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posted by LaminatorX on Sunday March 23 2014, @11:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the Where's-my-20-hour-work-week? dept.

Papas Fritas writes:

"Jeremy Rifkin writes in the NYT that the inherent dynamism of competitive markets is bringing down costs so far that many goods and services are becoming nearly free, abundant, and no longer subject to market forces and while economists have always welcomed a reduction in marginal cost, they never anticipated the possibility of a technological revolution that might bring those costs to near zero. The first inkling of this paradox at the heart of capitalism came in 1999 when Napster enabled millions of people to share music without paying the producers and artists, wreaking havoc on the music industry. Similar phenomena went on to severely disrupt the newspaper and book publishing industries. The huge reduction in marginal cost is now beginning to reshape energy, manufacturing and education. "Although the fixed costs of solar and wind technology are somewhat pricey, the cost of capturing each unit of [renewable] energy beyond that is low (PDF)," says Rifkin. As for manufacturing "thousands of hobbyists are already making their own products using 3-D printers, open-source software and recycled plastic as feedstock, at near zero marginal cost" and more than six million students are enrolled in "free massive open online courses, the content of which is distributed at near zero marginal cost."

But nowhere is the zero marginal cost phenomenon having more impact than the labor market, where workerless factories and offices, virtual retailing and automated logistics and transport networks are becoming more prevalent. What this means according to Rifkin is that new employment opportunities will lie in the collaborative commons in fields that tend to be nonprofit and strengthen social infrastructure like health care, aiding the poor, environmental restoration, child care, care for the elderly, and the promotion of the arts and recreation. "As for the capitalist system, it is likely to remain with us far into the future, albeit in a more streamlined role, primarily as an aggregator of network services and solutions, allowing it to thrive as a powerful niche player in the coming era. We are, however, entering a world partly beyond markets, where we are learning how to live together in an increasingly interdependent, collaborative, global commons.""

 
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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @12:28PM

    by VLM (445) on Monday March 24 2014, @12:28PM (#20174)

    Speaking of recycled water, I pay a combined water sewer bill and the cost breakdown is roughly $1 for water and $4 for sewer. So its much cheaper to for me to give away glasses of water, than to let you flush my toilet once its time to recycle those glasses of water. In uncivilized areas where humans are not meant to live and water is expensive rather than cheap, I guess people don't flush toilets unless its really gross. For me in a civilized area its like five cents to avoid the stink so its not an issue, but having what amounts to a "occasionally self cleaning porta potty" in the house sounds awful.

    Its interesting to go to google maps satellite view and zoom way out and see what color your state is. I live in a nearly fluorescent green glowing state, and personally I'm not too far from a freshwater lake and river system. Go 1000 miles west and the predominate color of Nevada is gray brown dirt. The interesting part is the previous century was an era of moving from watery areas to dry areas and this century is likely the opposite (Seriously? How many people live in a desert in Vegas or Phoenix? They just don't belong there...)

    Also water/sewer is not free. I use somewhat less water than normal because I have a dishwasher, don't water my lawn, and don't have a pool, but I still shell out about two bucks per day. Somewhat less than two hundred bucks per quarterly bill, a hundred something at least. I think this is the likely outcome in many markets. This time of year reminds me to sign up for the CSA again, and usually they produce so much produce that we leave stuff behind which they donate to food pantry, I mean seriously, what is a 4 person family supposed to do with 30 pounds of asparagus? So "sorta fixed cost per month" products like the CSA, or the water bill, or those monthly subscription products are likely the market of the future. This has already happened in music where almost all the "record" stores have gone out of business and the hotness is online subscriptions to music streaming services. One interesting way to look at leasing a car, is if you get a lease contract with all the features, you pretty much pay a subscription for car service as opposed to ever owning a car again.

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 24 2014, @01:10PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 24 2014, @01:10PM (#20193)

    How on earth does your water company meter your sewer connection? I would imagine in most places the sewer charge is either flat-rate, or part of your water bill (with the assumption that all the water you consume goes into the sewer).

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @01:44PM

      by VLM (445) on Monday March 24 2014, @01:44PM (#20213)

      "the assumption that all the water you consume goes into the sewer"

      For a modest fee I can purchase a second water meter for irrigation purposes, if I was the type who irrigated, and then not have to pay sewer charges on that irrigation water. I live in an eastern-ish state where the natural state of untouched land (state parks, etc) is brilliant green so I don't really need to irrigate unless I insist on raising out of area tropical plants or growing plants from seed.

      Also I can temporarily rent a meter to fill a swimming pool or garden pond but the hassle is greater than just hiring a commercial service with a tanker truck and some hoses so no one does that that I know of, although its possible in theory.

