Osqledaren #3 2021/2022 MONEY by Osqledaren

INFO

Editor in Chief Carl Housten Responsible Distributor Carl Housten Layout Benjamin Javitz, Carl Housten, Roisin Callaghan, Vendela Hamberg, Victoria Rohrer Cover Page Roisin Callaghan Print Norra Skåne Offset Paper Pages: 120g Amber graphic Cover: 250g Tom&otto Silk

About Osqledaren Osqledaren has since 1959 been the magazine of the KTH Student Union. Published quarterly with 10 000 copies per issue, the magazine is distributed to Student Union members. Our mission is to overlook, inform, and review the happenings within THS and KTH.

OSQLEDAREN

Contributions Do you want to contribute to the magazine?

Buying adspace in Osqledaren Contact the Editor in Chief or go to: osqledaren.se/annonsera

Email us at osqledaren@ths.kth.se The editorial staff has the right to refuse submitted material at any time.

Adress Osqledaren Tekniska Högskolans Studentkår 114 28 Stockholm

Contact osqledaren@ths.kth.se Individual editorial staff member: [firstname.lastname]@osqledaren.se

Osqledaren continues reporting during periods between magazine releases: online at osqledaren.se. Statements appearing in the magazine should be, unless otherwise indicated, regarded purely as the opinions of Osqledaren.

/osqledaren

OSQLEDAREN #2

@osqledaren

Produced with love  in Nymble at KTH Valhallavägen

INFO

LEDARE

Anonyma tentor närmare än någonsin TEXT EDITOR IN CHIEF, CARL HOUSTEN ILLUSTRATION CORNELIA THANE

Innan pandemin började var kåren nära att ro rättvisa examinationer i land. Ändå finns det mycket kvar att göra. För ett par år sedan sade den tidigare kårordföranden Emma Ingo att anonyma tentor handlar om inkludering, mångfald och jämställdhet, då det finns en risk att lärarna har olika förväntningar på olika studenter. Det är i grunden anledningen till att så många studenter vill att deras examination ska anonymiseras; att rättningen ska ske på en rättvis grund. Högskolans ledning har själva uttryckt att det här är något de vill genomföra. De tillsatte en projektgrupp som genomförde undersökningar och pilotstudier, och åkte på studiebesök till andra lärosäten och samarbetade brett med olika delar av KTH. Så varför har det fortfarande inte implementerats? Jag satte mig ner på ett lunchmöte med bland annat Wanda Manninger, ledaren för projektet “Anonymiserad hantering av skannade tentor”. Det jag tog med mig från mötet var attdet finns helt enkelt ingen som driver eller ens tar upp frågan. På frågan om varför det inte ingår i KTH:s senaste projekt om Framtidens Utbildning var svaret att ingen tog upp det. Det ligger helt enkelt för långt ned på agendan.

Våren 2020 fick KTH:s ledning en betydligt mer angelägen fråga att hantera: en god utbildning och rättvis examination under en pandemi. Mycket av projektet som genomförts bidrog till att KTH faktiskt lyckades ställa om till digitala tentor snabbt. Så nu när restriktionerna är slut får vi väl anonyma tentor?

Om det ändå vore så enkelt. När anonyma tentor tidigare har varit på agendan har det varit kårens förtjänst. Om det ska hända igen måste kåren ha resurser för att driva frågan. Alltsåstudenter måste arbeta med det här för att det ska hända.

OSQLEDAREN #3

Idag ser inte engagemanget hoppfullt ut. Cheferna för utbildningsinflytande är de som vanligen arbetar med den här typen av fråga, men på grund av en vakant post hinns detta inte med- och man har gett upp försöken att hitta någon att tillsätta. En gnällig meme kommer inte förändra något. Ett välformulerat mejl till din studienämnd är något bättre, men för att skapa förändring krävs engagemang. Om du vill ha anonyma tentor ser verkligheten tyvärr ut så att du måste arbeta för att det genomförs. Genom att låta en del av din fritid gå till att vara studentrepresentant och sitta med på möten med skolledningen, eller genom att ta ett uppehållsår för att driva frågan centralt på kåren. Precis som jag gjort, fast för att sitta och gnälla i artiklar som denna.

INFO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SAMHÄLLE

New Chains on the Block 7 Should You Give Away All of Your Money? 11 r/antiwork 14 The Dream of Retiring Early 16

KULTUR

Vetenskapens katedral 19 The Monetization of Porn 22 Money Can Buy Happiness 24

OL GRÄVER

Money, Money, Money 27 Too Little Too Late, KTH’s COVID Response 30 Malvinas Democratic Success Story 32

UNDERHÅLLNING

So You Hit the Jackpot 35 Playing Runescape for Survival 38 Meal Replacement Review 40

PÅ CAMPUS

Restaurangens nutids historia 43 Snart kanske du får äta pizza i Nya Matsalen 46 Kårens pengar, var kommer de ifrån och vart går de? 48 120 år av studentliv på KTH 50

OSQLEDAREN #3

SAMHÄLLE

Anonyma tentor -

SAMHÄLLE

OSQLEDAREN #4

SAMHÄLLE

Anonyma New Chains tentor on the - Block

New Chains on the Block TEXT ADAM SÄRNELL ILLUSTRATION VENDELA HAMBERG

Cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are powered by blockchains, the revolutionary, decentralised databases using peer-to-peer networking and hashing to perform trustless transactions in innumerable applications with smart contracts that… Sorry, what? What does that even mean?

OSQLEDAREN #3 #4

SAMHÄLLE

There is a large difference between knowing about something and understanding it. Blockchain technology is one of those things that you can watch a few videos about, even read a wikipedia article or two, and start to feel as if you understand it; but when someone asks you to explain what it is you stumble over your words like a kindergartener trying to tell you about their day. Fortunately, there are already those who have spent their fair share of time thinking about blockchains. To aid us in navigating these uncharted waters, Osqledaren talked to Associate Professor Sarunas Girdzijauskas, who is currently researching distributed systems and decentralised machine learning at KTH, as well as Alexander Berg and Lucas Larsson from the KTH Blockchain Initiative, soon to be a new THS Union Association.

KTH Blockchain Initiative Also called KTH BCI, the KTH Blockchain Initiative is a place for students that want to learn more about blockchain technology. Their aim is to educate students, act as a stepping stone into the industry and to promote applications that use blockchains. This means everyone is welcome – no matter your technical background. In their Discord channel they hold “crypto talks” where you can discuss the latest trends in the industry and they will also host workshops for people who want to try coding. Read more at: www.kthbci.org

Blockchain Often referred to as a digital ledger, a blockchain is a database where each stored record is called a block. Multiple blocks form a chain and each block contains a timestamp, some data and a cryptographic link to the previous block in the chain.

Distributed Blockchains are distributed, meaning that they consist of a system of nodes (computers) each containing a copy of the whole blockchain and communicating with each other to determine what block that should be added to the chain.

New Chains on the Block

It’s unlikely that you’ve missed the ongoing cryptocurrency and NFT mania, with mainstream media pumping out headlines like “JPG File Sells for $69 Million” and “Crypto Crash Erases More Than $1 Trillion in Market Value”. However, if you’re currently enjoying a decade-long digital detox, a recap of these widely debated, blockchain reliant concepts might be helpful. A dictionary of key technical concepts is of course provided.

A lot has happened since the paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was released back in 2008, leading to the world’s first ever decentralised cryptocurrency, or “crypto”, being created. While one single bitcoin was worth roughly 40 SEK back in 2012, it is today worth close to 400 000, although the word “worth” should be used with caution depending on who you ask. Today, buyers can choose between thousands of crypto variants, each with their own technical solution and backing from an invested party (ranging from tech billionaires and tv personalities to football teams and game developers) that want to see their currency becoming the next Bitcoin, that is, to also have a trillion-dollar market cap. Advocates of crypto believe that it’s the successor of the current banking system as we know it, that it will remove the need for centralised actors to carry out all transactions for us and to place our trust in the decision making of central banks to manage our complex economic system. It has also become a popular investment alternative and daily payment option for people in countries with a his-

OSQLEDAREN #3

tory of financial instability and where many don’t have bank accounts – Vietnam and Nigeria being two of the countries with the highest crypto adoption in the world according to the Financial Times. Meanwhile, the amount of online auctions for NFTs have gone off the charts, accumulating over 200 billion SEK in sales during 2021. Although generative artworks such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club probably have received the most attention – largely due to famous investors in the likes of Eminem or Adidas – the idea of provable, digital ownership is being used in other types of applications as well. The most prominent example is probably the Metaverse, where NFTs could serve as the core functionality that will allow people to earn and own digital assets in a virtual world built on top of a decentralised, blockchain-driven internet (Web3, as evangelists call it). Super technical, I know. Another, less complicated example is gaming, where NFTs enable provable scarcity of in-game items. These items can often be traded for crypto that in turn can be used outside of the game where you earned it. While proponents believe that creating NFTs is a great way for artists to make a living from selling their digital art, critics have pointed out various concerns related to NFTs. For starters, money laundering has occurred, and people have been able to create and sell NFTs of artwork they have not created themselves. An extreme case involved scammers selling the art of a late thirty-year-old digital artist who passed away in 2020. Then there’s the question of what you’re actually buying. Since the images are too large to be stored on the blockchain itself (every kilobyte stored and transferred costs a lot), you’re most often buying a link pointing to the artwork being hosted somewhere else. If this “somewhere else” stopped running for any reason, it would break the link your NFT is holding. Furthermore, concerns have been raised about the speculative nature of both cryptocurrencies and NFTs and their alleged similarities with Ponzi schemes: new people have to be drawn in for the market to continue to grow while everyone wants to sell at a higher price than what they bought for – which incentivises creating as much hype and FOMO as possible. Lastly, there are growing environmental concerns due to the energy-intensive computing required for some of the popular blockchains to operate.

