
Stop Buying Things and Start Borrowing Them - mathgenius
https://www.makechange.aspiration.com/articles/2016/11/23/this-former-accountant-wants-you-to-stop-buying-things-and-start-borrowing-them
======
throwaway2016a
I pay to be a member of the local maker space. But they have a lot of
equipment I would never dream of buying (like a plasma cutter and later
cutter) and some that I could buy but rather wouldn't (like a 3d printer and a
bench oscilloscope).

But members break the tools all the time and don't take responsibility for it.
Even though there are cameras and people have to swipe their card at the door
it still happens.

I think one reason sharing is not as common is because people are jerks.

I remember when I was a kid we used to borrow each other's NES games all the
time and never give them back.

~~~
chaosbutters314
Or it is because some people are assholes.

I broke a viscometer at work because I dropped something like 2 cm since I'm a
clutz. I tried fixing it and rechecking the equipment but to not success. Now,
we a big company with tons of money so this should be no big deal.

We call in the vendor and they spend 4 hours fixing it and we spend 10k.

Well, I get bitched out by 4 people on separate occasion as and constantly
reminded after repeatedly apologizing and coming forth about my mistake.

That is why people dont come forward. Accidents happen but some people act
like it was intentional assholeness.

I couldn't stop apologizing and feeling bad for a tiny slip of hand. But I was
crucified and almost lost my job for something that took a 4 hour visit from
the vendor.

People would come forward when things break if people had better managerial,
parenting, and conflict resolution skills.

~~~
andai
That's an interesting perspective. It made me realize, I don't like admitting
I screwed up, if I can fix it before anyone finds out!

~~~
nojvek
If you have a maker space you better have a budget for repairs and somehow
include this in the fees.

Things will break as people learn how to create. Part of the journey.

If you shout at them they'll probably lose interest.

My rule is "borrow to try, buy if you're serious about it"

------
jdietrich
Fifty years ago, you would have just knocked on your neighbour's door or asked
the guys at bowling night. Wanting to borrow a drill or a tent isn't new; not
knowing anyone to borrow it from is a peculiarly modern affliction.

I applaud any effort to rebuild our fractured society.

~~~
Vektorweg
The problem is, that you have to move for every new job. Our parents and
grandparents lived in the same very spot for decades.

~~~
evanlivingston
You don't have to move for new jobs, you have to move for the kinds of jobs
people on HN want.

~~~
throwaway2016a
Not necessarily true. I know people who have moved to get low paying jobs at
retail stores because the closest place hiring unskilled labor would have been
a several hours of driving every day.

Not so much any more, I think the market has improved. But still, most of the
low to middle income people I know don't live in their home town any more
because there simple aren't a lot of job in small town America so they go to
cities.

~~~
Avshalom
Or just getting priced out of your apartment, that 2.5% raise can't hold up
against 5% lease increase for long if you were already on the cusp of
affordability.

------
glup
Thinking of this as a caching problem, there need to be hyperlocal borrowing
like at the level of apartment buildings or city blocks. The 6-unit apartment
building I live in has a shared area in the basement—power tools, a shop vac,
brewing equipment, knife sharpener, pentalobe screwdrivers, a weedwhacker, a
multimeter, etc.) This complements the tool lending library (which my city
has) which furnishes lower frequency needs. The hyperlocal thing is also a
nice way to meet your neighbors (oh wow you also have a lot of pentalobe
screwdrivers!) and share skills (I just learned how to fertilize houseplants).

For higher value items, I've been meaning to extend the above apartment-wide
setup with a Google Doc inventory of things that people are willing to share,
but want where participants want face-to-face confirmation, like loaning a
camera or a mountain bike. I wish there were a way (a social institution
moreso than a technical solution) to make quick contracts for borrowing
things. I'm privileged enough to be able to replace minor things, but I am
definitely relucatant to loan big things if I don't know if a friend can/would
replace the thing if something bad happened on their watch. And no I don't
want to rent them—I don't like the cognitive overhead of markets, and that's
not the point.