      Industries all have two water meters around here, don't have to pay sewer charges if you can prove the water never went down the drain (like if you brew and ship tens of thousands of gallons of beer, or bottle soft drinks or cleaning chemicals or something) There's a lot of legal wrangling over that argument, where if you think about it, every drop of beer eventually enters the sewer system so if they were not politically connected they would be paying sewer charges like everyone else, etc.

      It seems logically reasonable to charge different rates, we have great water wells so other than long term capital costs and chlorination, water doesn't require much processing. The sewers however are a gigantic complicated industrial plants full of huge tanks and pumps and stuff, its obviously very complicated and labor intensive to process so no shocker that it costs a lot more.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 24 2014, @02:49PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 24 2014, @02:49PM (#20257)

        Your response, while interesting, still doesn't answer my question.

        I pay a combined water sewer bill and the cost breakdown is roughly $1 for water and $4 for sewer. So its much cheaper to for me to give away glasses of water, than to let you flush my toilet once its time to recycle those glasses of water.

        You claim here that your water is separately metered from your sewer. So your response seems to indicate that's not really the case, only that you could get a second meter for a fee, and perhaps give someone a glass of water out of your irrigation feed that's on a separate meter. That's interesting and all, but obviously (as indicated in your post) not normal practice for residential homeowners at all, only for large industrial users. So unless you're operating a bottling factory and give someone a glass of water out of the water supply that supplies your bottling operation (and isn't charged sewer rates), what you said isn't really correct except for a few homeowners who bothered to get a second meter.

    • (Score: 1) by scruffybeard on Monday March 24 2014, @07:07PM

      by scruffybeard (533) on Monday March 24 2014, @07:07PM (#20444)

      In my area, your sewer rate is tied to the number of gallons you consumed in a given quarter, but the rate is capped at the number of gallons used during the winter months. Let's say that you consumed 12k gal. during Dec, Jan, Feb, then in Jun, Jul, Aug, you consumed 15k gal. You pay for 15k gallons of water, but you only pay to dispose of 12k, as it is assumed that the other 3k was used to water a lawn, or fill a swimming pool.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 25 2014, @06:14PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday March 25 2014, @06:14PM (#21100)

        Hey, that's pretty smart. Not something I'd expect from a government-run utility.

    • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday March 24 2014, @08:49PM

      by DECbot (832) on Monday March 24 2014, @08:49PM (#20539) Journal

      In the places I lived where sewer was metered, the charge was determined by your water consumption (it is assumed that it is all getting sent to the sewer), and by the rainfall of the past month (storm sewage).

      --
      cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 24 2014, @01:13PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 24 2014, @01:13PM (#20195)

    (Seriously? How many people live in a desert in Vegas or Phoenix? They just don't belong there...)

    I use somewhat less water than normal because I have a dishwasher, don't water my lawn, and don't have a pool, but I still shell out about two bucks per day. Somewhat less than two hundred bucks per quarterly bill, a hundred something at least.

    Interestingly, if you lived in Phoenix, you'd probably have a lower bill. I watered my lawns when I lived in Phoenix and probably spent about $40-50/month. Where is it that you live where there's plenty of abundant water, yet you are charged so much for it?

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @01:59PM

      by VLM (445) on Monday March 24 2014, @01:59PM (#20220)

      80% of the money goes to the sewer. In the desert I suppose you can just pump it out into sand and let it blow away, but gross as it sounds a lot of people downstream drink out of our river, so they put a lot of work into processing it. Also the DNR and outdoor recreation is a major force here, and you can't get tourists to fish in a cesspool, so they may be going a little overboard, its an idyllic little river around here and they'll make us pay anything to keep it that way. I've boated on the river but I wouldn't drink out of it, not even on a dare, even if people downstream get their tapwater from it.

      I'm not entirely sure why we pump out of wells instead of drinking from the river, but I'm glad we do it!

      I would imagine there's no small amount of charging whatever the market will take, which is probably very constant, and the usual corruption of course.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 24 2014, @02:52PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 24 2014, @02:52PM (#20261)

        I would imagine there's no small amount of charging whatever the market will take, which is probably very constant, and the usual corruption of course.

        You never answered where you live. I live in NJ now, and from what I can tell, a large part of why everything costs a lot more here (particularly taxes) is because of sheer corruption, which appears to be much, much worse than in AZ where I used to live. Even my water bill is much higher, and I don't have a lawn to water here like I did in Phoenix.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 24 2014, @03:19PM

          by VLM (445) on Monday March 24 2014, @03:19PM (#20278)

          Closest big city would be Chicago a couple hours away.

          I'm beginning to think its "from each according to their ability to pay" at least for residential. I would imagine commercial/industrial cost of water more accurately reflects the true cost. Also I suspect there might be some price fixing going on.