SAMHÄLLE

Decentralised Blockchains can be decentralised, which means the system’s behaviour is not decided by a single node in the network. Instead they are autonomous, each following the same protocol that determines the system outcome. The (often anonymous) nodes don’t have to trust each other, they trust the common protocol.

Proof-of-work, Proof-of-stake and Proof-of-space These are the names of different consensus mechanisms. All nodes continuously listen to each other to know which version of the blockchain is up to date. Before adding a new block to the chain, a proof of the block’s validity is required, e.g. solving a cryptographic puzzle. This means that any fraudulent activity would require the scammer to outperform the rest of the network on every succeeding addition over time. The longest chain is ultimately the one that’s considered valid. The obvious question to ask at this time is what the near future of cryptocurrencies and NFTs may look like. Is it just a craze that soon will be over or will the markets continue to grow? Sarunas Girdzijauskas is not overly optimistic: “It is always difficult to predict the future, but I am afraid that cryptocurrencies and NFTs are only experiencing an excessive hype period. I believe currently they are “hot” only because of very low interest rates worldwide, incentivising people to search for alternative means to invest their money. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a big burst of the crypto bubble in the coming years”. The KTH Blockchain Initiative was started for students to have a forum where they can discuss and learn more about blockchains. Chairman Alexander Berg agrees that we’re probably witnessing a crypto bubble that won’t last: “I truly believe we’re in a bubble right now, similar to the dotcom bubble where companies such as pets.com went bankrupt in the early 2000s. It’s the same thing here, only this time it’s cryptos that are overhyped. We’ll see which ones that will survive the bubble – but we don’t think there will be many.” One hope of the initiative is to be able to educate people on this topic: “There are other technologies available but ev-

New Chains on the Block

eryone is so hyped on getting rich quick. So they buy Bitcoin, which probably is the worst cryptocurrency since it came first and nothing has changed with that technology. But if you look at other cryptos, they have evolved, we’ve had 10 years of crypto development. The problem is that people buy the ones that are making headlines without knowing what they’re talking about. They don’t care if it’s green. This is why you need to talk about it, try to teach people and make them understand that there exists a wide selection and that you should choose the ones that are best for your wallet and the environment.”

corporate relations at the KTH Blockchain Initiative: “Everyone knows that climate change is a serious issue and we also know Bitcoin is part of the problem. If we don’t want energy inefficient cryptocurrencies that worsen the environment, we as consumers and as a society should set up demands that cryptos have to be green. The cryptos that will survive the bubble are likely those that take the demands seriously and work towards not harming the environment. It will probably also be cryptos like Ethereum, although others exist, that can be used for other things than just as money: the ones that allow applications to be built on top of their blockchains”.

Bitcoin’s estimated energy consumption globally last year was 91 TWh, which is comparable to Sweden’s yearly consumption of around 130 TWh. Those defending Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) in this regard state that this number instead should be compared to the energy consumption of the global banking system that crypto has set out to replace. Girdzijauskas shares his thoughts on the sustainability side of the debate: “Unfortunately current fully decentralised blockchain technology is only based on proof-of-work which inherently requires power-hungry server farms. Since it is clearly not sustainable, it should not come as a surprise that in the near future most of the countries might make proof-of-work based cryptocurrencies illegal (we could already see that in China), which could spell the down-

It’s easy to forget that blockchain technology can be used for other things than cryptocurrencies and NFTs, partially because articles like this one tend to gravitate towards those topics. This is when it’s good to take a step back and widen the scope a bit. For instance, not all blockchains are publicly available like the cryptos mentioned previously– those that technically allow anyone to read and write data to them. Private blockchains are run by a single entity (i.e. centralised) that decides who can see and do what, thus losing the trustless part which means that anyone interacting with the blockchain has to “trust” the entity owning it. You can think of it like how you year after year trust Google or Apple to safely store all those embarrassing selfies in the cloud for you.

fall of Bitcoin and associated crypto assets. There are more “sustainable” blockchain technologies based on proof-of-stake, or proof-of-trust (where we also contributed with our research), however these type of blockchains are not “truly” decentralised, and would not be acceptable for some cryptocurrency advocates and "purists", who believe the crypto system should be completely decentralised and trustless.” Some responsibility ultimately lies with the consumers and society as a whole, according to Lucas Larsson, who is managing

Anyway, a good use for this technology is creating reliable supply chains, where every item’s information is accurately tracked from start to finish. For example, the world’s largest food company Nestlé is collaborating with IBM to track the food's journey from the farm to the consumer. Potential benefits include decreased food waste and transparency towards consumers, both contributing to a more sustainable food system. Berg explains: “Applica

OSQLEDAREN #3

SAMHÄLLE

Anonyma NEW CHAINS tentor ON THE - BLOCK

And with that, we have arrived at the other side. How does it feel, finally entering the blockchain era? Does the KTH urge of always wanting to learn more… leave you wanting more? Girdzijauskas provides some tips for those eager to expand their knowledge: “There are excellent MOOCs on blockchain out there (e.g. on Coursera), which interested students could and should take. At our division we also provide a bi-annual course on blockchain for PhD students.”

tions like supply chains will become huge. Nestlé has already begun and today they are able to see precisely which farm in the world their coffee beans come from. It’s very secure and let’s them see exactly where everything is. However, since the blockchain is a backend solution, it’s not something everyone will notice. For the average consumer it will just be like using the internet today, only that some small stuff appears here and there.” A common theme seems to be that many implementations of blockchains aim to improve old applications. An example provided by Girdzijauskas is no exception – on the question about which existing or future applications of blockchain technology KTH students should be aware of, he answers: “ I personally believe that blockchain technology could kick-start a new era for decentralised AI, whereby we could bring Wiki-style alternatives to current centralised AI services which at the moment are provided to us by Big Tech behemoths like Facebook, Amazon, Google etc., which in effect are totally in control of our data and our digital lives. But that will require going beyond current proof-ofwork blockchain technology.”

Still, most students at KTH are not eligible for third-cycle courses. Larsson gives his take on KTH’s course offering: “I think KTH provides a great education where we learn a lot about future technology; new technology comes everyday making it impossible to learn everything. When it comes to blockchains, there is a course for doctoral students – but what about the other students doing their bachelor’s or master’s? It should not be a scary or particularly difficult thing to get into blockchains or crypto. You could just start a bit earlier with some simpler concepts. KTH is one of the world’s best universities but doesn’t offer a course about blockchains, I don’t know what to say about that.” Berg adds: “I just want to mention that there does exist a peer-to-peer course, but it’s basic level. And it’s not that we want to force everyone to learn about blockchains, but having the option to take an introductory course if you’re interested – we believe it could go a long way. It's just a bit of a shame that people are learning more about crypto from Logan Paul than from teachers at KTH, like – what are we doing?” It’s evident that we’re only seeing (and perhaps not seeing) the beginning of what this technology has to offer, and it might take some time for the field to stabilise in the public consciousness. All things considered, Berg believes the future of blockchains lies in the hands of the next generation of engineers:

OSQLEDAREN #3 #4

Non-Fungible Token (NFT) In a blockchain you can, instead of keeping track of currency exchanging hands, register the owner history of a certain combination of bits (ones and zeros). These bits can form any type of information, e.g. a code used to identify items in games or a link pointing to a digital image.

Cryptocurrency / Crypto A blockchain where the creation of a new block generates some currency for the node who issued the proof. This is how crypto is “printed”. Each block contains transactions carried out between different actors in the network, and every transaction ever made is stored in the chain. This is a key feature: it’s hard to add blocks, but very fast to verify that blocks are valid.

“This whole thing [Bitcoin] was created by one person, Satoshi Nakamoto, and the founder of Ethereum was born in 1994. The next Nakamoto could be at KTH, and they could create the next best cryptocurrency that makes all the others disappear – you never know. So that’s what we’re aiming for, to encourage others to develop this technology and make sure the world of tomorrow gets better than the one today.”

SAMHÄLLE

SHOULD YOU GIVE AWAY ALL YOUR MONEY?