~~~
jameskegel
This reminds me somewhat of a social conundrum I've been experiencing lately;
the thing is, in some cases I love most of my neighbors, however there are
always the few who won't/don't value communal items/space. The group of those
residents who want to just live harmoniously with their neighbors outnumbers
the subset of residents who care enough about the rules to confront those
breaking them. The passive group vilifies and subjugates those who try to
mention anything to bad actors abusing the space, because they feel it will
only rock the boat, and the ones breaking the rules shout the loudest.

If this sounds oddly specific, that's because it is- In my community we have a
communal pool for our apartment block of 10-15 units. In general, everyone
gets along, but there do exist problems where self governance and trust have
failed, as far as taking care of shared property. Those who just want to live
peacefully are retreating into their homes, those who care enough to say
anything have been dismissed by the tenant in question, labeled as racist,
bigoted or otherwise are browbeaten by the more fearful tenants into not
reporting the problems.

In our case, it is a swimming pool, and a struggle with a tenant and her
friends who sit around the pool drinking alcohol loudly all day, never once
leaving, who enter the shallow end of the pool about twice an hour for 10
seconds, swishing their hands in the water around their waist before they
exit. There is a restroom in her apartment which is less than 20 feet from the
pool; I'm not positive what's going on in those 10 seconds, but people like
myself who's balconies overlook the pool are noting this, and nobody wants to
swim anymore because of it. Any suggestions about just talking to the tenant
elicit a gasp and dirty look from the pacifist crowd. How would you, dear
reader, handle a delicate situation like this?

After realizing how futile any complaints would be, I've stopped swimming
until I find the respectful and correct way to put a resolution on this.

This personal anecdote may have strayed from its target, but relating the
situation to the void felt somewhat cathartic.

------
akeck
I do three things to cut consumption: borrow, rent, and "rent". "Rent" is buy
high quality/high value, and resell for a significant fraction of retail when
you are done with it. I learned it from a friend at work. She bought a Dell
Deal high-end desktop with free monitor. She sold the monitor immediately,
which covered most of her layout for the initial deal. Then, three years
later, she sold the desktop for about 60% of retail. The items were being
enjoyed by new owners, and she recovered the value she put into them.

~~~
joshvm
The other option is to buy used items that strongly retain value, like camera
lenses. Most of my glass is worth about the same as when I bought it from
eBay, because there's nothing that really depreciates and good lenses are good
lenses.

~~~
zanny
I only buy used cell phones. I have an S5 and Note 4 right now I got combined
for half the cost of a new S8, and I got both in mint condition a year ago.

You really can't get away with that with laptops or desktops because the need
for fans causes a lot of component wear and environments are so divergent you
can't trust used sellers to not have a lot of the internals damaged. Or the
keyboards and trackpads - heavy wear or use or just abuse and one damaged key
can ruin a purchase.

Phones are nice and self contained enough that looking at the outside
generally tells you the condition of the inside.

~~~
icebraining
_You really can 't get away with that with laptops or desktops because the
need for fans causes a lot of component wear and environments are so divergent
you can't trust used sellers to not have a lot of the internals damaged._

I've had luck buying laptops (specifically Thinkpads) previously owned by
companies and being replaced by lot. Probably due to a mix of better
environment, better treatment by workers and more likely to get fixed if
broken.

~~~
willhslade
I'm also going to chime in and agree. Thinkpads are tanks; I've got a
collection of about 8 running either Ubuntu or Windows 10 that just won't die,
and are fine for browsing.

~~~
artursapek
Even the newer ones that are on par with mac laptops are solid. The carbon is
as thin and actually much lighter, and still feels really sturdy.

------
eponeponepon
Possessions-as-a-Service? No, can't see it taking off.

In all seriousness, as others have noted, I see this as a rather damning
comment on how badly human contact is getting abstracted away to businesses
more and more. It's rather sad that people no longer feel able to just talk to
others without some organisation to mediate.

