This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Growing up, there was an association in my area for common ownership of different types of machinery and other equipment for its members. You paid something like $10 a year, and for that you got to borrow all kinds of things you might need as a home owner, like a wood chopper/splitter, high pressure washer, trailers, leaf blowers, cement mixer, scaffolding etc.
I always thought that was brilliant.
Wait is this trying to suggest just renting is the same thing as a library?
The benifit of a library is you share the cost as a group and get some fractional use of it. Like books that you only really need access to for small amount of time.
Its not the same as say Amazon owning the book rental space and choosing, without any choice on your point, on what books are there or who could get access to them.
Obligatory Library Socialism Link: https://librarysocialism.org/
In the simplest terms, the right of usufruct means you can use things, but you cannot deny them to others when you're not using them, and you do not have the right to destroy them to prevent others from using them. So, for example, the farmer is welcome to grow crops on a given plot of land - but if they choose not to, somebody else can use the land.
Given this, it's easy to see that this principle already exists in public libraries. You can borrow a book to help you start a business, but you can't prevent others from reading it after you - or threaten to destroy the book unless you receive the profits of the next reader's business. You can hold the book exclusively (of other library patrons), but only temporarily.
i thought this was called having neighbors? Nonetheless, i'm not complaining. Less waste is better waste.
I should start my own rental thing. I tend to buy what I need for DIY projects and I'm on the build up of tools phase. I can pretty much build my own house if I wanted, or fix anything in my car. So I got a number of toys just catching dust most of the time. But toys are fun.
"Honey there's no way I'm letting you pay $200 for that bookshelf I could build myself, once I buy $150 in materials and $700 in tools"
People who own tools tend to build more then one thing.
That's true, but there's plenty of people like myself who buy heaps of tools with the intention of building all the things but just never get around to it.
Not sure if dystopia
It's dystopic if most can only afford to rent what they always need. IMO being able to rent something you rarely need is a good thing.
I'd much rather have my car for day to day driving and rent something with more space the few times I need to move something that won't fit in my car. Even better would be to have ride share programs to use for medium loads and reliable mass transit for trips where I don't have much to move.
it's not dystopic in the sense that companies are selling tools to people who don't need tools for an extremely prolonged time.
That would be fucking dystopic, being forced to buy tools you don't need, because it's the only option to get them.
Even better would be that Arcimoto MUV thing. Sadly it appears they went bankrupt
36 GBP a month for 10 items of kids clothes? That's 432 GBP a year. I'd think you could easily buy many more than 10 items of clothes for that amount and other than kids under 3 I don't think you'd need to replace them more than annually.
The subscription's 10 items per month, not per year, and return the next month. Babies outgrow really quickly when they're young.
According to Or Collective’s website, I have saved £640 over the past two months. Not that I would have ever spent that much - the clothes I borrow from brands such as Bobo Choses and Tinycottons are much pricier than I’d ever be able to justify, which is part of the service’s appeal. My daughter is far better dressed than I am as a result. That said, you can buy them at a reduced price if you become particularly attached.
Yeah I could see it for very young babies where you may need to change things every few months. But after 2-3 years old I don't see it making sense.