Should You Give Away All of Your Money? TEXT KAROLINA GUSTAVSSON, FILIP ZAWADKA, ROBERT PRAAS ILLUSTRATION FILIP ZAWADKA

How do you do good effectively? Turns out there is a science to how to have a positive impact — in a multitude of different ways! “On your way to work, you pass a small pond. On hot days, children sometimes play in the pond, which is only about kneedeep. The weather’s cool today, though, and the hour is early, so you are surprised to see a child splashing about in the pond. As you get closer, you see that it is a very young child, just a toddler, who is flailing about, unable to stay upright or walk out of the pond. You look for the parents or babysitter, but there is no one else around. The child is unable to keep her head above the water for more than a few seconds at a time. If you don’t wade in and pull her out, she seems likely to drown. Wading in is easy and safe, but you will ruin the new shoes you bought only a few days ago, and get your suit wet and muddy. By the time you hand the child over to someone responsible for her, and change your clothes, you’ll be late for work. What should you do?” ~ Peter Singer This scenario was posed by philosopher Peter Singer in the book “The Life You Can Save”. Most of us see saving the child as

not only a virtuous thing to do, but a moral obligation. Furthermore, if someone said that they walked past a drowning child to save their shoes and not to be late for work, we would most likely regard them as cruel. Nevertheless, we are subjected to a similar situation each day. Consider that the child is not drowning in front of you, but is dying from malaria across the globe, and you have to decide whether to save it or use the money to buy new shoes. Somehow, this example instinctively feels different. It might be the case because of the distance or the overwhelming amount of people suffering from malaria, but it’s very hard to find any morally relevant differentiation. In the consequence of that, the only moral thing to do would be to sell everything and donate it to charity. Living by those standards would be nearly impossible, and convincing anyone to do so is not the objective of this article. Meanwhile, we would like to show that helping is simpler than it seems and give some practical ways of doing the most good even with limited resources.

OSQLEDAREN #3

Consider global poverty, for example, which seems to be a tractable problem as there are also many rich people. But, how much charity can we expect from the global rich?The Economist estimated it to take $65 billion every year on ‘basic transfer programs to lift everyone above the bare-minimum poverty line’. The history of such estimates shows they can largely underestimate this number. As the Economist is a trustworthy medium, twice the amount they state can be a fair and conservative estimate. That would mean we need $130 billion per year for the foreseeable future. Singer estimates there are around one billion rich people nowadays (estimates pre-covid). From this follows that we would need a $130 donation from the billion richest people to alleviate extreme poverty. It sounds like an achievable goal, and this number could be even lower for the average person if the super rich would donate proportionally to their income. For example, there is a community of individuals pledging to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities at “Giving What

SAMHÄLLE

We Can”, and thus participating in slowly bridging this gap. “Giving What You Can” is an organization providing information about effective giving and connects givers worldwide. However, it matters not only how much we spend, but also how we spent it. Remember the last time you bought a laptop or a smartphone? You probably invested some time researching the different options, looking for the combination of the highest quality for the lowest price. How fast should your laptop run code? How much battery life should your phone have? Now, would you also reason like this while donating to charity? This is usually a more

SHOULD YOU GIVE AWAY ALL OF YOUR MONEY?

er the graph below, given that you had $100 and wanted to increase the years of schooling children receive. Where most interventions lead to a handful or fewer years of schooling more than the status quo, the information session on returns on education led to more than 20 years of additional schooling per $100 spending. Although such cost-effective interventions do not work everywhere, there also might be more benefits to the interventions than is taken into account by this calculation. Yet, based on this knowledge, to increase schooling years you would first want to exploit information sessions before moving to other measures that provide fewer years of schooling.

Additional years of schooling per 100 US Dollars of each policy intervention 0

Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Mosquito Net (Madagascar) PROGRESSA Conditional Cash Transfer for Primary School Attendance Information Session on Returns to Education for Boys (Dominican RepubIron Fortification and Deworming in Preschools (India) Girls Conditional Cash Transfer (Malawi) Merit Scholarship for Girls (Kenya) Free Primary School Uniforms (Kenya) Deworming through Primary Schools (Kenya) Information Session on Returns to Education for Parents (Madaspontaneous activity, based on the sad feelings emerged by a picture of a panda bear in danger of extinction or a video of underfed children in Africa. Since the intentions of donating are good and the money is given away, people become less critical. Should you give to UNICEF or WWF? It probably does not matter much, as they both make the world a bit better… But guess what! There is a nice body of research in charity interventions. Consid-

The principle of differences in cost-effectiveness reaches quite far and, generally, there is much more good to be done overseas. To consider the problem of blindness, a fair goal is to help as many blind people in the best way possible. You may find that a guiding dog costs thousands of dollars to train, and it supports a blind person for some years. However, the disease Trachoma makes people blind, but can be treated. The eyesight of people dealing with

OSQLEDAREN #3

Trachoma can be cured for as little as $50 per person. With the money for one guiding dog you could cure between 400 and 2000 people from blindness. If such great opportunities exist, which organizations should be funded? Will MacAskill argues in Doing Good Better that some non-profit organizations can be 100x more (cost-)effective than others, just like the example about curing blindness shows. To compare interventions, it is common in the medical field to use quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). These are the extra years lived because of an intervention, discounted by the burden of the disease that may decrease the quality of that year. For many interventions it is hard to quantify the impact, but once measurements like QALYs per dollar can be calculated, an objective comparison can be made. Luckily, there are great organizations monitoring if charities perform interventions cost-effectively. Among them are Givewell, The Life You Can Save from Peter Singer and Animal Charity Evaluators for animal welfare. It has never been this easy to make the world a much better place. You do not need to fly to Africa or volunteer every Sunday, donating money can go a long way. An innovative, yet relatively simple, way of doing good is proposed as Earning to Give. This means you prioritize a good salary to donate a portion of it to charity. Say you would consider either to become a software engineer for a large company or the CEO of a non-profit being paid 500.000 and 300.000 crowns per year respectively. If you would not take the CEO job, and instead someone else does just as good a job as you would, but instead you become a software developer and donate the difference of 200.000 crowns, you are making a great counterfactual impact. Giving is not the only way to make the world better, you can also do a lot with your career. Everyone has probably had one of those days when ‘‘What am I going to do with my life?’ has echoed in your mind, followed by ‘How do I make the world better?’ On the website 80000hours.org, you can find a lot of information about how to use the time you have at work in the best possible way if you want to optimize for making the world better. Some strategies for having a high-impact career include work in government and policy in high-im-

SAMHÄLLE

pact areas such as climate change, technological development or foreign aid. Other effective work possibilities are leading effective nonprofits, performing research in relevant areas, or applying an unusual skill to a needed niche. Key world problems to tackle span from biosecurity to safe AI and animal welfare — there is something for everyone. If you consider entrepreneurship, for instance, according to Professor William Nordhaus at Yale University, every dollar of profit of an innovative company yields $50 of benefits to society. A word of caution! Don’t change to the most pressing area without thinking about whether it’s a good fit for you — you still have to be excited about the path you choose. If you want to be strategic, try to build up career capital in the form of transferable skills and explore different options. This might mean internships or meeting with people who are one step ahead. If you want to deep dive into pressing problems, the book ‘The Precipice’ goes into more depth. There’s also the 80,000 hours podcast, where you can pick the episodes

SHOULD YOU GIVE AWAY ALL YOUR MONEY?

that feel the most relevant to your future plans! Don’t get overwhelmed with all the available material, start somewhere and gradually learn more. This may sound great on paper, but how do you actually get involved? The ideas we discussed are embraced by the Effective Altruism movement, a group of people from all over the world who want to get better at doing the most good. There are many local effective altruism groups who organize events, for instance in Stockholm there is one ‘general’ group for the city and then subgroups for the universities, for instance at KTH, SSE, KI, and SU. The biggest Swedish university group for effective altruism is actually at KTH, and they warmly welcome you to join! The local groups do many things including career advice, ‘fika’ meetups, book clubs, fellowships to learn more about the impact and pressing global problems. The EA KTH group for instance runs a book club, organizes social events and works on EA projects every Tuesday. Moreover, there are many organizations with compatible ideas to effective altruism,

OSQLEDAREN #3

such as ‘OpenAI’, ‘Future of Humanity Institute’ and the rationalist movement ‘Less Wrong’ — there’s so much to explore! Another thing you could do now is to have a look at Effective Thesis if you are starting your bachelor's — master’s — or Ph.D. thesis. They provide guidance and ideas for selecting research topics, and even connect you to researchers who work in the field you are interested in. As a closing remark, there is so much you can do with your time, money, and energy — you don’t have to do everything — but there is a world of possibilities if you want to! Start small, check out one of the sites mentioned, or attend an EA event and see where that leads. One great way to get started is to send an email to effektivaltruism@ths.kth.se, and you might be one of the two winners that receive a free copy of the Life You Can Save book!

SAMHÄLLE

Anonyma tentor -

r/antiwork TEXT & ILLUSTRATION LAURA NILSSON

Is work necessary? How come endless hours at work are seen as the key to a “good life”? Why does work determine someone’s value and worth in society? Amidst the pandemic, a movement spurred to pose important and impactful questions - sometimes quite controversial. To comprehend the current situation of the anti-work thought and ethos, the history of work must be understood. There needs to be a distinction between work as in labor, and work as a formal employment. People have always worked in the sense of having a relationship with labor and producing some kind of tangible thing or intangible value to oneself or others.

an employee, giving a portion of their skill, time and energy to produce things for the employer. The employer then converts this into productive assets, getting returns and increasing profit. Rather than the production of labor, the work as a central means from which most people gain their income, social standing and sense of worth from, is the one being criticized today.