~~~
ball_of_lint
What about things that aren't owned by anyone in your social group, and are
too expensive/rarely used to justify buying yourself? Say the chocolate
fountain: no one really needs it bad enough to buy one, but if you can sell
access to one for some small fraction of that cost it could become a
reasonable expense. A similar logic can be applied to a table saw, or to a
dremel, or to a soldering iron. This service removes circumstance and adds
reliability to borrowing.

And maybe it does reflect something sad about socialization today, but that
doesn't mean it isn't useful or good.

~~~
ghaff
There are rental places for that kind of thing. The chocolate fountain and
table saw are good examples. But soldering iron? $15 on Amazon. Dremel is more
but is actually a good example of a tool you'll find use for doing lots of
things. (And you tend to chew up cutting discs etc. if you borrow so you'll
probably need to buy parts in any case.)

------
ktta
Hasn't the media been lamenting this exact behavior of millennials though?
Houses would be bought previously, now more people are renting, vandwelling or
just living with their parents. Less cars are being purchases because of
people 'Ubering' everywhere. People rent more stuff thereby slowing down many
industries. The future looks glum for many of them (especially the diamond
industry)

Student loan was shown to be the primary deterrent. Of course what wasn't to
blame was that the disparity between median wage and comfortable life is
growing. Another thing they fail to attribute this to is that millennials are
smarter, avoiding the spendthrift mistakes like large mortgages which tie them
down to a place and make them paycheck away from homelessness.

source: Just google 'Millennials aren't buying <insert anything here>'

~~~
samhain
I tried this, and one of the top business insider articles has a similar
perspective as your comment here, blaming the baby boomers.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-caused-
millennia...](http://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-caused-millennials-
destructive-spending-habits-2017-6)

~~~
ktta
(I kinda went offtopic but I think it is worth telling)

That article seems to be overreaching about what's 'killing' industries a
little bit. The industry that's _really_ in trouble is the diamond industry.
That industry wasn't mentioned anywhere except a tweet which was dismissed[1]

There are downsides (apart from being expensive of course) like forced labor
in Botswana, etc. Even if they are specifically advertised as not Blood
Diamonds, people just want to get away from that industry. Mossanite is an
alternative that is getting popular.

This might seem like a very small thing to care about, but I'll say it has
wide ranging ripple effects. Millions of people depend on the unreasonable
margin that diamonds provide, ranging from specialists to the stores that
litter every single town because of course, people _had_ to have a diamond
shop. That was more important, than say, a blood bank. On first look, it might
not seem economically feasible, but just the absurd lengths people go through
to pay for that one diamond keeps the industry alive -- and thriving. Culture
is the _only_ thing to blame (or thank)

On the flip side of the unemployment that will be caused in developed
countries, you have to consider the sheer amount of labor that is put (or
forced) in Africa. Because of the value of diamonds, many were forced into
labor and that will hopefully go down.

[1]:[https://twitter.com/UweBollocks/status/748679268599758848](https://twitter.com/UweBollocks/status/748679268599758848)
\- this tweet was embedded in the article. Shame that it wasn't talked about
in detail

PS: I'd recommend the movie Blood Diamond

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450259/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450259/)

------
marcosdumay
And inflict myself transaction inefficiencies every time I want to do
anything?

It's hard enough to get enough time to do something, imagine requiring that
time to be in commercial hours, prefaced by a drive or walk somewhere, a talk
with somebody, then postfaced by the same. And then you forgot something...

~~~
ball_of_lint
I imagine that for many people, that is far less expensive than needing to buy
everything they might need once a year, find storage for it, and go get
it/return it/ to that storage. It quite possibly this wouldn't be convenient
for something like a set of wrenches which you might be able to buy outright,
but for someone who needs them only once a year and has other things to
borrow, this could be very reasonable.

------
djsumdog
I lived in a city that had a Tool Library; similar concept for tools.

I once lived out of two bags for 11 months. After living in a one bedroom
apartment by myself for about a year, I was surprised just how much I had to
sell, give away and git rid of. I even tried to keep in my head that I wasn't
/really/ buying anything, but basically renting it until I took off again. I
always tried to buy used or from thrift stores whenever possible.

