mar1n3r0

I got interested what does functional economy entail and how it differs from its current form. It was the following – instead of buying and owning everything we need for our daily lives such as cars, electronics etc. we lend them out for a certain period from public depots and return them same place when we don’t need them anymore. This in turn makes production, distribution and recycling much more optimized processes. Contrary to the now where we are piling up goods at our homes until it’s all full and then we get rid of them gradually in this new form of economy we don’t keep stock of anything unnecessary with us since we can always get it nearby anytime needed. Simultaneously since every product has been developed for reuse rather than one time personal use planned obsolescence doesn’t make sense anymore. Every item is designed so that it can last its maximum lifespan and cycles of use since we don’t buy it. More importantly – these goods were no longer produced by the mighty mastodon corporations of the past but by their transformed entities which were flat local cooperatives and autonomous single units. The most fascinating fact was that indeed there was no pricing. You simply go, get, use and return to the same place anytime you wish. I wondered how are resources managed when there are no prices. It turned out that the aforementioned single contract for global unconditional cooperation and mutual aid guaranteed common ownership of all resources on planet Earth and free and equal access to them.

Read the rest of the book at: https://www.reddit.com/r/AutonomyBook/

Over the past 5 years we can notice aggressive planned obsolescence applied across pretty much all products. From an all-sealed non-repairable designs to software limitations it's visible even to the non-technical users.

We can differentiate two product cycles. Premium products with no planned obsolescence - higher price, less frequent change of device. Mainstream products - designed to be replaced frequently, lower price.

Ideas

Initial price as low as mainstream. Users pay a fixed additional fee for each functioning year of the product thus reaching premium price if the product lasts longer.

A marketplace where only products with no planned obsolescence are sold based on the above model

Would you switch to such a purchasing model as a user?

Would you switch to such a production model as a company?