Today, work is usually synonymous with employment, a formal agreement between

Work has always existed, but it has dominated our lives to different extents through

OSQLEDAREN #3

history. The fixation with work originates from different cultures and thinkers. One of the most famous ones being early protestantism, where working hard was seen as being virtuous. German sociologist and philosopher Max Weber wrote about the impact of protestant ethics on the emergence of modern capitalism in the early 20th century. According to the predestination doctrine, the people sent to heaven after death were already predetermined, and this anxious idea led people to accu-

SAMHÄLLE

mulating wealth as a sign of being one of the chosen. At the same time, having a lavish lifestyle was seen as evil as it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Consequently, working hard was seen as a virtue which influences our society to this day. But what has transformed work from being virtuous labor to dominating our lives and identity is consumerism. We are kept in a perpetual cycle of working and consuming. Our value is being attributed to our identity as a worker because it usually determines how much we can consume and the sort of identity we can create. Additionally, the commodification of our basic needs, such as health care, housing and food, keeps us from breaking the cycle of employment and consumption. As the pandemic hit and working from home became a reality for many, people gained more autonomy over their time and started realizing the value of it. There are things that cannot come from the worker consumer identity, from solely working more and harder, such as self development or spending time with your family. The realization that their work is preventing them from having that essential leisure, has opened up a discussion and critique of work on internet forums, mainly Reddit.

R/ANTIWORK

of the American work culture. Bullshit jobs, decreasing workers' benefits and unequal power dynamics in the work space are commonly criticized and that millions of Americans are currently quitting their jobs becomes fully comprehensible. The gap between productivity and typical workers compensation has increased dramatically since 1979, which forces people to work multiple jobs and monetize hobbies to just survive. This is not laziness. Becoming one of the largest subreddits, media coverage became inevitable. In a January issue of Dagens Nyheter, economist Susanne Spector says that the movement, to some extent, serves the role of trade unions in the US. It was not until January 25 this year, when the subreddit moderator Ford was interviewed on the right wing Fox News, that the future of r/antiwork seemed doubtful. The audience feedback was heavily negative and Ford was ridiculed on multiple media platforms for her

The subreddit r/ antiwork, created 2013 by former retail-worker and trans-woman Doreen Ford, has become a platform for the anti-work ethos of today. The community has grown to over 1.4 million by late 2021 and contains memes as well as personal anecdotes about the reality

OSQLEDAREN #3

unkempt appearance and inarticulate responses to the news moderator’s questions. The community was depicted as the deterioration of the younger generation. As a result, the subreddit temporarily shut down and Ford was removed as moderator. The subreddit unites people across backgrounds and classes who all question the never ending cycle of labor and consumption, united by the common understanding of the unhealthy restlessness of society. Though the platform has had its revival and significant traction, it is unclear where tomorrow's discussion of anti-work will take place. However, the struggle for change seems inevitable given the trends of the capitalist market. In one medium or another, the discussion will continue.

SAMHÄLLE

The Dream of Retiring Early

The Dream of Retiring Early TEXT KAROLINA GUSTAVSSON ILLUSTRATION FILIP ZAWADKA

Do you ever sit in the library hard at work, plowing textbooks, wondering where else you could be right now? Do you ever find yourself loathing the idea of studying 50 hours per week, just to be able to slave away in an office for 40 years before retiring?

Imagine having lots of time for your friends, family and local community. The freedom to take jobs purely based on what you find stimulating. Being able to move long term or travel without worrying about how to pay the bills. Being able to be home with your kids when they are small. In a nutshell, more freedom than you have today. A freedom that most people won’t have until they’re in their 60s. There’s a movement for this, called Financial Independence Retire Early — or FIRE for short. One could even go as far as to describe this as a lifestyle. I decided to investigate this dream and interview my friend Aiman who is pursuing FIRE. What’s your reason for pursuing FIRE? - Mainly I want to not have to choose an occupation based on what’s profitable, but instead being able to do what I feel like — stand up, tutoring, cleaning up the ocean from plastic… have time for my future kids. It's about having the freedom to choose.

For most of human history retirement wasn’t a thing, we simply didn’t live that long. If you look at how many tens of thousands of years humans have been around, retirement is actually a fairly new concept. During the 19th and 20th century, retirement policies were implemented in industrialized nations as a consequence of economic development and longer lifespans. Let’s fast forward to the ‘90s: many consider the book ‘Your Money Your Life’ by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez to be the starting point of the FIRE movement. It gained a cult following since it made a lot of people question their relationship with money and time, as well as provide concrete advice on how to change it. From there FIRE slowly but surely gained momentum and blew up as blogs and podcasts spread the word. Popular names within the community include Mr Money Mustache, Grant Sabatier and Tanja Hester. They are all well known to their followers for showing the way to financial independence through books and blog posts.

OSQLEDAREN #3

For people who are new to this idea, what should they know? - It’s eye-opening that if you save 10% of your pay you can take a year off every tenth year, if you save 25% you can take a year off every fourth year, and if you save 50% you can take every other year off. Combine this with the concept of compound interest and you will eventually be generating more income passively than you spend. However, to achieve this you have to understand money, and make financially rational decisions. In some ways, you need to operate more as a business than as a person. Maybe you're asking yourself how to achieve this after graduating as an average student? The key lies in saving a large chunk of your income, investing it and when it reaches a critical mass — let compound interest do the work. In

SAMHÄLLE

The Dream of Retiring Early

this regard time is your friend. For instance, if you save 1000 SEK each month for 10 years with an average interest of 7%, the interest alone will earn you 51 000 SEK. If you save 5000 SEK each month for 10 years with 7% interest, interest will earn you 255 000 SEK. You can play around with it by googling ‘compound interest calculator’ and trying different assumptions. People who are pursuing FIRE have to consider inflation and lifestyle creep — that people tend to spend more as they earn more. But do all FIRE lifestyles look the same? No, there are a few different kinds of FIRE — lean, fat and barista. Lean implies a frugal retirement, barista that you continue working part time and fat that you don’t worry about money during retirement. A frugal lifestyle is very modest, only spending on essentials while fat FIRE would entail a more lavish one.

lying to herself — her real desire was to live in Manhattan. Millman finishes by saying that she could have easily become an artist living in a less expensive city if that was the real priority. She then finishes the story by concluding that if her biggest priority really had been to become a writer she could have moved in with her parents in order to make it happen. This brings us to the wise words of Richard Feynman, “You must not fool yourself”. What do you actually want out of life? Recently I tried out an exercise, the odyssey plan, in which you ask yourself three questions. Where is my life trajectory going right now? If I could not pursue my current trajectory, what would I do? And what would I do if money and time wasn’t an issue? This didn’t change my life by any means but it did give me some clarity.

What’s your impression of the community? - Today it’s pretty hyped, it was more niche a couple of years ago. A common misconception is that it’s all lazy people but my impression is that it’s full of smart people who see a value in frugality and minimalism. Money is not necessarily the way to happiness but should rather be considered a security. And they’ve realized that the most important thing to buy is more time.

FIRE has been criticized for only being accessible to tech bros and rich people. It entails that you actually have disposable income which is beyond reach for a lot of people, especially in countries with large economic disparities and lots of inequality. Furthermore, some common assumptions seem to make the entire thing pretty risky. For instance, what happens if you live much longer than expected? With continuous innovation and research it is not unreasonable to assume that lifespans will be longer than ever before, but it’s difficult to predict how much longer. Another concern is that the first few years of saving and being financially independent are critical to the ‘end result’ because of compound interest. If you happen to find yourself in a major crash at the ‘wrong time’ this could have large implications. But then again this depends on your risk tolerance, the type of FIRE and your assumptions. Another common critique is that having to live frugally for 10-20 years to save up is not worth it even if you get to retire earlier.

The advantages are clear — freedom. This could mean a lot of different things for different people. Maybe it’s being able to provide for yourself without relying on others, being able to switch jobs more often, dedicating your time to nonprofits, escaping the rat race, vagabonding, living with intention, or perhaps creating. But do you have to become financially independent in order to live out your dreams? What is really stopping you from pursuing your dreams right now? This reminds me of a podcast episode in which Tim Ferriss interviews designer Debbie Millman (Episode #544), when she shares an anecdote about her priorities during her 20s. Back then she considered it her priority to become a writer or artist, but realized that she was

What are the biggest disadvantages with this lifestyle? - You have to rethink a lot of things psychologically — your relationship with spending and saving, and learn about investments. It’s easy to overdo it and feel guilty when you actually spend money. Also I worry about missing out on things because I’m so focused on this goal, I don’t want to waste my youth. You have to be careful about what your actual goal is so you don’t

OSQLEDAREN #3

just chase numbers. Cut costs mercilessly on things you don’t love, but spend extravagantly on things you do love. I’m curious how society would change if more people pursued FIRE. Would our economic growth stagnate or would we see unbound human progress and creativity? While FIRE is not the only option it is thought provoking. Another related alternative is the method highlighted in the book ‘The Four Hour Workweek’ by Tim Ferriss. In brief the concept is to automate as much as possible, make a business which survives with little maintenance and taking mini-sabbaticals. Another option is to become a digital nomad. Lastly, how do you give life meaning? - Building strong routines and working on different projects, this creates a reason to get up in the morning. Things that help other people, creating and the moment you succeed with something challenging. Both FIRE and similar lines of thought bring up a lot of questions, so I will leave you with these: What makes work meaningful? If time and money was not a concern — what would your life look like? What are you so passionate about that you lose track of time?

