Comments on: The Post-Productive Economy

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 20:04:28 +0000

It does exude old-world craftsmanship. I can’t imagine how much the lumber alone would cost in the US.

By: Alrenous

Alrenous — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 19:41:31 +0000

What depresses me most is that they can afford to lavishly decorate their buildings and we, apparently, cannot. Their decorations are not to my taste, but at least it doesn’t look like a competition to make the ugliest, dingiest building that can still stand up.

By: Baduin

Baduin — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:23:27 +0000

With option A you can keep running water and indoor toilets; but you can’t drink. Option B is that you can drink as much fire-water as you like, but you have to give up running water and indoor toilets.

To the American Indians, Siberian natives etc , Option A was not obvious at all. (…)

Most of the hunter-gatherer tribes didn’t have such access to resources as these Yunnan farmers, but even in their poorer environment they still chose to use their meager cash to buy vast amounts of alcohol over the benefits of investment in agriculture, education or manufacturing. Drink before work. It is an almost universal choice.

So if people value the benefits of vodka so much why don’t we see this value reflected in the growth of the economy?

That is the question!

The report released Thursday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found 11.7 percent of deaths among Native Americans and Alaska Natives between 2001 and 2005 were alcohol-related, compared with 3.3 percent for the U.S. as a whole.

By: Grasspunk

Grasspunk — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:38:46 +0000

They may have petrol or diesel generators for larger tasks, although I’m wondering how much of modern life needs more than solar charging. The washing machine, for sure, but maybe they do hand washing.

This guy is an interesting read, although there’s something embarrassing about reading about someone working way harder than me.

Still, it does say something about how you measure standard of living.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:05:15 +0000

They have solar chargers for their phones.

By: Grasspunk

Grasspunk — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:35:00 +0000

These houses must have some form of generated power. How do they charge their cellphones?

There are still a fair few farmhouses here (SW France) that aren’t that modern. I’ve seen them without water and electricity, but there’s always a well outside or sometimes in the basement. They’ve nearly all been modernized at some point in the last 50 years. There are still a few unmodernized, but they’d be rarely occupied. Gotta have that TV.

The outdoor toilet without a light used to be seen a few times in Sydney rentals when I was a student. The DIY boom has removed most of those by now I suspect.