1. 15 MINUTE CITIES COMING TO AMERICA?
Doubtless you’ve all at least heard of the 15-minute city plan, and the furore that has erupted over it in the UK.
Earlier this year Oxford announced plans to divide the city into neighborhoods, and make it impossible to drive from one to the other. Essentially, in the name of the environment, they want to make it so people never stray too far from their homes.
It was met with a LOT of protest – as you’d expect. But all of those protesters have been dismissed as “conspiracy theorists”, and at least five other cities have announced they will introducing the scheme in the near future.
…and this week we got a hint that it may be crossing the pond. Yesterday it was announced that New York City will be introducing a “Central Business District Tolling Program”, what we call the congestion charge in London. Drivers will pay up to $23 each time they take their car into the city centre.
If you want to some evidence this is just another aspect of the great reset, well here’s CNN saying so:
Several other cities are already in the planning stages for their own “Central Business District Tolling Program”. Something to keep an eye on.
2. QR CODES TO ACCESS THE SUPERMARKET…
German-supermarket chain ALDI has started requiring a digital pass in order to enter some of their stores, as shown in this video recorded at a london branch:
The store is one of ALDI’s new “shop and go” outlets, which has no checkout counters, and requires an app installed on to enter, at which point they simply monitor what you take with the help of their instore cameras, and then charge your account the amount they think you owe.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of people are not comfortable with the shop-by-surveillance method, partly because it requires giving ALDI access to your phone, partly because it means they are literally monitoring everything you buy, partly because it means you can’t shop with cash and mostly because…well, it’s just creepy.
Defenders of the practice insist those that don’t like it can simply “go to a shop with old-fashioned check-outs”, but they miss the point: If we don’t oppose this practice now, eventually, there won’t be any of those left.
It will be an interesting acid test for what’s left of true capitalism to see if any supermarket chain decides to go against the grain and pledge to never go the app-based shopping route. Smart moneys on no.
2 comments:
But people still shop there.
Sounds like the movies "Divergent Movies/Series", remember? It's about a dystopian, futuristic world. The city is surrounded by a tall, tough built fence and its citizens believe it is to keep whatever is beyond it, out. The city is made up of five factions, Abnegation, Amity, Dauntless, Erudite and Candor. Outside the wasteland are people who weren't part of the city experiment living there, and so forth.
It really looks like some of the described smart cities, other insane ideas for grand delusions, comes from books, IMO? We are at a turning point right now before upcoming Election, so suspect we shall see what happens when Americans have had enough of being bullied by corrupted Government?
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