KULTUR

Vetenskapens katedral

Vetenskapens katedral TEXT ALEXANDRA ANDERSSON FOTO CARL HOUSTEN, AMANDA ANDRÉN, ILLUSTRATION CORNELIA THANE

Det råder överraskande akustik i den gamla reaktorhallen 25 meter under KTH. I väggarna ekar historien, viskandes om Sveriges intåg i atomåldern. Idag är R1 inte längre scen för banbrytande forskning, men uppfyller istället KTH:s motto med briljans, vilket skapar upplevelser utöver det vanliga.

OSQLEDAREN #3

KULTUR

Jag tog hissen ned till KTH R1 för att få höra historien om Sveriges första kärnreaktor; det både vetenskapliga och kulturella arvet som ofta har glömts bort. Väl där fann jag att R1:s historia inte tog slut när reaktorn stängdes av. I själva verket var det bara början. Efter att ha bidragit med värdefulla forskningsresultat och radioaktiva preparat som användes inom sjukvården i 16 år, stängdes R1 av för gott år 1970. Under det kommande årtiondet växte kärnkraftsmotståndet, och under 80-talet revs därför reaktorn och resterna av den stoppades i slutförvaret för lågaktivt avfall i Forsmark. Det var också då det karaktäristiska rutnätet, som täcker väggar, golv och tak i reaktorhallen, kom till. Efter att med sensorer ha mätt sig igenom varenda ruta kunde man bekräfta att den radioaktiva strålningen i lokalen låg under alla gränsvärden, och den friklassades således och räknas därmed inte längre som strålningslokal. Men rutnätet finns kvar, som en påminnelse om den verksamhet som en gång pågick här, och en försäkran om att platsen idag är ofarlig att besöka. Därefter följde ett par år då denna unika plats föll i glömska. Ett tag fanns det idéer om att uppföra en datacentral här, eller kanske ett höglager för biblioteket på KTH, men det dröjde till år 1998 innan någonting hände. Det var då KTH Medieteknik kom in i bilden, och en av initiativtagarna var Leif Handberg, lektor i medieteknik och idag föreståndare för R1. Han berättar om hur allt började: - Det hade kommit en utlysning från dåvarande Högskoleverket om att man kunde söka pengar för att samarbeta med konstnärer, från universitet och högskolor. Under 90-talet hade vi inom medieteknikområdet sett denna supernova av nya kommunikationsmöjligheter som dök upp med internet. En av idéerna vi kom upp med var att vi skulle vilja inrätta en experimentell scen, en kreativ mötesplats där vi skulle kunna träffas mellan olika discipliner. Och då visste jag att den här platsen fanns.

VETENSKAPENS KATEDRAL

I maj 1998 gjorde KTH Medieteknik sin första installation i R1. "Det var vetenskap och konst på många sätt" I samma veva drog de också ner internet till reaktorhallen, vilket möjliggjorde genomförandet av alltifrån videokonferenser och digital teater till livemusik där nere. Under åren som följde ordnades åtminstone ett evenemang per år, och det blev alltmer uppenbart vilken potential som fanns i denna en gång bortglömda plats. Det är Akademiska hus som äger KTH R1, men sedan 2007 är KTH formell hyresgäst här, med Leif Handberg som projektledare. Sedan juli 2020 är reaktorhallen en del av Gemensamma verksamhetsstödet (GVS), där Leif numera också jobbar en viss del av sin tid, för att se till att R1 kommer till sin rätt och bidrar med något positivt för KTH. Någon brist på kreativitet finns det sannerligen inte: - Vi har haft teater, opera, dans, seminarier, presentationer om forskning inom teknik: inte minst inom energi och reaktorfysik. Ibland har vi haft konferensmiddagar, som representation för KTH. Många evenemang är interna, men det finns också de som är öppna för allmänheten. I oktober 2021 satte man exempelvis upp “Kafkas arkiv”, en teaterföreställning. – Nu kör vi det som ett slags blandning mellan museum, kulturhus, seminarielokal, studio, labb, mässhall med mera, säger Leif och ringar in den enorma bredd som den unika platsen har idag. När Leif lite kryptiskt säger att han ska förbereda någonting som han gärna vill visa för mig och fotograferna passar vi på att klättra uppför trapporna i kontorsdelen av hallen. Där uppe är vi så nära det himmelsblå taket att det känns som att vi nästan kan ta på det, och vi har utsikt

över hela reaktorhallen. När vi tar trapporna ner igen är vi alla spända på vad vi ska få se. - Jag har lärt känna några av de som jobbade här när reaktorn var igång. Nu börjar de försvinna av åldersskäl, tyvärr. Professorn Karl-Erik Larsson gick bort för fem år sedan, 94 år gammal. Vi firade hans 90-årskalas här nere – det var fantastiskt! Han höll ett föredrag: “Mitt liv med neutroner”, men sedan kom han till mig efteråt och sa: “Det här var nog min sista föreläsning”, berättar Leif. Karl-Erik Larsson kom till AB Atomenergi i slutet av 40-talet, som ung forskare. Så småningom blev han professor i reaktorfysik på KTH, och sedan även programansvarig för fysikprogrammet. - Han berättade för mig att de ibland kallade det här för “vetenskapens katedral”, och det är lite snyggt tycker jag. Och vad behöver man då i en katedral? Jo, en orgel! En orgel är precis vad som numera tronar invid reaktorn. Närmare bestämt en piporgel av typen Wurlitzer, från 1926. Det är en biograforgel, och ursprungligen stod den på Skandiabiografen. Det är föreningen Skandiaorgeln som äger den, men idag upplåter KTH plats åt den mot att den får användas. I R1 ordnas alltifrån orgelkonserter till stumfilmsvisningar med biograforganist. – Det som är häftigt med det här är att även om det heter stumfilm så är det ju ingalunda tyst, men när det är bra gjort så tänker man inte på det, säger Leif. Leif är ivrig att visa oss orgeln mer i detalj. - Vårt orgelhus har vi byggt lite som en replika av reaktorn, så den har lite samma form och färgspråk. Det är en liten flört till det historiska. I grunden är den som en vanlig piporgel, som de som finns i kyrkorna, men den här har också lite andra saker. Orgeln har sju pipstämmor, och med hjälp av piporna kan den efterlikna överraskande många ljud. Utöver det givna kan den låta som alltifrån en violin eller trumpet, till en xylofon, cymbal och kyrkklocka. Därtill finns än mer unika ljud, såsom sirener, “vågor mot strand” och, ej att förglömma, “den galopperande hästen”. Alla dessa ljud frambringas via enkom lufttryck.

KULTUR

Även om Leif inte är någon organist själv har han lärt sig ett välkänt stycke, och när han spelar melodin till den brittiska musikalen “The Phantom of the Opera” känns beskrivningen av reaktorhallen som “vetenskapens katedral” självklar. De storslagna tonerna får rummet att vibrera och melodin som vandrar upp längs väggarna omsluter hela rummet i en mäktig känsla. - Man måste ju kunna spela någonting, säger Leif med en axelryckning och dyker sedan raskt vidare ner i det fascinerande instrumentet. - En orgel består av fyra delar: först har man en stor fläkt som ger lufttryck, sedan ett spelbord med tangenter där man styr allting, sedan ett styrsystem som ser till att det kommer luft i rätt pipa, och sedan har vi allting som låter. Det här styrsystemet är från början från 1926, och i princip kan man säga att det var som en tidig telefonväxel. Då gick det en slang till varje sak inuti orgelhuset, men nu går allting genom en kategori 5-kabel. Det är nu nämligen helt

VETENSKAPENS KATEDRAL

digitalt, det här styrsystemet. Och det är det som är så häftigt med den här orgeln. Trots att styrsystemet numera är helt digitaliserat låter det precis likadant som tidigare. Systemet bygger idag på så kallade midi-signaler, och det medför nya möjligheter. – Det betyder två saker: när någon spelar på orgeln kan man stoppa in ett midi-interface och “suga in” det i en dator. Sedan, när organisten inte längre är här, kan man köra den filen igen och då låter det precis som när organisten spelade. Så vi har faktiskt en självspelande orgel här! Den andra saken är att man kan styra orgeln på andra sätt än från spelbordet. Allt som kan ge ifrån sig midi-signaler kan styra orgeln, och det har vi nu börjat laborera lite med. Precis som för alla andra har pandemin satt käppar i hjulen för verksamheten i R1, men det finns flera planer för den kommande tiden, som blir verkliga om läget tillåter det. Inte minst blir det förhoppningsvis några fler evenemang med orgeln.

