We Need A Library Economy

I also haven't watched the whole video, but here's a good example of this concept as I've learned it.

I have a ladder. I use it maybe every few months to get to my roof for one reason or another. My neighbors also need to get to their roofs occasionally. They don't all need ladders. In fact, it would be stupid for them to all have ladders when they can just borrow mine. It cost me about $300, and it takes up a lot of space, but it should last decades.

Much of modern society, particularly in the US, is based on a false sense of self sufficiency. You live in your own little fiefdom and you own all the stuff you'll ever need to use. Growing up, my family had a ladder, a snowblower, a wheelbarrow, a pressure washer, a cargo trailer, a carpet cleaner, and a million other tools that you rarely use. The neighbors on either side of us all had the same stuff. This is a colossal waste of money and space. We needed a big house to store all that stuff, so we paid a lot of money to heat and cool all that stuff, and bigger houses mean bigger maintenance costs as well. All because culturally, there was something preventing us from just borrowing all those things.

Now, I just let all my neighbors borrow my ladder, and if I need an upholstery cleaner or a wheelbarrow, I know who to ask. If I need a bundt pan cause I want to make an angel food cake, or a miter saw to cut some crown molding, I can get it from my library. Despite living in a smaller house than I grew up in, I have more living space, and I save a lot of money. Plus, there's less consumer-grade trash being produced.

Very simplified: institutionalized lending and sharing not only for books but any kind of non-consumable items one might need for their everyday life.