Marijuana is the smell of capitalism..

Just a quick post today. I want to make note of something that I thought I'd already mentioned on here, but I must not have. I guess I must have just tweeted about it or something.

As the title suggests it's that marijuana is the smell of capitalism.

Firstly, before I start, I should note that I'm not pro-marijuana. I don't really care what other people get up to in their personal life, but it's not my thing. So I'm generally against the use of recreational drugs. I'm more interested in the economic aspect.

What interests me in particular is that it shows how entrepreneurial normal people can be when a gap in the market presents itself.

As the gap in supplying marijuana can't be legally filled people with less to lose and more to gain step in to take the risk. You'll literally see scruffs from "lazy, jobless" council estates setting up entire marijuana farms in attics and garages. To then distribute it at a profit around the area.

It's essentially just slick and vibrant business. Albeit illegal business.

So whenever I smell that distinctive smell outside. A common aroma on English streets these days. I instantly think; "capitalism".

It shows, in an odd way, how industrious people can be when they have a market demand to fill. It also illustrates why it's harder for poorer people, indeed most people, to make headway in the legal markets. As legal markets tend to be already cornered by large business. 

It always makes me wonder what would happen if other things were made illegal.

If oranges were made illegal would we see illegal orchards popping up in backrooms and basements to fill the demand for fresh orange juice?

Now we live in an age where much of normal human life is being deemed illegal will this black market capitalism also rise to fill these natural demands too? It'll be interesting to see what happens.

In fact, that's what reminded me of this today. I saw footage earlier of police trying to cut their way into a building to stop an illegal 'lock in' 😅

Perhaps they'll finally succeed in making all alcohol and pubs illegal. Then we'll have years of spending billions to stop the illegal trade. Then eventually someone will have the bright idea of legalising it all again and taxing it.

A Day in the Life of Jack

It's the year 2033. Jack has just moved into his nice new home. Like most other people Jack doesn't pay rent or mortgage, and owns his new home outright. He had considered staying at home with his parents for perhaps another year or two, but as he was now making enough money to comfortably support himself he had decided to take up his allocation of Universal Basic Space. Selecting a nice little apartment near the centre of town.

Jack earned his money in several different ways. One day a week he would work as a carer, helping to care for elderly people at a local care home. On Mondays he rented shop space in town, where he displayed and sold his artwork. Some of which he also sold online. Jack also occasionally rented shop space to sell some of the food produce that he and his friend grew on their vertical allotment.

Just five years earlier it had been announced that all citizens would be entitled to a basic amount of allotment space. To accompany the basic living space they were entitled to. Some plots being in tall vertical farms, others simply on the ground, out in nature. However, as Jack and his friend were so enthusiastic about growing food they also rented out extra space on top of this to expand their endeavours.

The centre of the town Jack lived in was like a beautiful sky-rising village green. The old architecture and buildings seamlessly intertwined with trees and flowers. The glass towers, once unused office space, now over-spilling with green green-housery, bee-keeping and hanging gardens. As he walked through the public orchards to catch the public transport he could hear the birds singing in the trees, along with the tweeps and bleeps of other people's mobile phones and devices.

Jack was heading to his brother's house on the outskirts of town. His brother lived with his wife and two children. He was ten years older than Jack and like his younger brother worked doing several different things and projects. His favourite being his current research into organic self-repairing housing and pluming systems. Work that had already borne fruit in several ways.

The home he lived in was bigger than Jack's, with a large circular garden surrounding it. The tall trees blending harmoniously into the distant, crisply-coloured countryside. Like Jack he had originally been given a basic apartment too. However, having saved up for several years he and his partner could now afford this more homely place, and had sold their basic apartments back to the public purse to help fund their dream. Their old apartments now being the new nests and first steps on the ladder for other younger people.

