does $10 get me? An alb…

You're forgetting the price of your cellular data plan. Bandwidth isn't free.

Mine is!

I signed up for an insane promo with Sprint in December where we switched from Verizon and got 13 months of unlimited everything (except 4G tethering, I think that's capped at 10gb per month) for free.

Honestly though, we don't use all that much bandwidth anyway. I'm usually on wifi and for the times that I'm not going to be, my playlists and podcasts download in the background when I am.

Re: Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous

#566

Post by znpy » Fri, Aug 17, 2018, 7:45 PM UTC

supernovae wrote: post #311

ryandrake wrote: post #241

I’m surprised at the criticism here and I think the critics are missing the author’s point. He’s not saying, “buy more stuff you don’t need” or even, “possess more stuff.” He’s saying, “you ought to own the stuff you possess.” Which I didn’t think was a controversial opinion but I guess I stand corrected. I might be an outlier. I make a deliberate effort to own instead of rent. My commute is enormous because I moved…

What is the value of "owning" something? I've owned VHS's, they're worthless I've owned houses - that I had to short sell I've owned DVD's - they're worthless I've owned Books - they're worthless What is the value of owning over just paying to enjoy access? I like spotify because i can sync music to my phone to play offline - but "owning" all this music is worthless... I had a HUGE cd collection growing up but they w…

> I've owned VHS's, they're worthless

Just keep them long enough, one day some hipster will come out and claim that "vintage" technology has something more than modern technology... Just like what happened with vinil disks /s