Social Evolution

[Sommerswerd]

Here's a fourth, commercial entities cannot own residential property except for controlled exceptions. Hurts liquidity but also keeps prices and monopolizing low.

So no apartment buildings?

How about... stores with self-checkout machines must have at least one paid attendant working at the register for every 2 machines. No more having a dozen automated checkouts with only one cashier. Or maybe a law that you must have at least one cashier with an open checkout lane for every self-checkout machine that is turned on. So if you want to have 10 self-checkout machines running, you must also have 10 cashier's lanes open at the same time.

Another one... companies with 20 employees or more cannot use automated answering services (ie "press 1 for X"). A live person must be hired to answer the phone or any calls you receive must go straight to voicemail. Also, maybe the phone answering person would be required to be located domestically, as in inside the country where the call is coming from.

One more... no more self-serve gas. New Jersey already does this and its fine, so it can definitely work.

I'd love to hear thoughts on these because stuff often sounds good when its just in your head, but then people can point out obvious flaws you might have missed.

 

[Gori the Grey]

You have no power here, Gori the Grey!

You. Shall. Not. Post. on communism in the Trump Indicated thread

 

[Hygro]

So no apartment buildings?

How about... stores with self-checkout machines must have at least one paid attendant working at the register for every 2 machines. No more having a dozen automated checkouts with only one cashier. Or maybe a law that you must have at least one cashier with an open checkout lane for every self-checkout machine that is turned on. So if you want to have 10 self-checkout machines running, you must also have 10 cashier's lanes open at the same time.

Another one... companies with 20 employees or more cannot use automated answering services (ie "press 1 for X"). A live person must be hired to answer the phone or any calls you receive must go straight to voicemail. Also, maybe the phone answering person would be required to be located domestically, as in inside the country where the call is coming from.

One more... no more self-serve gas. New Jersey already does this and its fine, so it can definitely work.

I'd love to hear thoughts on these because stuff often sounds good when it’s just in your head, but then people can point out obvious flaws you might have missed.

So controlled exceptions would have to be figured out for apartments, but I bet if you just controlled single family homes it would hold down prices.

Definitely not into needing an attendant for my gas. Not excited to regulate the other two but I could be convinced

 

[amadeus]

So no apartment buildings?

No, but there would be an awful lot of new hotels that offer unusually long-term stays.

 

[Remorseless1]

Frankly I think we're deluding ourselves thinking human societies has evolved. Given the rampant brutality, oppression, and corruption across the globe, I think we have better toys but otherwise we've barely moved past the Bronze Age.

 

[E.man]

Frankly I think we're deluding ourselves thinking human societies has evolved. Given the rampant brutality, oppression, and corruption across the globe, I think we have better toys but otherwise we've barely moved past the Bronze Age.

Just a bunch a monkeys.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I like to imagine a group of posters in the 1550s who post by nailing scribbled papers to the door of their local church, arguing about how capitalism could happen and whether it was possible

I just had a mental image of the populace of CFCOT, plus A&E and World History, all nailing messages on parchment to the church door, arguing over whether or not pineapple is an acceptable pizza topping.

Frankly I think we're deluding ourselves thinking human societies has evolved. Given the rampant brutality, oppression, and corruption across the globe, I think we have better toys but otherwise we've barely moved past the Bronze Age.

We've moved past it somewhat, or at least some regions have.

 

[uppi]

Another one... companies with 20 employees or more cannot use automated answering services (ie "press 1 for X"). A live person must be hired to answer the phone or any calls you receive must go straight to voicemail.

Effect: All calls will go to voice mail and are then interpreted by an AI with varying rates of correctness.

 

[Kyriakos]

It might be too detached to speak of actual communism, since not many want it nor is it similar to the existent historical communism (USSR, Maoist China), which itself arguably wasn't as hardcore as the anti-urban communism of its visionaries.
For better or worse, any human future barring major catastrophe, will be even more urbanized than now.

 

[Narz]

People are moving more and more away from social life into virtual social life. The town square is now online, when people think of communities they're a part of they think of their discord server. Which is depressing and disempowering cause your community doesn't even know you and can vanish in an instant

It also makes being out more boring. If you go somewhere and everyone on their phones you'll probably go on as well cause you're not getting much from the real world.

