Do people really need this, is it good for a healthy life, or is it just a luxury? How much fault tolerance is there? Could another local business pick up the slack if this one closes? If not, where is the next-nearest place to get this good/service? Could most people make/do this for themselves? What will be the likely impact on local economy if it goes under? How integral is this to the town's identity, tourist appeal, etc.?
Losing one clothing store out of six is no big deal. Losing the only music store in the county is a real pain in the ass. Losing the only grocery store on the east side of town creates a food desert and is a PROBLEM. Losing the only health clinic in town, or only big hospital in the county, will kill some people.
>>I've heard advice suggesting people make down payments for things like wedding venues. Who knows when or if there can be a wedding at that venue, in the reserved timeframe? What is the refund policy? What happens if the company folds?<<
Typically all the risk is saddled on the renter, which I believe is wrong. The reason venues require downpayments is to hold a space so people don't blow them off. For a popular venue this makes some sense. The problem is that the downpayments are often abusively high. The sensible solution is to go somewhere that charges little or nothing to hold and use the space, such as a public park.
>>I don't mind interdependence; but I do mind being voluntold, being taken advantage of, and hypocrisy.<<
I agree. Healthy standards:
* All work is by free choice. Forcing people to work is labor abuse or slavery, and wrong.
* Reciprocity makes healthy relationships. One-way relationships are unhealthy.
* People should give and receive. Nobody should be a charity case or mooched off of.
* Favor-trading builds strong communities through human bonding. It is the foundation stone of civilization. Damage it and everything else suffers. As we are seeing.
I also feel that governments have equal responsibility to ALL citizens. This drives people batshit.
>>A lot of gov healthcare debates I've had with aquaintences have stonewalled a bit as soon as I mention that "Some people need Gov healthcare - how do you expect someone to pay half a million+ a year for medical expenses, on an average salary?" (I think they see such occurrences as exceptional exceptions, much like intelligent women in 1850. Humph!) <<
Nothing should cost so much that people can't afford health care. That is plain bad infrastructure. It is what we have here, and it murders a lot of people, both on and off government care.
The government doesn't give a fuck about you. Veterans get shitty care, for instance, and they of all people deserve the best. Government care might be better than nothing, or worse. Compare government eye care ("You might get glasses in 6 months.") to free market eye care ("Come back to pick up your glasses in 2 hours."). If you think the government doesn't let disabled people die, you've met different disabled people and read different articles than I have.
And what do you think will happen to women's health care if the government takes over? It's already run out so many abortion clinics from Texas that women are resorting to back-alley methods or buying PlanB online. As a result, Texas alone is tanking America's already disgraceful rates of pregnancy/birth related deaths among women and infants.
This is one of many reasons why lots of folks distrust government. So if you make government equal health care, then the already-dismal 33% approval rate of health care is likely to plummet even further. That's a problem, because without health care, troubles spread.
Best statistics I've seen indicate that nonprofits, which separate money from health care as much as possible, outperform both free market and government care.
There are better systems. I'd love to see something like that here. We just aren't building them. What we have is dangerously dysfunctional, but the solutions I see proposed are often just as bad if not worse. It's not like anyone is doing the smart thing and studying functional health systems around the world to pick the best bits. Noooo, because AMERIKKKA IZ NO1. 0_o
>> Well then, I'd wonder what the flaw of a gift economy is! <<
It's harder to track. Also, like a barter economy, it relies on people having things that each other want. Still, it was good enough to build entire civilizations with and support a trade network that touched all four coasts. At its height, Cahokia was substantially bigger than London of the same time. (Only a few Turtle Island cultures had cashlike things such as wampum.)
