One of those minor issues that add up: our council replaced its public library system that was basically functional with a alternative that hardly works. Their excuse was that the contract with the previous provider had expired and they had to justify value for money in awarding a new one. ‘Value for money’ inevitably translates as cheap and crappy.
This is such a familiar phenomenon across so many areas of public life. It's especially frustrating when libraries are affected, because they're already so under appreciated. (Also, apologies for not replying to this sooner!)
Wessie, thanks for the shout-out! As I've said, you're onto something really important. It's a little to easier to say "bureaucracy" or "capitalism." Cars may be built by accountants, one might say, but Ford and Daimler were businesses from the beginning. Let me suggest that early modernism relied upon a craft tradition (your piece on house building) that the 20th century did not really sustain, indeed struggled against in the name of democracy. So if social position is determined by job, and jobs are in principle open . . . symbol manipulation rises up the ladder. So you might not want to run a plumbing supply company in St Louis, but maybe you join a private equity firm that . . . runs a plumbing supply company. Thus what we might think of as the abstraction, and distance from the physical, and so the shoddiness of the material, stems from democratization itself. Maybe. Probably needs more thought. Again, keep up the great work.
You're right, this is another case of abstraction, dematerialisation, ephemeralisation, along multiple vectors. The link to democratisation is interesting, I hadn't quite considered it that way. Will give it some thought!
Agreed. The small annoyances and indignities are bad enough, but the way that our money is funneled away from our towns/cities and into the pockets of distant strangers, "investors", is the aspect that we're most likely to seriously regret. Once upon a time my purchases primarily enriched my neighbors and countrymen. The road we're on now will lead to some regrettable form of global feudalism. We grow the wheat but all we get is barley.
You're right to point out the subversion of the immediate community. An economy should allow some wealth, at least, to circulate and grow locally, rather than vanishing elsewhere.
This a very tricky situation. I would say very similar to the 'wheel of rights' the 'wheel of trade' has the same momentum. It can go only in one direction. It can only expand at the moment. When someone reverse the direction the effects can be unexpected. Let's say you want to be more local with your trade. But then how much should we limit? Where would we draw the line? Should you be able to buy vegetables and fruits from other places? If you need something for construction should you be able to buy materials from other places?
"They would notice that we have an economic model where, to put it bluntly, everything feels like a con"- Bravo bc it is and officials are in on it. It starts with them. They are Communists. It's by design and you government is selling citizens south so to speak to replace with people who won't ask questions. Just like the shady companies that employ them and cancel others. Look into data driven/ algorithmic hiring in conjuction to the social credit system and cancel culture. It's all connected and no complexity is allowed. You nailed it also, which is by design the chat bots and customer service obstacles meant to tell you in the long run, bend over and take it. Citizen Slave and Big Daddy Govt is your master and their enforcers are the guards on prision planet. You exist for the consumption of big tech and Govt while you are stuck in survival mode. Enough people aren't pissed yet bc they aren't taking a birds eye view. Until all issues are identified and the root is identified politicians are essentially Dr's treating symptoms while slowly letting the cancer turn terminal bc they just want the pharma kickback and insurance bucks here in the states. Dr's are like politicians ie lawyers/ barristers taking lobbyist money and banking on the trust of the people to keep casting votes ie taking the pills they're told. Accountability or a reckoning needs to happen. They've got dual party systems to divide and keep the ouroborous of finger pointing alive so their access to and perception of having power is the illusion we see in savior complex politicians who are machine controlled. It starts and ends with people who are willing to coalesce to demanding Accountability based on things like the Constitution. Lots of Prince John's and nobody is serving a Magna Carta man.
Cheap, fast, good - choose two, they said.
But unfortunately you can only choose one and the British chose cheap.
Choosing cheap: so many of our problems stem from this simple mistake.
One of those minor issues that add up: our council replaced its public library system that was basically functional with a alternative that hardly works. Their excuse was that the contract with the previous provider had expired and they had to justify value for money in awarding a new one. ‘Value for money’ inevitably translates as cheap and crappy.
This is such a familiar phenomenon across so many areas of public life. It's especially frustrating when libraries are affected, because they're already so under appreciated. (Also, apologies for not replying to this sooner!)
Wessie, thanks for the shout-out! As I've said, you're onto something really important. It's a little to easier to say "bureaucracy" or "capitalism." Cars may be built by accountants, one might say, but Ford and Daimler were businesses from the beginning. Let me suggest that early modernism relied upon a craft tradition (your piece on house building) that the 20th century did not really sustain, indeed struggled against in the name of democracy. So if social position is determined by job, and jobs are in principle open . . . symbol manipulation rises up the ladder. So you might not want to run a plumbing supply company in St Louis, but maybe you join a private equity firm that . . . runs a plumbing supply company. Thus what we might think of as the abstraction, and distance from the physical, and so the shoddiness of the material, stems from democratization itself. Maybe. Probably needs more thought. Again, keep up the great work.
You're right, this is another case of abstraction, dematerialisation, ephemeralisation, along multiple vectors. The link to democratisation is interesting, I hadn't quite considered it that way. Will give it some thought!
Agreed. The small annoyances and indignities are bad enough, but the way that our money is funneled away from our towns/cities and into the pockets of distant strangers, "investors", is the aspect that we're most likely to seriously regret. Once upon a time my purchases primarily enriched my neighbors and countrymen. The road we're on now will lead to some regrettable form of global feudalism. We grow the wheat but all we get is barley.
You're right to point out the subversion of the immediate community. An economy should allow some wealth, at least, to circulate and grow locally, rather than vanishing elsewhere.
This a very tricky situation. I would say very similar to the 'wheel of rights' the 'wheel of trade' has the same momentum. It can go only in one direction. It can only expand at the moment. When someone reverse the direction the effects can be unexpected. Let's say you want to be more local with your trade. But then how much should we limit? Where would we draw the line? Should you be able to buy vegetables and fruits from other places? If you need something for construction should you be able to buy materials from other places?
"They would notice that we have an economic model where, to put it bluntly, everything feels like a con"- Bravo bc it is and officials are in on it. It starts with them. They are Communists. It's by design and you government is selling citizens south so to speak to replace with people who won't ask questions. Just like the shady companies that employ them and cancel others. Look into data driven/ algorithmic hiring in conjuction to the social credit system and cancel culture. It's all connected and no complexity is allowed. You nailed it also, which is by design the chat bots and customer service obstacles meant to tell you in the long run, bend over and take it. Citizen Slave and Big Daddy Govt is your master and their enforcers are the guards on prision planet. You exist for the consumption of big tech and Govt while you are stuck in survival mode. Enough people aren't pissed yet bc they aren't taking a birds eye view. Until all issues are identified and the root is identified politicians are essentially Dr's treating symptoms while slowly letting the cancer turn terminal bc they just want the pharma kickback and insurance bucks here in the states. Dr's are like politicians ie lawyers/ barristers taking lobbyist money and banking on the trust of the people to keep casting votes ie taking the pills they're told. Accountability or a reckoning needs to happen. They've got dual party systems to divide and keep the ouroborous of finger pointing alive so their access to and perception of having power is the illusion we see in savior complex politicians who are machine controlled. It starts and ends with people who are willing to coalesce to demanding Accountability based on things like the Constitution. Lots of Prince John's and nobody is serving a Magna Carta man.