Coin-Operated Elevators in Condominiums and Apartment Buildings Are Becoming More Common
https://www.gadgetreview.com/coin-operated-elevators-in-condominiums-and-apartment-buildings-are-becoming-more-common
129 points · 53 comments · view on lemmy.world
53 Comments
OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml · 101 pts · 8d
Such a badly written title.
I read that thinking, yeah it sounds dystopian but who has coins, and found out:
Should have called it "the rise and fall of pay-to-use elevators".
TheMadIrishman@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 8d
Thanks for saving me to “wtf” click.
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 9 pts · 7d
That's not badly written, that's out right lying.
WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 43 pts · 8d
L.P.D.: Libertarian Police Department
anewfox@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 7d
when i watched ds6 all the way through for the first time, there was an episode on the ferengi homeworld that immediately reminded me of this story because quark has to put a quarter in a chair to sit on it.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 7d
"family business" definitely sets the bar
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/469.htm
riskable@programming.dev · 25 pts · 8d
Coin-operated elevators sounds like a libertarian paradise!
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 8d
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@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 7d
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
bajabound@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 8d
Wait till you try the credit card machines on the toilets.
Zron@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 8d
I’ll piss on the floor.
Fuck it, I’ll piss on the card reader
GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca · 2 pts · 8d
Careful, urine is conductive.
riskable@programming.dev · 1 pts · 7d
If you do that urine trouble!
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 8d
Next: coin operated songbirds
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · -3 pts · 7d
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
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 7d
*in addition to a monthly fee
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · -3 pts · 7d
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 · 5 pts · 7d
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 · -2 pts · 7d
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.
MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place · 2 pts · 7d
Yes. You might not need it today, but you might tomorrow.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · -3 pts · 7d
Then you pay tomorrow?
Obviously the people in those buildings voted for this system, otherwise it wouldn't have been done. I suspect it means that maybe 10-20% of people were lazy and used the elevator and everyone else was tired of paying for it.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 8d
No. They are not.
ArkanianOffshoot@feddit.org · 18 pts · 8d
Reminds me of that scene in Ubik where Joe Chip has to put a coin in his front door for it to open lol
WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 16 pts · 8d
Lots of Americans have watched the Wallace and Gromit shows and movies.
Probably, fewer of them understand that the robotic moon-dwelling antagonist in A Grand Day Out was a coin-operated heating and cooking appliance, modeled after the sort that actually existed and operated in post-War Britain.
I'm not in favor of coin-op elevators. But there are precedents. The ownership class will nickel-and-dime you to death if they think they can. They view the rest of us as a resource to be strip-mined.
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 7d
Not exactly a one for one comparison. What you're describing is just a gas meter. I've lived in houses that had them. It's a way of paying your gas bill on a pay-as-you-go basis instead of monthly. Annoying, but not exactly a great example of the kind of rent seeking you're pointing at, since it's just a method of paying for a thing that everyone would expect to pay for (under any form of capitalism, at any rate).
zwerg@feddit.org · 2 pts · 7d
Coin operated meters are usually more expensive per watt than billed ones. They normally work with a card that you can charge up at the local corner shop these days.
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 7d
Sure, but the point is that they're not a good example of "rent seeking", which is specifically where companies require things that used to be included in a fixed cost and break it out as a separate payment, at no benefit to the user.
spacegoat@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 8d
So are hammer attacks
a9249@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 6d
There's literally an episode of DS9 where this is used as a gag on the ferrengi home-world to show the horrors of out of control capitalism.
Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
Two slips?! I'll take the stairs!
tal@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 7d
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.
farting_gorilla@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 7d
China is like this, any building with more than 6 floors is required by law to have an elevator.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 6d
4 in Germany. And I'm not complaining 😁
bananabread@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 8d
Coins are becoming less common
Crackhappy@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 8d
Well I've heard of a Coin operated boy but not an elevator.
SillyDude@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 8d
That unlocked a song I haven't heard in years, I miss 2000s edm when it was just fun and not $700 festivals.
https://youtu.be/IHqSUHN69-0
LemUser@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 8d
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.
gothic_lemons@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 7d
Bin store is like convince store? Or like a junk shop?
yoyoyopo5@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 7d
Next up: Slide your card to use the shitter.
Varesti@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 7d
People already miss the toilet when it's free.
dbtng@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 7d
I would be happy to take the stairs, so long as that thing was smashed off the wall.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 8d
I like people in gym clothes who get off on the 2nd or third floor.
Nastybutler@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 7d
Maybe it's leg day and they're spent
tigermountain@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 7d
HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 6d
this sounds a bit like a comedy story about if libertarianism was the central philosophy of a society.
Sunflier@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Thank god for the Americans with Disabilities Act cause they'd already be doing it in the US if they could.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world · -38 pts · 8d
It was like this in the 70s in my building
TBH I would prefer if it was still like this, because now that is free and everyone is using it, I'm paying €200/year for electric and maintenance for an elevator that I take once a month (split bill between all apartments)
Edit: I take it once a month because I live at the second floor and it's faster to take the stairs, not because I'm renting to someone else
Melonpoly@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 8d
Yeah, let's charge people for every little bit of the building you in particular don't use. Fuck it, coin operated fire suppression systems because Wispy2891 doesn't want to pay for the maintenance in a building he or she lives in.
REDACTED@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 8d
So wait, do you also have to pay for building repairs, maintenance, every time roof or pipes need to be replaced, etc.? Where I live, people just pay rent and landlords use that money to maintain the building instead of charging for things like bulbs in stairway or an elevator in building seperately
MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 8d
I don't know Wispys situation in particular, but in a lot of condos (apartments that people own), on top of a mortgage there is often a maintenance fee that goes directly to a special account for building repairs or maintenance. Then for emergencies there might be additional "special assessments" to cover unexpected expenses. If those are not paid they can exert pressure through a lien on the property or other means. Most often owners will be able to see exactly what the maintenance fee covers. This helps keep the process transparent. So you know $20 of each fee goes to monthly landscaping or whatever so you can do the math to make sure there's no fraud. If there's 100 units and you're each spending $3000 a month to have someone take care of a small garden bed then you know someone is doing something fishy. So I imagine they received a breakdown of their fees that included how much it cost to keep the elevator running.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 8d
Well at the fifth floor there's an asshole that's renting the whole floor on Airbnb and I'm contributing to that, with all the up and down traffic of tourists. Would you be happy? Before the Airbnb I spent way less than that
The coin was just a token, 100 lire (0.05€ + 50 years of inflation, let's say 50 cents). It doesn't cover maintenance but it avoids assholes repurposing a residential apartment as hotels. And it had a key to bypass it (example: wheelchairs and such)
4am@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 8d
Add it to their rent if they’re subletting, don’t penalize your other tenants
This is why landlords should be abolished, this mindset
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 7d
Usually the maintenance fee is added to everyone, based on the square meters of the apartment, or just flat fee per apartment. It likely would be illegal to specifically make one apartment's fees significantly higher and also that apartment's owner would never vote for it. Especially if that person owns an entire floor worth of apartments, as they get multiple votes.
What was described was quite literally the best way to punish the super heavy top floor AirBNB users over the people who actually live there. And those people who don't use the elevator don't have to pay at all, instead of subsidizing all the AirBnB users on the 5th floor. But since the coin system isn't in use anymore, Wispy has to pay 200€ a year for other people to take the elevator.
At the end of the day, stuff like this is voted for by the apartment owners and it's up to them how they distribute the costs, by usage or same for everyone.
MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place · 2 pts · 7d
Sounds like your neighbor is the problem, not the elevator.