OSQLEDAREN #3

– Det vi annars ser fram mest emot just nu är uppsättningen av KTH:s egen opera, baserad på boken "Sagan om den stora datamaskinen", skriven 1966 av KTH:s Nobelpristagare Hannes Alfvén, berättar Leif. Det planerade premiären för operan är i december 2022, och den är ett samarbete mellan KTH och Stiftelsen Vadstena-Akademien. Det är första gången någonsin som en opera ska sättas upp i reaktorhallen, och mer information om operan finns att läsa på kth.se/thetale. Jag lämnar KTH R1 med många fler historier än jag någonsin hade hoppats på när jag kom dit. Inte minst berättelsen om Sveriges första kärnreaktor som dog och fick liv igen, och utvecklades till ett kulturarv på fler än ett sätt. Berättelsen om en stundtals bortglömd plats där historien i viss mening tycks ha stått stilla, men där också ny historia ständigt skrivs. Jag längtar redan efter nästa möjlighet att få uppleva storheten i denna vetenskapens katedral.

KULTUR

The Monetization of Porn

The Monetization of Porn TEXT NOUR QASSIM DERWEESH ILLUSTRATION ISABELLE HOLMÉR

What is porn? Hot? Simple? Shameful? Enraging? Is it everything and nothing at the same time? Does it make you feel good or make you feel bad? Both? It’s 3 am. The cold from the outside is seeping through the window and after a long day, cozying up under my blankets is all I want to do. The stress of the day is still taut in my body as I mindlessly scroll through Pornhub. Nothing catches my eye until I focus on the bright colors of some lingerie, I click on the video, lower the volume and get comfortable in bed. Porn is one of the most readily consumed pieces of content out there. Something that shouldn’t be all that surprising when the top 20 countries by traffic make up 79% of Pornhub’s traffic, as stated in their annual report. A lot of people watch porn, and some even work in the industry. It’s a concept that is familiar to a lot of us, but with that familiarity comes a sinking feeling many people also are aware of. With terms like ‘post nut clarity’ thrown out, it’s no wonder that there’s an established shame that comes from watching certain types of porn. Whether it be something you’d normally not think you’re into, or something that makes you feel uncomfortable, the two experiences go hand in hand. I am particularly of the belief that some, if not most, of this doubtful shame comes from the uncertainty with a lot of free porn out there. I know I’ve seen videos that have made me pause and worry if what I’m watching actually is consensual. That sentence is a difficult one to type, but so is the potential truth of that. The problem is that we truly don’t know. And when we’ve actually had instances with real people coming

out and telling us about their rapes, assults and revenges porn videos being posted on free porn sites, we have a right to be worried. We should be worried when we have no real verification that what we’re seeing is consensual and legal. When the New York Times pulled the trigger and released all the evidence of the exploitation on Pornhub with the movement of “The Children of Pornhub” things started changing. After almost 2 decades of no real action taken from Pornhub, they finally made a move when their credit card companies, Mastercard and Visa, stopped allowing their cards to be used on the site. Pornhub then rolled out their verification system not too long after. So things can change, but money talks. As amazing and foolishly idealistic it would be to hope for these companies to get struck by a light of morality and righteousness, that would be too easy. However it’s extremely vital to not lose hope here: does it suck that the only real action is through means of money? Yeah absolutely, would it suck even harder if nothing changed? No doubt. And this was Pornhub that was struck with an inability to do nothing, a website with almost 115 million visitors per day. It’s a big move toward the right direction! Even with many other websites infested with the same problems. We can only hope that other companies follow suit and start taking these regulations seriously. Paid porn is often brought up as a ‘solution’ to this problem, and to a certain

OSQLEDAREN #3

extent it’s true. Paying for your porn will indirectly put a safety cap on it. It’s not a perfect solution, and not a wildly viable one either, but it is progress nonetheless. Slapping money on a problem that’s directly caused by money is a positive feedback loop. Because the money and revenue is the issue here, if these companies didn’t make money off of these free sites then they wouldn’t be slow with their actions, but they are because the money is big and our voices are not loud enough. The porn industry is estimated to have an annual revenue of 9 to $97B dollars. A large span that might raise your eyebrows, but can be explained by realizing that porn is both a multi-million dollar industry and something people can do at home. The figures are uncertain at best, and companies aren’t eager to share how much money they make off of the content we watch. Mindgeek, the parent company that owns Brazzers, Youporn and Pornhub have an estimated annual revenue of $228.2M. There’s a lot of money at play for these websites, so don’t be fooled into thinking that a free website can’t make any money, especially not in the porn industry. We need to be aware of these things because they’re so deeply baked into our day to day, simply being mindful can go a long way. Going out of your way to find websites that work with ethical porn and verification is one way to be more mindful of what we consume, whilst also keeping in mind that in actuality we won’t ever know the truth, but by following your gut instinct and being source critical you are doing your best. We have to be mindful of the sustainability of our society and the world that exists on the internet, it doesn’t stop being real because of its virtual nature.

KULTUR

MONEY CAN BUY HAPPINESS

Money Can Buy Happiness TEXT ISABEL DAHLGREN ILLUSTRATION ANASTASIA ANGELI

Money can buy happiness if you spend it right. Rather than investing everything into stocks or getting yourself the latest iPhone, consider spending it on others. There’s ample evidence that spending on others actually makes us happier. It’s commonly believed that money can’t buy happiness. If your income surpasses a certain amount, a bonus won’t make much of a difference, right? It also seems as if the effect of money on happiness should wear off the more you earn. These ideas have actually been backed up by multiple studies. Money matters to some extent, but there’s a threshold after which it has no observable effect. Yet, money can buy most things that make people happy. If you’re well-to-do, you might have more time to spend with family and friends, which is crucial for one’s well being. Moreover, it’s well-established that people who are well off tend to have better health. In some sense, the outcomes of the studies on money are rather disheartening. In theory, we should be able to

buy happiness. Thus, maybe we should rephrase the question ‘Can money buy happiness?’ as ‘How can money buy happiness?’ While money allows you to build relationships, money can also buy happiness in a more direct way. In one experiment, university students at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver were handed a 5-dollar bill. Group A was instructed to spend it on themselves, whereas group B was instructed to spend it on others. As it turned out, many group A students grabbed coffee or had lunch out. In contrast, group B students got to treat their friends or purchased something for a stranger. At the end of the day, the students were called and asked how happy they felt. The results were rather clear-cut:

OSQLEDAREN #3

the students from group B reported significantly higher levels of wellbeing. In another experiment, participants were told to recall an instance when they’d spent money on themselves and others and were asked how it made them feel. Similarly, participants who reflected on some time when they’d spent money on others reported feeling happier. The second study involved people from both Canada and Uganda, but the outcome was pretty much the same. That is, regardless of cultural differences, spending on others makes people happier. The results aren’t revelatory. Undoubtedly, everyone has experienced the joy of giving during Christmas. However, it’s quite remarkable that the results are so consistent and reproducible across the world.

KULTUR

MONEY CAN BUY HAPPINESS

In other words, it’s in your self-interest to give. Given all this research, how come we don’t spend our money more judiciously? As we’ve seen, spending money on others is a win-win; you make someone’s day, while also feeling good about yourself. In other words, it’s in your self-interest to give. Firstly, people are often poor judges of what makes them happy. In the study involving the university students, most assumed that spending money on them-

selves would make them happier. Indeed, it seems as if the students are in good company. Many lottery winners lavish money on luxury goods or real estate. Secondly, another study indicated that the mere thought of money made people less generous. Upon receiving the 5-dollar bill, the students automatically became less inclined to spend it on others. It’s hard to evade this problem, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

OSQLEDAREN #3

To sum up, money can buy happiness if we spend it well. After all, spending a mere 5 dollars on others made a substantial difference to the mood of the Canadian students. Having a high income allows you to spend even more on others. Regardless of whether you purchase something for your father or donate money to a charitable organisation, it’ll make your day.

OL GRÄVER

Money, Money, Money

Money, Money, Money TEXT BENJAMIN JAVITZ AND CARL HOUSTEN ILLUSTRATION BENJAMIN JAVITZ AND VENDELA HAMBERG

We asked 235 students about their finances, here are the results and some conclusions!

OSQLEDAREN #3

OL GRÄVER

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

What's your monthly rent in SEK?

Some of the statistics will be compared to numbers in a report “Stockolm’s Student Budget 2022” by the Stockholm Federation of Student Unions, SSCO. Their budget comes to the conclusion that students in Stockholm make a monthly loss of 2 673 kr. To get their numbers they had to make a few assumptions and use broad averages.

I live with family 635 I own an apartment I share an apartment with someone

3824

Student Accommodation

5084

I rent an apartment on my own

5093 6505

Average monthly rent based on living situation. Renting an apartment on your own is clearly the most expensive option, while student accommodation and sharing an apartment have the same average rent.

What is your monthly income? CSN Bidrag & Loan No Loan

10740 13782

Compared with their data, we can see that students at KTH pay significantly less than average students in Stockholm on study material. Another stand-out number is only two out of three students own longterm cards for public transportation- whilst SSCO assumes that a 30-day ticket is the most common ticket and believes that every student should be able to purchase one. “Making a loss of 2 600 kronor every month brings an incredibly unstable situation for students. Students need to work parallel with their studies, which causes them stress and makes it difficult for them to complete their studies.” said SSCO Chairman Sofia Holmdahl in an interview with #studietid, the student union magazine at Stockholms University. Some of our questions were derived from a report CSN made. They didn’t turn out very noteworthy, but they do show that our numbers are reliable.

"The only issue is if you lose your CSN. Other than that, I think it's fairly easy to live ok as a student."

