Slashdot Mirror

Get an automatic litter box like the Litter Robot. We have one of those and they work as advertised: easy to change and to clean, and no more smells. The only drawback is that they are fairly bulky; mine fits snugly in a 60x80cm cabinet space reserved for a washing machine. They are pricey but I'm still using the one I bought almost 15 years ago.

But the only parts of libertarian thought I consider valuable are the bits that say no one has any justification in interfering with the personal and consensual choices of others with regard to non-macroeconomic and non-contractual behaviors. The rest is, as far as I'm concerned, bunk.

It sounds like you're talking about social versus economic libertarianism. They're really two different animals. I'm a pretty big believer in social libertarianism myself, but there's a pretty good portion of the left ("liberals") who believe the same thing, they just don't call themselves "libertarians". (BTW, these aren't the same liberals who believe in "microaggressions", "safe spaces", that speech which offends someone should be banned, etc.) Social libertarianism is pretty simple: (non-economic) laws shouldn't be based on morality or religion, and only based on whether an action abridges someone's rights, so basically don't ban something unless it's affecting someone else. So (adult) sexuality for instance can't be regulated here, and you probably won't find any liberals (including the "safe spaces" ones) who would disagree with this notion. But you can also make a case that environmental regulation is justified because we all breathe the same air and are affected by pollution.

It's the economic part where the liberals and the libertarians diverge, since (economic) libertarians don't believe in almost any government regulation of industry or commerce.

I will not regret not having to clean the catbox, not having to mow the lawn, not having to shop, etc

"will not"???
Here's your litter box. It's a little pricey, but accept nothing less; all the other automated boxes suck. This one is fantastic.
There's robotic lawn mowers out there too, but those are a lot more money than this admittedly expensive litter box; it's understandable if you're not ready to shell out $1500 for a Robomow, or for larger lawns a $4500 LawnBott. But they're here.

However, I can't see people ever giving up shopping. It's not that easy to "browse" on a computer screen, and you certainly can't touch and feel things or try clothes on remotely (we don't have holodecks yet, those aren't coming until the 24th Century; the 23rd Century ones suck and are visual-only). The whole way a lot of small shops survive in artsy districts is that people go there to just browse around and look at stuff, without any idea of what they're looking for, just to see what suits their whimsy. That's not going to go away, though more and more stuff is showing up online.

There are other options in this market, not all of which require proprietary consumables. We've been using the LitterRobot which, while more expensive (~$300), requires no further financial commitment to the manufacturer. You just need to buy normal cat litter and periodically replace a normal garbage bag in the base.

Nope, it's an all-American invention. And it's quite frankly the best automatic litter box made. The other ones are cheaply made and jam easily.

http://www.litter-robot.com/

Just a satisfied customer.

But there's another measure: Dollars of worth / amount of pollution. In other words, if one country is producing $1000 of services and goods for every ton of CO2 released, they probably have modern industry and don't "waste" as much as another country that produces only $300 of value for every ton of CO2 released.

Measured on such a scale, the USA is actually better than China.

But there's a problem here: the USA doesn't actually produce very much worth. When I look at where all my products are made, they say "Made in China", not "Made in USA". There's a few niche products made here ([shameless plug] like my wonderful new Litter-Robot), but the vast majority is made elsewhere.

The USA simply does not produce many things that people are willing to pay for, especially people outside the country. What do we still do here that has value? Selling each other houses for rapidly increasing prices? That's a speculative bubble, not worth or value. Representing each other in meaningless lawsuits? That's a drain on the economy, not worth or value. Serving each other McDonald's Supersize Value Meals? Perhaps, but that's not worth much.

Furthermore, many of the things we produce are greatly overpriced compared to other countries. If I hire a plumber to install a water heater, I'll probably get charged $200. But if I go to Mexico and hire a plumber to do the same job, I'll probably pay a tenth of that. Did the US plumber really generate $200 of value? Of course not. His price is inflated because of 1) the excessive cost of living in the US, and 2) because the whole professional licensing scheme, descended from Medieval guilds, only serves to limit supply and inflate prices, for no real gain.

Sooner or later, the rest of the world is going to realize that the USA doesn't actually produce any value, our currency won't be worth the cloth it's printed on, and we'll no longer be able to buy lots of cheap stuff from China. And since we don't know how to do anything ourselves anymore, our economy will collapse and we'll all starve.

If you have a cat and a litter box, get the Litter Robot. It changed my life. Seriously. It's expensive, but worth it.

http://www.litter-robot.com/

I'm not kidding.

> So can you also set up a cron job to clean the litter box?

No need for cron even-- just get Litter Robot, the self-cleaning robotic litterbox! It looks futuristic...oddly like one of those pods from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But does it run linux?

The litter box is really low tech. He should get a Litter-Robot We put ours in a closet with a flap cat door and there's also room for his food and water. purrfect hideaway from the dog and baby