[AndrewKemendo]

The key takeaway I think people are overlooking is that there’s a level of intelligence and persistence in thieves that make physical security an intractable problem with exponential cost scaling as you patch “holes.”

So from a systems approach, the better solution likely is something like:

Employ and provide safety for the people stealing from the units so they do not feel compelled to steal.

Imagine if the money spent securing these things, which is a multiple of this persons efforts, were spent on solving the root cause? Sounds like a better return on investment

[Dove]

Physical security isn't an intractable problem, but effective security requires expensive expertise and maintenance. The cost of good security is why you keep your spare couch in a self storage center but your jewelry in a safe deposit box.

In theory, a well designed security system at a self storage center could be good enough to deter thieves relative to the value of what's stored there. In practice, the fact that owners pay for the security, insurance pays for break ins, and customers are supposed to evaluate the whole mess leads to a lot of naivete and show and not a lot of effective solutions. Show me a self storage place that guarantees you against the loss of your stuff and I'll show you a storage place with effective security. I'll also show you one that's more expensive that the competition and doesn't have much to show a consumer to justify the surcharge.

Looking at self storage places locally, they all seem to compete on price. When I eventually found one that seemed to be competing on security, it was 50% more expensive.

[tightbookkeeper]

You’re partly conceding that this level of corrupting and mistrust is just what we have to live with. It has not always been this way though.

Side note. If I also accept it this is why cryptocurrency being able to reduce the cost of securing a transaction is still interesting to me. When you use a bank you don’t see the army of night guards, vaults, auditors, and IT people keeping it safe.

[kevinventullo]

On the other hand, I hear a lot more about crypto wallets getting hacked than I do checking accounts at large banks.

[tightbookkeeper]

I’m just saying that aspect has appeal, not that you should bank with bitcoin.

Of course, you don’t hear about internal bank problems either.

[mschuster91]

> Imagine if the money spent securing these things, which is a multiple of this persons efforts, were spent on solving the root cause? Sounds like a better return on investment

The root cause is social inequality of various kinds (including drug dependency). That should be something for society to resolve, not a burden for storage unit or home owners on their own - short of automated guns, there's not much any individual can do to keep out thieves.