Jack was always impressed by his brother's place, but for now he was more than happy with his own little bit of private space. Like his brother he too had been saving up. However, his main concern was simply making sure he had enough money in the bank for a rainy day, just in case his sources of income started taking a downturn. Fortunately though, as he had no rent or mortgage to pay, and just had his basic bills, it was quite easy to do this, and he took great joy in being self-sufficient. Both currently and going forward into the future. Squirrelling away money, along with some of the food he grew, like acorns. In preparation for times of less abundance. Or for far-off old age and infirmity.

As he waited briefly for his transport a light rain began to fall upon his face. Though the weather remained calm and summery. As he gazed round at his surroundings he noticed a red fox skip through a far off hedgerow. His phone rang warmly just as his transport arrived. He checked the screen then stepped on board. White clouds rolling past the sky-scraping gardens as he looked back towards the town centre he was leaving..

[...]

micro-capitalism and organic market places

I'm going into business. Well, not really, but sort of, in an imaginary sort of way. I've been thinking about the future - both my own, and the world's. At least in a very vague, general sense. So the two are entwined in my mind at the moment. For a start I need to get my arse in gear and get a job of some description, so that's one thing pushing me. At the same time though it is looking a bit grim out there, so the options for me and most other people that are lost in this wider economic landscape aren't especially appetising. So some fresh thinking is definitely needed.

Anyway, I'm always eager to set the world to rights on here and elsewhere, but I'm clearly not so quick off the mark in my own personal life (it's much easier to be a backseat driver). So I'm now wondering if perhaps I need to stop chirping and start doing something productive. (My annoying chirps got me blocked by Piers Morgan on Twitter last night lmao ..I shared the picture of him in St. Tropez again. The one with Raheem Sterling. Y'know ..this one..

The mid-corona pandemic one. That one. That one where he has no mask on.)

My amusement aside though I think I'm probably spending far too much time on Twitter and other platforms niggling people like this. Perhaps it might help get us all out of lock down a teeny bit quicker, but it's hardly a plan for the future. So I'm trying to think a bit more long term.

I was pondering my living space / creative space ideas again. Which I've mentioned many times on here before. It struck me that instead of just writing about them perhaps I should try to somehow put them into practice. Difficult though that would be. Can they be actualised in a business sense? And by someone like me?

The obvious and simple answer to that is no. lol. I'm very comfortable making myself busy typing up blogs and making music and such like, but proper business. Meeting people, wearing a suit, actually doing stuff out in the real world, that type of business. That's not something I could ever really be good at. Not by a long way. I just don't have it in me.

Perhaps it's because I'm too shy and awkward. Maybe I'm just too much of a layabout. Either way it's highly unlikely I'll ever actually step forward and do anything truly entrepreneurial. Plus I'm far too poor. If I had a £1million war chest that would be one thing, but with barely £100 in my current account I think I'm going to struggle becoming the UK's next business mogul.

Still, it is something to think about though. Even if it only ever remains an exercise in thought.

It also reminded me of another idea I was thinking about which in some ways relates to this creative space notion.

The Hat Shop Lady.

I was thinking about shops. Particularly with regard to our empty highstreets. Just as an observer you see so many little shops and businesses open up, only to drop out of business six months later (and that's before the whole corona-postponer). It always occurs to me that many of these businesses simply aren't profitable enough to justify an entire shop to themselves.

I remember seeing a hat store opening up and thinking; "Yeah, there's no way they're selling enough hats in a small town like this to make a profit". It was a beautiful little store, and the lady running it had obviously put a huge amount of effort in, no doubt with the help of loans and grants. But it was doomed to fail. How many hats are you going to sell in such a small catchment area? Especially when you're competing with major retailers.

Witnessing many of these stores pop up and then disappear made me wonder if there was perhaps a more flexible way of doing things. The lady had some nice hats, but she didn't need an entire store.

So the idea hit upon me. We need a place where people can hire shop space, but for much shorter and neater periods. Literally just hours at a time. Much like hiring a rehearsal room at a music studio for a morning or a few hours.

