[p2p-research] Capital Club

[M. Fioretti]

On Thu, Mar 06, 2008 10:44:42 AM -0700, Patrick Anderson wrote:

> How can a consumer increase utilization to the point of making
> ownership "worth it"?  One way is to buy the machine with a group of
> other consumers.

I have the feeling that you are making the mistake to assume that
decisions to own something are rational ones. Many people don't buy a
car because it's cheaper, more profitable or perceived as such, than
renting: they do it to look good and maybe customize the car in such a
way that makes them _feel_ unique and great when they're cruising the
streets. If car choice decisions were only based on profit, ie
rational, measurable criteria, 80% of the models on sale now wouldn't
exist before you even started to wander if you want to buy or rent one.

> Organizing with your neighbors to buy a rug-doctor is cheaper if
> there are enough of you to keep that equipment busy, so why don't we
> (consumers) do this more often?  Why do we leave that work of
> organizing up to a business that intends to charge us price above
> cost?

Maybe because (using the rug-doctor as a real world example):

- we have no _space_ where to store a Rug Doctor
- we have no skills to fix it when it breaks
- fixing either one of the two problems above would cost enough, in
  time and/ or money, to make group ownership not convenient. 
- (semi-serious) we, that is any generic group of neighbors in a
  generic city, all hate each other and the least interact the better
  we feel:-)

what I'm trying to say here is that I also have the feeling that you
aren't considering all the rational factors when comparing rental and
individual ownership.

Marco

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