Cash has the advantage of being easy to track and exchangeable for anything. But it only outcompetes gifts or barter if there is enough to meet everyone's needs. Without that, shadow economies spring up and reversion occurs -- which is what we're seeing now.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-01-31 05:18 am (UTC)There are short and long lists. My short list would include things like health care, food, at least one clothing store, and utilities.
https://www.lendingtree.com/business/small-town-business-ideas/
https://www.starterstory.com/small-town-business-ideas
Questions to ask:
Do people really need this, is it good for a healthy life, or is it just a luxury? How much fault tolerance is there? Could another local business pick up the slack if this one closes? If not, where is the next-nearest place to get this good/service? Could most people make/do this for themselves? What will be the likely impact on local economy if it goes under? How integral is this to the town's identity, tourist appeal, etc.?
Losing one clothing store out of six is no big deal. Losing the only music store in the county is a real pain in the ass. Losing the only grocery store on the east side of town creates a food desert and is a PROBLEM. Losing the only health clinic in town, or only big hospital in the county,
will kill some people.
>>I've heard advice suggesting people make down payments for things like wedding venues. Who knows when or if there can be a wedding at that venue, in the reserved timeframe? What is the refund policy? What happens if the company folds?<<
Typically all the risk is saddled on the renter, which I believe is wrong. The reason venues require downpayments is to hold a space so people don't blow them off. For a popular venue this makes some sense. The problem is that the downpayments are often abusively high. The sensible solution is to go somewhere that charges little or nothing to hold and use the space, such as a public park.
>>I don't mind interdependence; but I do mind being voluntold, being taken advantage of, and hypocrisy.<<
I agree. Healthy standards:
* All work is by free choice. Forcing people to work is labor abuse or slavery, and wrong.
* Reciprocity makes healthy relationships. One-way relationships are unhealthy.
* People should give and receive. Nobody should be a charity case or mooched off of.
* Favor-trading builds strong communities through human bonding. It is the foundation stone of civilization. Damage it and everything else suffers. As we are seeing.
I also feel that governments have equal responsibility to ALL citizens. This drives people batshit.
>>A lot of gov healthcare debates I've had with aquaintences have stonewalled a bit as soon as I mention that "Some people need Gov healthcare - how do you expect someone to pay half a million+ a year for medical expenses, on an average salary?" (I think they see such occurrences as exceptional exceptions, much like intelligent women in 1850. Humph!) <<
Nothing should cost so much that people can't afford health care. That is plain bad infrastructure. It is what we have here, and it murders a lot of people, both on and off government care.
The government doesn't give a fuck about you. Veterans get shitty care, for instance, and they of all people deserve the best. Government care might be better than nothing, or worse. Compare government eye care ("You might get glasses in 6 months.") to free market eye care ("Come back to pick up your glasses in 2 hours."). If you think the government doesn't let disabled people die, you've met different disabled people and read different articles than I have.
And what do you think will happen to women's health care if the government takes over? It's already run out so many abortion clinics from Texas that women are resorting to back-alley methods or buying PlanB online. As a result, Texas alone is tanking America's already disgraceful rates of pregnancy/birth related deaths among women and infants.
This is one of many reasons why lots of folks distrust government. So if you make government equal health care, then the already-dismal 33% approval rate of health care is likely to plummet even further. That's a problem, because without health care, troubles spread.
Best statistics I've seen indicate that nonprofits, which separate money from health care as much as possible, outperform both free market and government care.
There are better systems. I'd love to see something like that here. We just aren't building them. What we have is dangerously dysfunctional, but the solutions I see proposed are often just as bad if not worse. It's not like anyone is doing the smart thing and studying functional health systems around the world to pick the best bits. Noooo, because AMERIKKKA IZ NO1. 0_o
I've seen better in other dimensions too. I described a health nexus here.
>> Well then, I'd wonder what the flaw of a gift economy is! <<
It's harder to track. Also, like a barter economy, it relies on people having things that each other want. Still, it was good enough to build entire civilizations with and support a trade network that touched all four coasts. At its height, Cahokia was substantially bigger than London of the same time. (Only a few Turtle Island cultures had cashlike things such as wampum.)
Cash has the advantage of being easy to track and exchangeable for anything. But it only outcompetes gifts or barter if there is enough to meet everyone's needs. Without that, shadow economies spring up and reversion occurs -- which is what we're seeing now.