So our lady selling hats could perhaps hire a stall or section of space for brief periods of time. Say a Monday morning. Or a Thursday afternoon. She could book this for a one off time, or perhaps for an extended period. Every Monday morning for three months let's say.

Of course, what I'm describing here is essentially a market stall. Though in this case one that would be indoors, in a nice modern space. With all the benefits of current digital technology.

We tend to look down our noses at market places, but in times gone by they would've been incredibly organic things. Flexibly moving (and expanding and contracting) to meet the demands of the local economy. This flexibility is all but gone in our modern over-regulated world though ..at least offline anyway. In fact, this lack of flexibility is in part why highstreets and city centres can't compete with online retailers.

If you want to sell something on the high street your only option is to open an entire store. How many new businesses or fledgling entrepreneurs need an entire shop 24/7? Surely it's much more natural to start selling a few things at first, then to build up over time.

So, if we return to the hat lady...

If she had the option of simply booking some space she wouldn't have had to go the whole hog and set up an entire doomed-to-fail shop. She could have simply booked a Monday morning and tried selling her hats. If that went well and her business started growing she could perhaps then book a Tuesday too in the weeks following. Or maybe book double the space she booked last time to stock and showcase more of her hats.

And of course, the flexibility doesn't end there. If similar places were available in other towns and cities she could even expand. Booking a Monday morning in one town, then a Tuesday morning in the next. Reaching a wider customer base than she could in just the one location.

Again, this is little different to market stall holders, who move to different towns and areas each day. It just takes it into the modern era somewhat. The real problem market places have these days is that they're rickety, outside in the cold, and take a lot of trouble to set up.

I would provide a nice indoor place for them :)

They could simply turn up with their car or van (or even bag) full of stock and get going. (You could even potentially provide storage places on site for regular users at a fee).

Another benefit is that it would also allow small traders to deal with both the online and offline world.

The hat lady could sell in Middlesbrough on a Monday morning. In Newcastle on a Tuesday. Then spend all Wednesday dealing with her online Amazon orders. And so on and so forth.

Unlike when she had the entire store in one place, and she couldn't even take a day off because she couldn't afford to hire another staff member.

To sum up..

Obviously it's unlikely I could ever set something like this up, but nevertheless the organic and flexible nature of the idea seems very attractive to me. Certainly in comparison to our dead, cumbersome and abandoned highstreets.

It would also no doubt be nigh on impossible due to all the various regulations and business hoops. So there's that too. Along with the problem of communicating such an idea to the people you'd need to get it all past.

In theory though we should be trying to make it as easy to sell something on the high street as it is to sell something on Amazon. That's if we want to get things blossoming again. (That reminds me, I must remember to start including some smiley flowers in these annoying little doodles).

(There's no real purpose for these things, and they're getting a little creepy and bizarre lol, but I do like having a bit of colour on the page to break things up. It's also handy to have a little thumbnail to display. So I'll keep 'em coming. Mildly disturbing though they look.)

Also, before I finish I should note that there are many further strands to this idea. I'll no doubt do further posts in the future. For example, you could charge different fees for different times. Slots on a busy Saturday would be more expensive than a dead Tuesday morning say. Likewise for different times of the year. The run up to Christmas being extra busy and so forth.

This flexibility would be great for the sellers. Someone selling school uniforms may want more time and space before the start of the school year to meet the high demand; time and space they wouldn't necessarily require at other periods. Likewise at really dead times of the year, when demand is really, really low, the extra space could be hired out super cheap to entice new people. Or for local or student projects to use, and other such things.

Again, super-flexible.

Why are we trying to fill all these empty high street premises with a single business, in the unlikely hope that they'll be there 24/7 for the next 20 years?

Living Space Addenda

Just a few little addenda to that last post. I'll be super quick.

Firstly, living space in someways can be seen as analogous to, or an extension of, personal space. Something we intuitively respect in regard other people. So that's a good avenue to go along when arguing in favour of it.

