• OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
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    20 days ago

    Such a badly written title.

    I read that thinking, yeah it sounds dystopian but who has coins, and found out:

    1. Most of them aren’t coin operated.
    2. It sounds like they’re getting less common.

    Should have called it “the rise and fall of pay-to-use elevators”.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Coin-operated elevators sounds like a libertarian paradise!

      Coin-operated elevators are a libertarian hellscape!

      A single paid fare on the elevator will take the passenger to any floor. While their are fixed costs on the elevator car and the initial installation, the rest of the costs incurred on elevator operation are variable based upon how many floors the elevator traverses before dispensing its passenger. The same coin that takes a passenger to the very top floor of a 25 story building will also only take a passenger one floor up. Where are the variable fare rates so that each passenger only pays for what they are consuming, and nothing more?!

      Because much higher costs are incurred from the top floor passenger than the one-floor-up passenger, it means the one-floor-up passenger is subsidizing the top floor passenger. The top floor passenger is a parasite sucking value out of the system without returning an equal profit margin as the one-floor-up passenger. What we’ve got here is socialism!

      /s

      • jumping redditor [they/them]@sh.itjust.works
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        19 days ago

        you aren’t thinking of the little guy, the one that takes advantage of the coin operated elevator to lift multi ton barrels and drop them to generate slightly more electricity than they could have gotten from the electric company

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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      19 days ago

      Really? Because if it’s installed by the apartment owners association, it’s just another way to collect money for repairs instead of a monthly fee

        • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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          19 days ago

          Yes, you obviously still have a monthly fee for the maintenance fund of the roof, walls, plumbing, everything that every apartment uses. But since not everyone uses the elevator, is it truly fair that everyone has to pay for that?

          • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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            19 days ago

            No. You will just pay the fee that you paid before. Plus the elevator fee

            And yes, it is fair. It’s part of being in a social community

            • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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              19 days ago

              No. You will just pay the fee that you paid before. Plus the elevator fee

              Then that means that when there’s an emergency, there’s a bigger fund available. Still a good thing considering how hard it is to get people to increase maintenance fees in some apartment buildings. They’ll let the place fall apart before considering an increase.

  • ArkanianOffshoot@feddit.org
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    20 days ago

    Reminds me of that scene in Ubik where Joe Chip has to put a coin in his front door for it to open lol

    The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.”

    He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”

    “I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.”

    …he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.

    “You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    19 days ago

    A useful side effect: people started walking more.

    The reason that a lot of European cities are about four or five stories is because prior to the elevator, that’s about how high people were willing to climb.

    If you live on the tenth floor of a building, say, an elevator is really more than an optional luxury.

  • LemUser@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    There is a bin store in my town and it pulls in about 400 or more customers a day. At least on $12 and $1 days. With so many people wanting to use his toilet and his water tax increasing, the owner installed a pay toilet. Of course people were taping over the lock so he stationed a security guy by the door. Now customers are going out behind his building to do their business and you can smell it as you drive up. Who carries change? I don’t even shop at stores that require me to insert a quarter for a cart. Anyway, a rounded backward key works. My sister now carries spare keys with her and I told her she could just as easily carry quarters but it is the principle. I just don’t shop there, on principle. I also don’t shop at membership clubs. If BJ’s, Sams or Costco wants my money, they have to pay me to come in. Otherwise, it is bin stores and farmers markets for me.

  • Sunflier@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    Thank god for the Americans with Disabilities Act cause they’d already be doing it in the US if they could.