[http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/](http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/)

[http://khanism.org/perspective/return-to-
minimalism/](http://khanism.org/perspective/return-to-minimalism/)

------
setq
I wasn't aware that borrowing things wasn't a thing these days. I'm forever
borrowing and lending things. Just yesterday I borrowed a hammer drill from a
friend because it's ridiculous buying one to drill some holes for a curtain
rail.

------
mc32
This seems apt for very dense locations where the premium is on surface space.
Unsure of how cultures might be willing to receive the idea, but given space
constraints, the idea might gain traction in Tokyo or Amsterdam, Shanghai,
Mumbai, etc.

Also take the idea to places where people aren't used to having and owning
these possessions --get them while it's still a nascent idea.

------
grogenaut
Remember you can always "rent" things from craigslist if you're fine with
spending the time hitting "relist" for a few weeks while you wait for someone
to buy it.

I'm currently doing this with a car for my visiting son. Too young to rent for
but not a big deal to buy an old car for 2 months and sell it when he leaves.
Basically paid the registration fee for 2 months + gas which is $300 for a 2
month rental. Then the "fun" (which it is to some people) of dealing with
cragistlist crazies while selling it. I actually enjoy dealing with the
flakes, putting myself in their shoes and getting practice negotiating.

~~~
tome
I do wonder if this is not the happy medium.

If someone wants to borrow my spanner for a few days perhaps I'll just sell it
to them for the replacement price with the guarantee that I'll buy it back
from them if it is returned in the same condition it was sold.

~~~
jnordwick
In finance those types of contracts are called swaps. So there is a precedent
:)

------
Envec83
Isn't this what the "shared economy" is about?

Still, I find it interesting that he managed to raise $30k on IndieGoGo. It
signals that people care about those ideas/ideals.

~~~
a3n
No, the shared economy is about corporations paying for peoples' time as
piece-work, while avoiding or minimizing tax, benefit and liability expenses.

------
moultano
I've come to the conclusion that the only reason new baby equipment is ever
sold is due to baby showers. There's an extremely liquid market for this stuff
since it spends less than a year with each owner.

~~~
djhworld
I saw this the other day [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-40190007/the-
woman-who...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-40190007/the-woman-who-
wants-you-to-rent-used-baby-clothes)

It makes sense, I don't have children so I don't know if $55 a month is
expensive or not.

~~~
moultano
Seems more expensive than the alternatives, but that depends how much time it
takes to seek out used clothes via friends, mothers groups, thrift stores. If
that is time consuming for you then it might be worth it.

------
siliconc0w
I'm fortunate that I actually know my neighbors, we bbq, and we do favors and
borrow each other's stuff all the time. This sort of community seems to be
getting rare. I like the idea of the 'library of things' but feel like I'd
might implement it as a P2P borrowing app to encourage people to talk to their
neighbors.

The problem is that people aren't 'settling down' and instead are frequently
moving around for work. This makes it hard to build up communities with the
people around you. Your work becomes your 'stand-in' community - which has
it's disadvantages. This has ramifications for health and happiness far beyond
borrowing stuff. The studies that show people living longest aren't correlated
with western health care or even good diet - it's the strength of their bond
with their community.

------
delinka
I tend to find that I can't trust those who borrow my things to actually care
for my things. They come back absolutely broken.

~~~
alacombe
this is why you lend your fixer-upper tools (say, the first chainsaw / drill
you bought), and keep the good stuff for yourself.

------
grantlmiller
I love this overall concept. In LA a startup launched last year that will not
only rent you the random stuff you don't need to buy, but they actually drop
it off & pick it back up from you (www.joymode.com). They organize it all by
experiences (ie not so much about tools) but instead here are things you need
for backyard movie night, or camping, or pasta making etc. I'm a big fan of
owning fewer things... frees people up to move more easily (not being able to
move homes is huge cause of under-employment).

------
audi100quattro
We still live in an ownership society AFAIK. Owning your own home, car, the
vast majority of products you use pays. Owning multiples of each pays even
more. The parts of society where this isn't true is media, and it's a shame.

