asciilifeform: 'Once there was The People—Terror gave it birth; Once there was The People and it made a Hell of Earth. Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, O ye slain! Once there was The People—it shall never be again!' - mr k
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: symbian, the dumbphone os ?
asciilifeform: a few days ago, i take an evening walk, see the place - no wikiwagen, the other (unmarked) bus on the grounds also gone, two women poking at what looks like the remains of a ruined bicycle.
asciilifeform: poor woman, seems like the shitter in the van doesn't work. there's a portable latrine on the grounds.
asciilifeform: check out the pr0n in the comment thread
asciilifeform: in unrelated news, the wikiwagen seems to have vanished from the vacant lot it lived in, on my street. not long after i last mentioned it here.
asciilifeform: the folks for whom these items are mandatory, 'national' clothing stay out. and don't seem to complain.
asciilifeform: davout: not quite the same thing. it's 'no caps', 'no pants with wide bottoms', etc. rather than 'must have civilized suit'
asciilifeform: over here, 'right to refuse service' is alive and well in... pubs. it is permitted when based on particular clothing. which the 'untermenschen' helpfully insist on wearing.
asciilifeform: (unfortunately with it will fail public utilities, police, etc. so we only learn the price of a 'mad max' house, vs. what presently exists.)
asciilifeform: we will discover the actual market price of american house if and when the artificial system for keeping 100,000s of them permanently vacant and off the market were to fail.
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: this is thought to be a reasonably good deal, too, around here.
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: i pay roughly 2x in rent what the box i'm in would cost, monthly, if 'bought'
asciilifeform: otherwise someone - negro, martian, whoever - would live there.
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: only answer is, nothing within driving distance employs folks who could afford the land tax.
asciilifeform: Vexual: see the supply cartel discussion above
asciilifeform: the actual 'free market' price of a u.s. suburban house, if none of this were happening, is probably close to $10k (number pulled from my arse)
asciilifeform: if the locals wake up to the idea of squatting peacefully in the houses instead of tearing them apart, the 'owners' will order the burning.
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: point being, a liveable house, as popularly imagined in usa, will never cost what laptop, or even car, costs - if the authorities have to burn 99% of them to maintain this condition, they will.
asciilifeform: at least stalin, in his engineered famines, sold his abroad to buy cannon
asciilifeform: for skeptics: usa is the country where they burned trainloads of grain during 'great depression' - to keep prices high
asciilifeform: the bezzlers would much rather let the copper thieves pick it clean.
asciilifeform: unwritten u.s. law - no house anywhere near a city, with working plumbing, not in 'live fire zone', etc. will be sold for 'pocket money' to a human (i.e. sans mortgage chumpatron)
asciilifeform: << mega-lol. the 'zombies' rot so that prices can stay put.
asciilifeform: 'Both Dahlberg and Barrett say they don't understand why banks allow the problem to proliferate. As they see it, it's in the bank's best interests to rid itself of the property.'
asciilifeform: ^ the feigned puzzlement of the quoted officials is riotously funny
asciilifeform: decimation: at this point, it seems reasonable to think of google et al. as 'poisoned tree' and their crypto not worth the effort to audit.
asciilifeform: he refused to sign for it. ended up contacting various commercial disposal companies
asciilifeform: -- story interlude -- a lab i once worked in used to house such an experimenter. he was eventually caught in diverting his stash to the black market, and imprisoned. the next guy inherited a few kg of coke.
asciilifeform: these used to be... not exactly common, but not entirely unheard of.
asciilifeform: i'd be very curious to hear, from a legal scholar, how this was arranged on paper.
asciilifeform: crown license for making/taking whatever drug, in exchange for selling soul.
asciilifeform: he had an... interesting relationship with american gov.