Secondly, the 'government' taking land or space and just giving it to people gratis sounds a little bit in the realms of communism. Or land re-distribution. (In fact, I guess you could say I'm trying to marry the ideals of communism with the ideals of property ownership here - an individual rights based communism in a sense xD). However, although it sounds very leftist in tone, the concept of living space rights would actually enshrine property rights further. Your home would be deemed unassailable.

Also, it would in a sense create a distinction between a person's primary residence and their further properties. Though people would be entitled to own land and property just as they do now, their primary residence - where they actually live - would be considered sacrosanct. Of course, in today's world we have things such as compulsory purchase where states can forcibly reclaim property from the individual as it's deemed in the greater public interest. Normally in fair societies a distinction would be made between say an abandoned property and a lived-in property anyway, but theoretically there's no limit. With living space rights someone's primary residence would be completely untouchable.

Another thing worth mentioning is that such a project wouldn't require that much land/space anyway. As the 'basic', freely given (or cheaply sold) homes would be very small. Plus there is also plenty of publicly-owned land available already, so such a scheme would in no way require any sort of land redistribution that would impact the individual directly.

Finally, given I'm arguing for a basic, specified minimum amount of living space an individual has a right to, I wonder if there could also be a maximum size. (I'm beginning to sound very communist here aren't I xD). There perhaps could be some type of calculated ratio that takes into account the overall amount of land and the overall population.

The total amount of land - (the population x the minimum sq metres of space per individual) = the maximum land that could be owned by any one individual

??

Perhaps you could begin by first of all removing an ascribed proportion of the total land for public space, national parks, etc.

Let's say half.

The total amount of land/divided by 2 - (the population x the minimum sq metres of space per individual) = the maximum land owned by any one individual

In reality that maximum amount would be owned by lots of individuals combined of course.

//////////////////

And finally, finally. I may start calling this concept Universal Basic Space. What with it being similar in theme to Universal Basic Income.

Living Space: the Ideal and the Practical

So, housing. This follows on neatly, and naturally, from the blog post where I stated you can't grow an orange on a laptop.

Once again the focus is space. This time living space. Now I've argued before online that everyone should be entitled to at least some living space, and that this should essentially be considered a birthright. By this I mean that everyone should be entitled to some space that belongs to them.

Of course, normally we refer to these 'living spaces' as homes - as in a property or a building. However, by thinking in terms of space it really helps to elucidate how unnatural our attitude to housing is. If you're fortunate enough to own your own home then great - you have your own space. However, if you don't, or are still in the process of paying for your home, then you're in a very unnatural situation.

You're essentially paying to have somewhere to exist.

A space to sleep at night. Somewhere to breathe in and out. Paying every week or month to simply have somewhere to be. It's like living in a hotel room, but we just accept it as normal. Animals don't have this problem. They're not paying another animal to be where they are. To be in the lake or up in the tree. They just find a spot and build their nest or whatever it is they do.

Their primary focus is spent on finding food and raising their young. Whereas our primary focus is to pay the rent. In order to then have the very space in which to do those things in. This is why humans are in a constant state of anxiety, because they're constantly worried that next week they may not have a space (a home) to exist in. This is why we can never just relax and live in the moment, at one with nature. We can never just be.

..and it's not just that we have to pay for the space we exist in. We pay a lot of money for it. For most people the rent or mortgage will take up a huge chunk of their income. They work long hours to pay for the space they sleep in when they're not working. It's insane when you really think about it.

Living Space: the Ideal and the Practical

Anyway, I've been thinking about how we could fix this situation. I have a loosely fleshed out ideal - a Utopian vision I guess you could say. Then also a more practical, halfway house solution. I'll begin with the ideal.