You should buy what you need with the rights you're entitled to, and figure
out the difference between what you need and what you really don't.

~~~
knorker
Someone with a username matching a fairly fancy car manufacturer would think
that, wouldn't they? :-)

I _so_ don't miss owning a car. If you don't need a car for daily commute then
taxis and renting is much much cheaper for when you do need a car.

And it's not just the money. The life drain of owning a car is a big cost.

If I lived in Houston I'd reluctantly own a car though.

~~~
threesixandnine
Do you have any children?

I owned cars from my 18th birthday and a significant amount of my earnings
went into them. Now that I am closer to 40 than to 30 and living at a place
that can actually provide me with a decent public transport I can see myself
not owning a car but the thing is that I have a kid and really don't want to
tell my wife and my daughter that we have to go on a bus or wait for a cab to
go to the nearby lake for a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. Also I lease a car
for around 200 GBP per month which is less than what I would pay for public
transport. With those 200 GBP per month and for a three year lease tires and
maintenance are included. What's not to like?

~~~
knorker
200 GBP a month is a lot of Ubering. That can be like 5-10 hours in a cab per
month (depending on trip lengths). And on top of that you don't need to pay
for fuel, insurance, parking, mechanic, cleaning, MOT, etc... etc... (ok, so
you mentioned "maintenance included", so that's a pretty sweet deal, actually.
still not worth it and you're not comparing apples to apples)

What's your total cost that you should compare to? 600 GBP a month maybe? 700?
(maybe with your deal only double the number you said)

I'd rather have "wait for uber" over "searching for parking spot" any day. Or
I rent a zipcar. You could rent a zipcar every weekend and it'd still be
cheaper than owning a car.

But no, I'm not in your position, and there are things you don't mention that
I know about, like child car seats, that has made a friend of mine keep his
car.

------
Mister_Snuggles
My local public library has a Makerspace[0] with 3D printers, recording
studios, plus a bunch of other stuff. I haven't checked it out yet, but it
seems like every time I visit the web site there is something new. Plus
they're renovating (right now the building has been stripped all the way down
to its concrete structure) the main branch of the library, it looks like the
renovation will have a pretty big section for the Makerspace. Access is
available to library members, and membership is free for Edmonton residents so
there's virtually no barriers to entry.

There's also the Edmonton New Technology Society[1], which was the original
Makerspace in Edmonton. Unfortunately for me, the location means that I'm
unable to visit regularly.

[0]
[https://www.epl.ca/browse_program/makerspace/](https://www.epl.ca/browse_program/makerspace/)

[1] [https://ents.ca/](https://ents.ca/)

------
kleer001
"Access-to not ownership-of" VS "The tragedy of the commons"

It's as eternal and essential balance as CPU vs MEMORY.

------
intrasight
Now that our local Home Depot does tool rental, I have in that a good option
for many tools that I rarely use. But even then you have to be strategic. I
rented a gas-powered masonary saw. The cost to rent the blade was just half
the cost of buying a new one - so I bought the blade to use with my rented
saw. Will be using it again a third time soon.

I did grow up on the phrase "he who dies with the most tools wins", so it's
taken me some time to transition to rent/loan. But I've got so many tools and
supplies now, and I've reached a point in my life where I'd like to do more
and own less, and all those tools are now somewhat a burden. I bet I'm not
alone and that these tool libraries could probably get a lot of high quality
donations.

------
failrate
My coworker is one of those guys who is an old man before his time. He loves
scotch and working with tools. Sadly, he lives in a small apartment, so he
doesn't have a real workspace. I've offered to let him come over for some tool
time. We will see if he bites.

------
emersonrsantos
It's not sharing or borrowing if you pay for it; it's called renting.

------
rekado
There's a shop like this in Berlin called Leila (for Leihladen). I very much
hope that this idea takes off. Ideally this would not have to be a private
enterprise, but could be an extension of the public library systems like it is
done in some places in Finland: [http://finland.fi/life-society/finnish-
libraries-offer-new-a...](http://finland.fi/life-society/finnish-libraries-
offer-new-adventures/)

------
throw_323213
Moving is definitely an issue here; lugging 10+kilos of tools across voltages
and miles is not a particularly enticing proposition. I had an awesome time
with the community bike shops both in UW and in North Seattle; even built my
current bike there :D Anywho, if you're in Seattle, please do consider helping
these people out before their lease runs out in Oct.

[http://neseattletoollibrary.org/](http://neseattletoollibrary.org/)

------
Animats
There are many tool rental outlets. The tool quality tends to stabilize at
"almost broken", but they exist.