How much do you spend on study material per month? "My CSN application was not approved for this term so I'm living of my dwindling savings right now."

11,6%

18,7%

48%

21,8% "Under pandemin behövde jag införskaffa ny dator. Vi brukade innan använda universitetets datorer men gick inte under pandemin. Då fick vi dra ner på matkontot istället."

< 100 SEK

200 – 400 SEK

100 – 200 SEK

> 400 SEK

Depending on your program, there are huge differences when it comes to how much you spent on study material each month.

OSQLEDAREN #3

OL GRÄVER

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

How much do you spend on study material per month?

Could your household cover an unexpected expense 11,6% of 12 000 SEK within a month? Yes

14%

No 32,3%

14,5%

21,8%

71,5%

How do you feel about your economic situation during your studies? OL

CSN

10 %

It's bad

It's very bad

CSN

"I have to buy medicational drugs, so while in the store I sometimes go 'no, I can't afford this feta cheese, because I need to save money for meds'."

20 %

It's mostly It's mostgood ly bad

61%

If your fridge suddenly stops working or your laptop breaks during exam period, your household might have to cover a significant unexpected expense. Compared to the results of the same SEK by CSN, students 200 – 400 SEK question<in100 a report at KTH are more prepared for such a 100 – 200 SEK > 400 SEK case.

40 % 30 %

It's good

We asked you about your general feeling when it comes to your personal finances. Here we compare your answers with the results of the same question in a report by CSN.

"I try to live cheaply during semesters to get through the summers."

How do you feel about your economic situation during your studies? 40 % CSN Bidrag & 30 % No Loan

"What if I have trouble with CSN or can’t find a job for the summer? That would require me to have some sort of social security in terms of family or maybe friends"

20 % 10 %

It's very good

It's good

It's mostly It's mostgood ly bad

What is your monthly income?

It's bad

It's very bad

It is also interesting to look at the differences between these two CSNgroups: Bidrag students & Loan that receive both10740 CSN Bidrag and Loan and those who receive only the Bidrag or no CSN at all. No Loan

48%

Do you pay for an SL Card?

Yes 67,7%

It's very good

39%

18,7%

Probably, I'd have to think about it

13782 OSQLEDAREN #3

OL GRÄVER

Too Little Too Late, KTH’s COVID Response

Too Little Too Late, KTH’s COVID Response TEXT CARL HOUSTEN ILLUSTRATION REBECKA INGRAM MEME AXEL LINDBERG

When KTH published their response to the new restrictions. It leaves much to be desired. When the most recent restrictions were announced on the 10th of January, I watched the broadcast together with the THS Management Team. The Prime Minister announced that they recommended extra exam opportunities to be given to sick students in higher education, and we were all overjoyed. When KTH published their response, this joy was killed completely.

KTH announced that they had no intention of introducing new exam opportunities, which is still the case as I write this article. Instead, they referred students to the regularly scheduled re-exams: which really isn’t helpful at all. One of many reasons being that re-exams are not within the period in which SSSB (Foundation for Stockholms Student Housing) checks exam results.

THS President Teo Elmfeldt responded to this in a letter from THS, “We believe the decision is unclear and does not give reassurance to the many students that already have been forced to miss their exams, and that the news is too late to hinder desperate students from risking others well-being by showing up anyway. The re-exam period exists to give students another chance and aid them in keeping up with their studies, not as an all-encompassing pandemic solution.” So why was KTH’s response so late? You may wonder. Well, part of the reason is that KTH management, as well as faculties handling this, were on vacation since before christmas, their last meeting with THS being on the 20th of December. Not giving them the opportunity to respond to the restrictions announced just after they left for vacation. But really- what kind of excuse is that? A government organisation such as THS ought to be prepared for these scenarios - as they often are with their three-scenario plans for imposing various restrictions. This also meant that THS wasn’t given the opportunity to impact KTH in this matter until it was too late. Head of Educational Affairs Amanda Andrén is to this day hard at work to grant students extra exam opportunities to replace the ones they missed. During all of this we saw more or less constructive discussions among the students about extra exams and KTH’s response

OSQLEDAREN #3

OL GRÄVER

during the exam period, mostly in Facebook-groups such as Legends of Tâmarrow and Kungliga Tekniska MEMES. This spurred a petition to be launched, asking for “extra resources that would enable e.g. extra exam opportunities and the opportunity to take distance exams if necessary”. As of writing this article it has surpassed 900 signatures, which is fairly significant. Osqledaren decided to start collecting our own data on the matter using a survey. A majority of the responses were students frustrated by the exam situation, many with different takes on the situation. Some wanted only digital examination, some only on-campus examination. Others were simply asking for more exam opportunities. Many answers were just venting their sadness or frustration with the situation. Suffice to say many students are unhappy with their situation. Below are a few of the responses: "Jag har inte själv upplevt detta men hört och läst om folk som varit med om det. Jag tycker att det är helt knäppt att tentor hålls på campus utan extratillfälle (1 eller 2 veckor efter) eller möjlighet till zoomtenta. De som tar sitt ansvar och missar en tenta pga symtom kan förlora sitt boende eller CSN. Om inte annat bidrar det till en högre stressnivå att kanske nästa period ha 3 eller mer tentor. Det känns som att alltihop blir

Too Little Too Late, KTH’s COVID Response

en ond cirkel och jag känner mig oerhört sviken av KTH som inte tar större ansvar i detta. Både för smittspridningens skull men även för studenternas skull." “Såg inte alla diskussioner som blossat upp på Facebook och andra ställen förrän nu när tentaperioden är slut. Jag blir frustrerad över debattklimatet. Vågar inte säga öppet att jag tycker KTH gör helt rätt när de följer FHM:s rekommendationer istället för att hitta på egna regler. De 1,5 åren med distansundervisning vi haft var inte kul och tentor utan fuskmöjlighet går inte heller att göra på distans.” "Jag är rädda att hamna bredvid någon på tentan som är där trotts positivt covid test för att de känner sig tvingad att skriva tentan pga risken att bli hemlös." “Vill inte gå tillbaka till salsföreläsningar för det är lättare att haffa över zoom” What did we learn from this? KTH didn’t, and still isn’t listening to students in this matter. Even despite so many students raising their voices and THS making their demands clear. Are our demands unreasonable? I don’t think so. Then why aren't our pleas heard? We ought to recieve an explanation at the very least. Throughout this KTH has done nothing but ignore students being affected by this.

What can you do if you failed some exams due to a covid infection? We spoke to representatives from SSSB and CSN (The Swedish Board of Student Finance) and asked them about exemptions being given for covid-related reasons. The interviews were in Swedish and have been translated. First we spoke to Anita Andersson, representative for the housing delegation in SSCO (Stockholm Federation of Student Unions) as well as their vice president, Emilia Kaufeldt. SSCO is the governing body of SSSB. How do you get an exemption for missing exams for covid-related reasons? - There is no general rule, every case is treated separately. Basically you need a positive test result and prove that it coincided with the exam date, answers Andersson. - We go through tons of applications with varying personal reasons and need to judge everything case-by-case, Kaufeldt comments. How many students apply for exemptions, and how many are approved? - We have been generous with covid-related applications. In normal cases you need to be able to back everything up with papers from the healthcare system. During covid quite a few applications have been due to exams being postponed, in these cases a confirmation from the school is enough. - We can see that students taking fewer courses or studying 50% have been hit the hardest, adds Kaufeldt. We also spoke to Sophia Beyer Rankila, press secretary at CSN. The description she gave of the process to gain exemption was similar to the response from SSCO. She wanted to encourage writing personal letters to describe your case and attach a positive test result or sick application to Försäkringskassan (eng; Swedish Social Insurance Agency) that covers every exam opportunity that has been given. CSN does not have statistics of how many people apply for exemptions for covid-related reasons either, but they claim that there aren’t more applications than previous years and that there are about as many people passing their courses.

OSQLEDAREN #3

OL GRÄVER

Malvinas Democratic Success Story

Malvinas Democratic Success Story TEXT CARL HOUSTEN PHOTO MALVINA

Last fall we wrote quite the critical article regarding Malvina, the network for female and non-binary students at KTH. What's happened since then? Our previous article commented on the lack of democracy in their association and the importance of transparency and due process whilst claiming to represent 2000 female and non-binary students at KTH- effectively being the largest voice for gender equality on campus. Recently, they've recruited a new election committee, opened applications for their next board, and updated their statutes. (which are publicly available on their website) Best of all- they members have been granted voting rights at annual meetings. Every single thing we brought up in our previous article has been changes- and even a few more things. Late February they sent out a newsletter on the subject- and it was quite self-critical. “More democracy - Before the changes were implemented, our so-called members had very limited possibility to influence Malvina. Instead, it was the board that made all the decisions, including choosing the next board. From now on Malvina will implement a new members list, and if you become a member, you will be invited to our annual meetings and also have the right to vote.” They also announced that they will be reducing the size of their board, in order for the operations to be more member-driven. The board members “...have the possibility to recruit additional project groups.”, as stated in the newsletter. This is quite the success story. Congratulations to the board of Malvina for working out the kinks in their association! We spoke to Emilia Rieschel, one of their two presidents.

