A wooden table by the roadside, a stack of eggs, a small cash box - no employee, no camera, no one watching. These "trust boxes" (Vertrauenskasse) are common in rural Germany. Farmers leave their goods out with price tags, and buyers are trusted to pay the correct amount.
The system, documented for decades, works because most of these communities are small. Everyone knows everyone. A thief would be recognized, shamed, and risk losing more than the cost of a dozen eggs.
One farmer told a reporter, "I've never had anything stolen in 20 years. My customers are my neighbors." Trust isn't just an idea here. It's infrastructure.
As a kid I can remember farm stands all over up in Sussex County, NJ. They're probably all gone.
Back in the 80's when I lived on St' John, there was a 'trust bar' called 'The Kite' overlooking Peter Bay. Beautiful spot, with a fairly stocked bar, ice and a cash box. To my knowledge, no one ever stole the cash. Another great memory, but another gone with time, sadly...
Honest societies require homogeneity as a start, and the absence of a criminal entitled mentally additionally.
ReplyDeleteHonest societies require penalties for crimes and enforcing social accountability. Instead our society has placed a felon in the white house and is getting ready to distribute billions of $ among those who attempted a coup and attacked policemen.
DeleteIf we enforced social accountability Trump would be ashamed to leave his house. Instead we, as a country, reward shamelessness and that is why Trump can fill arenas with fervent followers.
Homogeneity was never a requirement for honesty. This country was diverse since the day the Mayflower reached these coasts and we had stalls like this all over the country. I remember these in rural Wisconsin in the early 2000's. back then the country had Latinos, Asians, Indians, Africans, etc and also stalls and the same is true for the 80's, 50's and on and on.
What has killed this country is not diversity but the notion that crime can go unpunished. That character does not matter. That our leaders not only lead but are also an example for the rest of society.
When we have a person that is pocketing billions from the White House without any consequence what makes you think that people will pay for 6 eggs on a stall in rural Oklahoma?
Character matters, actions have consequences and personal responsibility.
3 ideas that republicans used to hold dear. I still do.
Anon 2:04 You're delusional. If you want a homogenous population, look no further than Wisconsin.
DeleteBut anyone who thinks "Go home in peace" is code words for launching a coup seriously needs to be locked up in a mental institution.
The rest of your rant is as divorced from reality.
There was another guy who thought he was "the smartest guy in the room." Ended up destroying the country.
DeleteAnon 12:10, You can't gaslight us all. We saw it live on TV
DeleteThe "Go home in peace" quote can't be words to launch a coup because they came AFTER the coup attempt. That quote is in the video Trump released after Congress had been attacked and it took Trump over 2 hours to release the video. He couldn't do it before because he was very busy watching the attack on live TV like the rest of us.
BEFORE the attack Trump spent months inflaming the situation, pressuring Pence to brake the law, scheming to steel the election in Georgia and, at the end of his speech on January 6, Trump said: "We fight. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue."
Go collect your $ from the "Compensation fund" that they just created but don't try to make us believe that it didn't happen because we saw it happen.
Still lots of trust farm stands up here in Western New York State .
ReplyDeleteThey are still some in sussex.
ReplyDeleteThese communities clearly not have been forced, by Frau Fuehrer Ursula, to 'accept' thousands of 'refugees'.
ReplyDeleteOops, remove that last 'es'.
First, other Anon? You’re an idiot, and don’t recognize the game changed with Clinton and Obama. Second, I live outside Trenton and some communities around here are able to have trust stands. Because homogeneity, albeit economic.
ReplyDeleteI like that phrase, economic homogeneity. People don't have to look or sound just alike in order to agree to pay a reasonable price for what they take.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, we've had a majority of First Families who left the people's house as they found it, and a minority who've taken a lot of souvenirs with them. Mary Todd Lincoln was accused of looting the White House just as the Clintons were.
In Northern Michigan, during the summer, there are farmer's shacks all over the place where you pay by honor in a locked box. The kite went away by hurricane, not humans, 10,000 miles from reality.
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