~~~
dagw
I looked into renting a table saw recently and I could basically buy a second
hand one for less than what it would have cost to rent for a week.

~~~
gehwartzen
Yup you can very often just buy the tool you need on CL use it for a weekend
and sell it to the next person at pretty much the same price. I suppose this
is actually a nice model as it forces you to not abuse the tool so you can
still sell it for a good price.

------
edsheeran
How does indemnification work in this case? Some of these tools could be
dangerous for weekend warriors.

~~~
kijin
This is basically a rental service with a fixed yearly fee, so I guess they
could draw up some sort of standard rental contract similar to the one that
Home Depot uses. Maybe add some large ugly warning stickers, too.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
How does that work for sleeping bags or chocolate fondue set?

Those are definitely two things I would _not_ borrow from anywhere.

~~~
ghaff
Outdoor stores and the like rent sleeping bags all the time. Im sure you can
rent something like a chocolate fountain from one of those party supply
places. A basic fondue set (which you could probably rig up with what you have
in a house) is likely too cheap to justify the overhead of renting. That is
sort of the classic borrow from a neighbor if you can.

------
adultSwim
I love my local tool library. There are a lot of tools that I'll basically
only ever use once. Instead of buying them and having them sit on the shelf, I
can just check it out (for way less money) Annual membership is about what one
cheap tool costs.

------
stevenj
At first glance, this seems silly and something that is unlikely to ever take
off.

But feeling that way, at least initially, about a startup that becomes big
often seems to share that characteristic.

------
m3kw9
Only certain things can be borrowed, like one time use things. If it's long
term, it's be a better investment to buy than to pay each time

------
paulkrush
AI will make sharing like this easier, but at the same time it will make
things cheaper.

People go camping in Hawaii, buy gear and give it way when they leave.

~~~
kakarot
How does AI fit into that picture?

~~~
notburnt
How else are you going to get funding?

------
shujito
I had to enable javascript to read the article...

------
jimmaswell
The law of headlines applies to commands in headlines too, in my experience.

------
epx
I don't like to borrow things so go ask someone else!!

------
TheRealPomax
Stop requiring JS and start serving HTML first.

------
EGreg
Shouldn't there be an app for that?

If I were to make such an app, how could I get a company to underwrite and
provide insurance for these items?

~~~
kleer001
No, it's a post saturated market. It's been tried again and again and failed
every time.

~~~
EGreg
But how does the INSURANCE POLICY work for it

~~~
kleer001
Each item costs so little I don't think it would work very well.

------
curiouscat321
A little off topic, but does anybody use Aspiration's products? What do you
think of them?

------
Kiro
Naive question: isn't consumption key to economic growth?

~~~
Kiro
Instead of downvoting maybe you can answer why it's wrong? I put "naive
question" since I presume it's wrong and would like to be lectured.

------
wcr3
stop titling articles like this...

------
bullen
original article 0x"break"

HN article 31x"break"

nuf said.

------
coding123
If this gets huge, how will it create net positive number of jobs?

~~~
reitanqild
Ideally I'd guess because people use less money, can make savings, can start
companies/other useful activities.

~~~
jimmaswell
People spending less money isn't good for the economy. It's a component of the
downward spiral of recessions.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
We aren't here to serve the economy.

~~~
jimmaswell
The point in question was if it would create jobs.

------
pascalxus
This is a great idea. Now, anyone have a strategy for how to get your wife to
agree to it? haha.