Ideally I would create a world where everyone was simply given a bit of space when they reach maturity. Theirs to own. To possess, i.e. somewhere to live where they need not pay rent or mortgage to anyone. ("What? you can't just give people a house!" I hear you say. Well, I am :) ..and if you really don't like this idea then don't worry, there's the more 'practical' plan coming up next, which isn't quite as heady and radical).

So how much space should someone get? What's the baseline?

I'm not too sure about the exact amount of space, but obviously it would be small. Enough to cover the basics. I wouldn't like to put a square metre figure on it, but basically a bathroom, bedroom, living room, kitchen type amount of space. A one person apartment essentially. Though you could theoretically quantify it by the metre if you wanted to get really technical.

I would then have a few rules.

1) Only someone who doesn't already own a property would be entitled to one.
2) They would have to be sold (or simply relinquished) when or if the owner buys another property.

..and I'm including the second rule here just in case it's needed, as I would imagine that under such a system it would be largely redundant anyway. Because..

a) Someone buying a larger property would naturally want to sell their little 'basic' home to help fund that purchase

and..

b) There wouldn't be much value in holding on to it as in a world where everyone already has a rent-free basic home there would be few people wanting to rent such a place. (Though there would perhaps be some market for people wanting to rent a second home, etc).

2 become 1

Another attractive thing about this scheme is that if two single people get together between the two of them they will effectively have a 'two bedroom' place. A small family home. Perhaps there could even be a way where such people could trade or swap their separate 'basic' apartments so they could get two that were next to each other or attached.

In a place with an extra bedroom you can raise one or two children. If you can afford to buy a larger home then you can have more children, but if not you would be limited by your basic means.

(Obviously I'm idealistically assuming that people would be responsible and live within their means here. So it's a little fanciful, but nevertheless I think most people would deem such a situation quite fair. Plus, after all, in modern societies people tend to have fewer children anyway. So it would suit people fairly nicely.)

the Orange Economy

This housing situation would also work in tandem with the idea of giving people access to creative space, as in the orange on a laptop article - i.e. space as an economic resource.

People would be entitled to a basic living space to live in, and likewise access to a certain amount of public space to create in. Grow food, etc. Like an allotment, or studio.

Make it happen..

Obviously this is all quite an ambitious plan. The state doling out homes to people fee, rent and mortgage free is a big ask. There are also no doubt numerous holes that can be instantly picked in this idea by anyone caring to read thus far. However, if it could be made to work it would surely beat living in a world where ninety-nine percent of people spend their lives struggling to pay for the bit of space they lie down in at night. So we owe it to ourselves and others to at least try to envision and enact something better.

It would be interesting to trial something like this in a small city or country. Get the government to build enough tiny 'basic' homes for an up and coming generation of people - say everyone who turns 21 in 2030 - then see what happens. See if it works. (I'm saying 21, but I think 25 or 30 would probably be a more suitable age to begin such a scheme, as younger people would just party in these places if the opportunity fell to them xD). It would be super-difficult to insulate such a trial from the wider world of course, but it could be done perhaps in the same way that Universal Basic Income trials are done.

If we can give people free money, why can't we try giving people free space?

The More Practical, Halfway House Solution

The more practical solution I promised I would share is pretty much the same as the above ..but this time the homes (or the spaces) are not free. They're just super cheap.

In fact, this is what I would do now were I in government. I would mass build lots of these basic homes or apartments. Massively subsidise the endeavour, and then sell them very cheaply. With the stipulation being that only people who aren't already home owners can get the discount.

When I say super cheap I mean basically the price of a car - i.e. the amount of money an average person can easily save in a year. So in this regard, even though the space would not be a free birthright, it would at least be affordable, and wouldn't require a lifetime of payment and toil. Once the process was started it would then create a conveyor belt effect, moving more and more people onto the property ladder.

Given an increasing number of people are on welfare of some sort these days it would also make sense for governments in the long run. As at the moment they're often the ones paying the rent or housing benefit anyway. If everyone has a rent-free bit of space then there is no rent to pay. So the burden would diminish and eventually disappear.

