asciilifeform: anyway, everyone has probably read that one.

asciilifeform: damn, this didn't work

asciilifeform: ey got paid. They did eventually reappear, so there may be some merit to this theory. With the gaping manholes positioned throughout the city like so many anteater traps for cars, you had the choice of driving either very slowly and carefully, or very fast, and betting your life on the proper functioning of the shock absorbers. '

asciilifeform: 'Having bits of the landscape disappear can be a rude surprise. One summer I arrived in St. Petersburg and found that a new scourge had descended on the land while I was gone: a lot of manhole covers were mysteriously missing. Nobody knew where they went or who profited from their removal. One guess was that the municipal workers, who hadn't been paid in months, took them home with them, to be returned once th

asciilifeform: accumulating equity for fully employed commuters who shop at the now defunct nearby mall. After the mortgages are foreclosed and the properties repossessed, what more is there to do, except board it all up and let it rot? Well, what has been developed can be just as easily undeveloped.'

asciilifeform: 'Russia's post-collapse economy was for a time dominated by one type of wholesale business: asset stripping. To put it in an American setting: suppose you have title, or otherwise unhindered access, to an entire suburban subdivision, which is no longer accessible by transportation, either public or private, too far to reach by bicycle, and is generally no longer suitable for its intended purpose of housing and

asciilifeform: accumulating equity for fully employed commuters who shop at the now defunct nearby mall. After the mortgages are foreclosed and the properties repossessed, what more is there to do, except board it all up and let it rot? Well, what has been developed can be just as easily undeveloped.'

asciilifeform: 'Russia's post-collapse economy was for a time dominated by one type of wholesale business: asset stripping. To put it in an American setting: suppose you have title, or otherwise unhindered access, to an entire suburban subdivision, which is no longer accessible by transportation, either public or private, too far to reach by bicycle, and is generally no longer suitable for its intended purpose of housing and

asciilifeform: basic course on russian privatization. 'your formerly state-issued flat is now yours. you are a millionaire!' - 'neato. but my salary hasn't been paid in a year. gotta buy something to eat. what does dinner cost?' - 'half a million.' ☟︎

asciilifeform: decimation: the asset-stripping thing is only a secret from u.s. schoolchildren

asciilifeform: when the choice becomes 'pay tax and starve' vs. 'live, off the books'

asciilifeform: decimation: end of the line. the train gets there eventually.

asciilifeform: if everybody in a given field is on the dole, what does that suggest about the field?

asciilifeform: TestingUnoDosTre: quite a few folks in russia are pining for the (distant) possibility of proper sanctions. where usa takes its pernicious cultural, economic exports and goes home.

asciilifeform: catch them on re-entry with baseball glove.

asciilifeform: decimation: the system is capped by the intelligence of the dumbest contributor. which would be, typically... 10,000 people? there's bound to be a turdmeister.

asciilifeform: 'remove xxx to build new ver. xxx' won't build. spend a week to get a working box again.'

asciilifeform: for users of 'source' linux flavours, e.g. gentoo, the comical picture above is daily reality.

asciilifeform: known, i think, even to u.s. schoolboys