I noticed this trend as early as 2008 (not w smartphones). I'd remembered staying in hostels on a bike trip in 1992 and it being fun, social thing. But in '08 all the euros at the hostel were on their laptops w a couple tvs playing movies.

 

[Moriarte]

People are moving more and more away from social life into virtual social life.

Atomized communities are less likely to stir up any kind of revolution. A positive for the ruling class.

On the flip side, some of these "communities of similar interest" can grow quite large to become a frightful force.

But then this force is ultimately under control of corporations providing services, much like corporations are ultimately under government umbrella.

One possible solution would be - decentralized platforms for interaction.

However those are up for grabs for all kinds of unscrupulous individuals, like we see in crypto space.

No control. Free for all. Let's go.

And I really don't know what I'd prefer going forward - censorship city or free for all.

 

[Sommerswerd]

People are moving more and more away from social life into virtual social life. The town square is now online, when people think of communities they're a part of they think of their discord server. Which is depressing and disempowering cause your community doesn't even know you and can vanish in an instant

It also makes being out more boring. If you go somewhere and everyone on their phones you'll probably go on as well cause you're not getting much from the real world.

I noticed this trend as early as 2008 (not w smartphones). I'd remembered staying in hostels on a bike trip in 1992 and it being fun, social thing. But in '08 all the euros at the hostel were on their laptops w a couple tvs playing movies.

Happy 30k posts Narz!

 

[Farm Boy]

It might be too detached to speak of actual communism, since not many want it nor is it similar to the existent historical communism (USSR, Maoist China), which itself arguably wasn't as hardcore as the anti-urban communism of its visionaries.
For better or worse, any human future barring major catastrophe, will be even more urbanized than now.

The Hutterites are still closer to that "actual communism" than almost anything else I've seen. At least they're actually at scale with their 50,000.

 

[Narz]

Communalism might work on a small scale (ideally based on shared ideals rather than race or religion). Communism seems to inevitably corrupt and people have a natural drive to carve out a little more for themselves as soon as they're beyond sustenance. You could point to bushman and tribes like that with claims of egalitarianism but all the current hunter gatherers today only exist because they're on crummy land that no one bothered to snatch from them, on all sides are those who would exploit them, being aggressive in that context would only lead to ruin.

If people can get creative to take a lil extra for their family and their homies they will, it's what make life worth living. No one wants to be some equal basic b****. At best we want to be a little better than our neighbor and then be generous towards him.

Happy 30k posts Narz!

Oh thanks

 

[Sommerswerd]

So controlled exceptions would have to be figured out for apartments, but I bet if you just controlled single family homes it would hold down prices.

What about duplexes?

Definitely not into needing an attendant for my gas. Not excited to regulate the other two but I could be convinced

Well, of course, we are all so used to being able to pump our own gas (unless you live in New Jersey) that it seems like it would be a pain to require an attendant, but the point isn't necessarily to increase convenience and/or speed, the point is to brute force hundreds of thousands of jobs into the economy. I'd add a rule that stations with a convenience store would be required to have a minimum of 2 employees on duty, one for the store, and one for the gas.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In NM (and other places) some convenience stores have 20 or more pumps.

 

[RobAnybody]

Even the small BP convenience store down the street from me has 8 pumps & usually at least half are in use. If they started making me wait for somebody else to pump 4-7 other cars before getting to mine, I'd just go somewhere else that was self-serve.

Same for checkout lines at the grocery store. If a store doesn't have self-checkout options, I'll go somewhere else that does in the future.

 

[Hygro]

What about duplexes?

Well, of course, we are all so used to being able to pump our own gas (unless you live in New Jersey) that it seems like it would be a pain to require an attendant, but the point isn't necessarily to increase convenience and/or speed, the point is to brute force hundreds of thousands of jobs into the economy. I'd add a rule that stations with a convenience store would be required to have a minimum of 2 employees on duty, one for the store, and one for the gas.

These are not the jobs we want to brute force into the economy. It's inherently wasteful. It's a waste of human potential.

 

[Remorseless1]

In NM (and other places) some convenience stores have 20 or more pumps.

In Okiehoma, we call 'em "truck stops" and a good place to fill up your pickup while gettin' an ice old DP*

*Dr. Pepper.

 

[Farm Boy]

These are not the jobs we want to brute force into the economy. It's inherently wasteful. It's a waste of human potential.

<looks around> I see isolated people rearranging lights on plastic all day long.