Likewise, once the initial 'basic' housing stock is built up to sufficient levels the need to build more diminishes. As noted earlier, if an owner of one of these properties then chooses to buy a nicer or larger home they can then sell the basic property on. In this halfway, practical situation they can sell it on to another person, or they can sell it back to the government.

In the 'ideal' scenario, where everyone is already guaranteed one of these rent-free homes, the government would simply buy it back, and at a nice cheap price because there would be little wider demand. It would then be ready to be doled out to the next generation.

So space, but not as we know it.

You Can't Grow An Orange On A Laptop

After last night's pitifully mild eureka moment I thought I'd follow today by commenting on that LSE article a little bit more. It should then offer a nice segue into a post about housing. (I should really create tags for these posts so I can clump them all together).

The article stated;

If the Bank [of England] announces a further monetary policy stimulus of £200bn, that equates to £3000 for every person in the UK.

It then went on to state that this could be given to people in monthly instalments of £250 over a twelve month period.

I very much like the fairness of this idea. I also like the way it would stimulate the economy from the bottom up, and in proportion to the population of a given area. However, the obvious worry is inflation. Of course, you could argue that the Bank of England injecting money is inflationary anyway, but I would suspect that the unfairness of how it's generally injected now guards against this a little bit. If the money is just handed over to 'normal' people then all of a sudden those normal people buying bread, milk and everything else will be able to pay more for those things. Meaning prices will automatically rise. With the current way of doing things the majority remain just as poor as they were the day before though, so basic everyday commodities are kept in check.

This is why I'd probably be much more cautious were I to begin introducing something like this. I'd really trickle the money in. Ideally in quantities where the recipient barely notices the change in their bank balance. So as not to radically change spending habits. Then gradually over time build things up from there.

To be resourceful ...you need resources

This brings me on to the main point of this blog post. It's all well and good giving people more money, but if the real world situation doesn't change then inflation will just eat away that extra cash. People need actual resources. To be resourceful you need resources, and money isn't really a resource in the true sense. It's more just a way of measuring real world resources.

The most important resource in my opinion is space. Not outta space :) ..just normal regular space. To build or create something you need a space to do that in. To grow food you need space to plant things. To set up shop you need premises to do that. This is the major thing that people lack though, so to make the economy flourish we need to find a way to allow people the space to do these things.

I always compare it to online creativity. There is infinite online or digital space, and consequently we have a blossoming of digital produce. Just look at all the memes, music, YouTube videos, etc that get created on a daily basis. We have a super-abundance of digital produce. An enormous harvest.

Society has been given online/digital space and tools and it's been incredibly industrious and productive with them. Take blogs alone for instance. There are thousand of people going to the effort of doing what I'm doing right now. I'm ten a penny sadly (!) There's no shortage of it. You could read new blog posts every day and never run out.

Now imagine if people had the same opportunity to create when it came to producing food, clothing, furniture, etc. I'm sure if the opportunity was opened up we'd likewise have a super-abundance of produce. Especially when combined with the digital tools we have. Making things requires actual space though, you can't grow an orange on a laptop. You need real actual space and real actual resources ..and this is what most people do not have access to.

We need a way of giving people space - ideally rent free. If not, then super cheaply. After all, it's not like we don't have it. We have empty high streets galore (even more so after Covid). We have de-industrialised areas lying stagnant and derelict. Printing money alone will not link industrious and creative people with these spaces.

And when I say give people space I don't necessarily mean it has to be for a rigid 'specific reason' either. Or even to specifically make money, such as opening up a shop for example. I mean just allow people the space to do stuff, anything - create, play around, experiment. Whether for their own pleasure or need, or for some more ambitious reason. Exactly as we do with online space. Minecraft these derelict areas. Sure, some people will idly waste time, as happens online, but many will do things that make us infinitely richer. Mirroring the online wealth and abundance we produce.

QE + space = oranges