[ColinWright]

From the article:

    But there is one clear lesson from the storage story.

    If you want to be a millionaire, you'd be well advised
    to look beyond what's sexy.

Quoting from Paul Graham:

    There are great startup ideas lying around unexploited
    right under our noses. One reason we don't see them is
    a phenomenon I call "schlep blindness." "Schlep" was
    originally a Yiddish word but has passed into general
    use in the US. It means a tedious, unpleasant task.

-- http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html

[rayiner]

It's also a great example of the general principle that it's good business to try and figure out how to disproportionately leverage public resources.

Say police protection and property enforcement was privatized. Under such circumstances, the cost of security for a storage facility would be substantial. But in a society where the public pays for security, it's "free" to create a business that presents an outsized target for thieves.

[PeterWhittaker]

Hardly. Physical security at self-storage facilities is comparable to that at non-classified government installations - at least the ones I've seen in Canada: Perimeter fencing with logged access control, CCTVs and live monitoring, individual locks on storage areas, etc.

Add the cost of insurance, bonding, etc., and there is absolutely no "free" involved.

[rayiner]

That's the security expenditure assuming the backdrop of government enforcement of property rights. Imagine running a storage facility in a place like Somalia. You'd need way more than a perimeter fence and monitoring!

When my family lived in Bangladesh, we once had a band of thieves (in a van/bus with guns) try to break down our gate. One of those would roll through the security at your typical storage facility.

[PeterWhittaker]

Not to be belabour the point, but in a place like Somalia, gun toting labour is cheap. You'd need two or three "shift supervisors" (overseers who keep the labour in line, really), and you'd pay them more, but overall, the teens with AKs and the tough-as-nails-and-mean-as-hell overseers would likely end up costing less than one pays in taxes.

Now add the cut to the local warlord, who "respects" your area so long as you "respect" his due.

Oh, wait, that's starting to look a lot like taxation, police services, rights enforcement. Just without the actual rule of law, good governance, and an independent judiciary.

Really, I do not understand this notion that police services, etc., are free. We pay for them with every dollar we earn and every dollar we spend.

As the man said, I like paying taxes, with them I buy civilization.

[pjc50]

You couldn't run this business in a libertarian state; nobody would trust you not to steal their stuff, and almost everyone would be so poor as to not afford your service. This is why there isn't a thriving self-storage business in Somalia.

[spindritf]

Lack of police protection would also greatly drive up the demand for secure storage.