How has the response been since announcing these changes? - It’s been surprisingly quiet. We expected to recieve more feedback than we have had, it’s mostly been those closest to the board and a few members at events that we’ve had. We’ve worked with this since the fall and everything has been very positive. People have appreciate the work we have done. Although the interest for improving regulatory documents generally isn’t very high. Has the work gone well thus far? Have you managed to elect an election commitee? - Yes, we have! We have an election commitee consisting of 5 people. Recruitment for the next board will be opening on Monday February 28 so we’ve had a lot of meetings with the commitee for them to gain insight in our operations. They are very excited for their interviews so I have high hopes. - THS contacted us about our statutes right before your previous article was published, since then we’ve been hard at work. How do you expect these changes to effect the operations of Malvina? - It will have a fairly large impact. Primarilywe now have annual meetings where we expect to recieve a lot of motions. There’s a whole new opportunity for members to participate in the association. - We also elected to make the board smaller: since the demand for events and from companies has been larger than what the board has been able to handle. This will be the largest change to the operations- how Malvina is structured and who participates in carrying out the operations. It’s no longer just the board- it’s everyone.

OSQLEDAREN #3

Anything else you’d like to add? - We in Malvina are thankful for this having been brought up. It is not fun to work with statutes. I did not become the chairman to work with statutes. But this is the most important work we have done this year. - In the beginning. before THS contacted us, we didn’t see this as a problem. We have viewed it as the board doing all the work for the members sake. Our cooperations with THS have been great from the start and we’ve recieved all the help we’ve needed. - It has been difficult to restructure the association and still have time for our usual operations, but now I am thankful for having gone through with it and that the whole board participated. It gives us nothing but opportunities to grow.

Emilia Rieschel Malvinas President with Financial Responsibility 21/22

UNDERHÅLLNING

SO YOU HIT THE JACKPOT

So You Hit the Jackpot TEXT DAVID BONET FERNANDEZ AND VIVEKA BROCKMANN ILLUSTRATION REBECKA INGRAM

Your mouth is wide open, your hands are shaking, your brain is in utter disbelief. You hear someone playing the drums, but turns out it’s your heart. Congratulations! You just won the lottery, hit the jackpot!

OSQLEDAREN #3

UNDERHÅLLNING

Finally, the Universe gave what you deserve. After all that suffering, you are rich! And not rich as in, look at my brand new car, but rich as in look at my brand new island. You cannot help but feel rewarded, blessed, and above all: like the luckiest being on the entire planet. However, feelings are feelings and reality is reality. You had luck, indeed, but snap back to reality: it was the bad kind of luck. Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr. was an American businessman, with a career and a construction company. As a semi-accidental result of his entrepreneurship and ambition, his company was doing more than just ok, and he was beyond financially stable, and was approaching boredom, without breaking and backing away. Experts estimated Jack’s net worth to be about 17 million US dollars before he hit the jackpot. The Powerball multi-state lottery was, at the time, the largest prize sum ever won by a single individual and a single ticket, in the history of the American lottery. Awarding him with an amount of a grand total of 315 million dollars. Mr. Whittaker was determined, or, at least he said so at the time, to continue with his life, as if nothing had changed. He hoped he would be able t o

SO YOU HIT THE JACKPOT

spend more time with his family, while continuing to answer his own phone, open his own front door, and perhaps, if need be: turn to God for guidance. "He's still working on me.": was his interpretation of God's words.

The manager of the club suggested that he re-pocket his wads of cash, stating that the strip club serves up serious struggle for those asking for trouble. Equity in that environment is equivalent to toying with trouble.

What happens when one wins such a gravitational sum? Well, Whittaker decided to donate part of his winnings to the Church and other Christian Charities, deeming 10% to be quite a generous quantity. Needless to say, the Church of God was delighted and in humble gratitude built a multi-million dollar facility for the innocent christian children. Nevertheless, Christian Altruism didn’t turn out to be his savior.

Although he escaped assault that night, he most definitely drank himself to hell and returned, heading home in a lottery winner’s taxi, that is, a luxurious limousine. Thereafter, things really started to go severely south.

Wise old Whittacker frequented a local restaurant, where he was used to breaking his daily fast: breakfast, getting his daily dose of caffeine. Attracted by the aroma of caffeine in the cute cafe, other addicts arrived. The lucky winner quickly became the subject of financial stalkers, that is, mobs of people whose daughters had coincidentally acquired cancer and were in desperate need of Whittackers charitable christian values. Currency burning with clarity. Some of them even had prepared powerful presentations, generating genius business ideas. Presenting perpetual motion machines, a feat which would insult the intellectual integrity of physics fanboys and fanatics. Others, lacking the lucrative spirit for financial finessing, bluntly begged for bars of cold cash. As a result, Whittaker walked away from the cafe, leaving his favorite breakfast place in the past. His future found security in hired professionals: operators were ordered to sort out his mail, a couple of detectives filtered out con men and scammers. Admittedly, he really wanted to make good choices, helping people who needed him. Sadly, this is not the story of such a saint. Two weeks after the lucky day, he was seen in the Pink Pony. Far from being a harmless happy hippie place, it was a harmful horrible horrendous nightmare.. The Pink Pony strip club caters to slithering snakes like white man Whittaker. Throwing thousands of dollars on the counter, claiming that he was there to “whoop it up”, Whittaker began dishing out demands.

OSQLEDAREN #3

Losing money may be sad, but being betrayed by so-called friends is heart-breaking. But there is something worse than betrayal, something that cannot be repaired. Whittaker’s car was twice broken into, the culprits were not unknown criminals, but trusted acquaintances. These life-long “friends” had observed Whittaker’s routines and machine learned that large quantities of cash were kept in the car. The first time, prescription drugs were put in his drink. The second, they intimidated Whittaker’s granddaughter, insinuating insults to her person for information. Their methods resulted in a total of $700,000 stolen dollars. Brandi, Whittaker’s granddaughter, was not only pressured to produce information. Worse than that, her loving grandfather gave her large amounts of money. This attracted certain people, and the filtering mechanisms of young teenager Brandi were not well established. Her fickle firewalls fell down, and she did not fare well, and had to say her farewells. She dropped out of high school, drove around exploiting expensive cars, eating junk food as if she were trying to reach a sumo wrestler's weight. It was not long until drugs began to appear in the equation. Such drugs were not limited to cannabis and alcohol alone. Brandi Whittaker started taking white powders. The crack cracked her open, exposing its extremely addictive properties. However, Brandi was not exactly poor and upon family suggestion, she agreed to go to rehab. Twice. Unfortunately, addiction remained her affliction. Following her pathetic path like a parasite, her boyfriend, Jimmy jimmied along: eventually dropping dead of an overdone dose.

UNDERHÅLLNING

Grounded by guilt, as it was her money that enabled the deadly drugs that killed her boyfriend. Three months later, Brandi was buried, along with her name. Although the cause seemed to be an overdose, Whittaker suspected foul play. The apple of Whittaker’s eye was dead and gone. Unable to avoid ruminating over the root cause, the seeds of supposed success, lended by the lottery winnings, his sanity suffered and withered with Brandi’s demise, dirt on his sad soul. Whittaker’s case is not isolated. Billie Bob Harrel committed suicide after endless requests for money from friends and family. Evelyn Adams declared bankruptcy after gambling away her fortune. Thomas Strong died during a quarrel with the police, coming straight from the underground. Jeffrey Dampier was kidnapped and murdered by his own sisterin-law, inlaws becoming lawless. Homicide, drug overdoses, kidnappings, and bankruptcy are normally not logically linked with the lure of the lottery. Nonetheless, and needless to note, troublesome tragedies attributes allocated, allotted by the lottery. Therefore, if you are ever lucky enough to lose the lottery, you might be interested in the intricate instructions to avoid the loss of heaven and pain of hell: the undesirable brutality brought by bankruptcy, demonizing, dehumanizing, delegating death. The first step is to remain calm. Not because your yoga teacher says so, or because your meditation app mandates it, but because you must translate the trainwreck of thunder and thoughts. Above all, rise above boasting, blast your bitterness, be better. No need to say nothing, no fala nada. Before declaring yourself the winner, you contact and confirm, acquire the affirmation of an attorney. Accept ayuda, protection from potential peleas, build barries for battles you might be faced with and forced to fight. Extra points for an attorney, independent

SO YOU HIT THE JACKPOT

of incentives, already introduced and used to incriminating criminals, well versed in dancing with wealthy willpower. The second step is to decide how much you are going to give away, and don’t give away your integrity. Give money to family and friends, christians, children, and charity. Set up a favorable foundation. But again, be brave, be bold, be cunningly consistent. People are going to ask you for money no matter what, and deciding beforehand how much to give will clear uncertainties not only for yourself, but also for poten-

The first step is to remain calm.

tial perpetual-motion machine inventors, pitching and bitching. It can also deal with family quarrels about who gets what. Decades of Christian Christmas dinners and manipulative Monopoly games have proven that you definitely want to avoid family quarrels, so trust your experience. The third step is to hire a financial advisor and establish a safety net for your inner circle. So to sum up, if you ever become a lottery loser, which is a BIG IF IN ALL CAPS, don’t panic, or at least keep the panic organic, and get help. Professionals are pertinent.

OSQLEDAREN #3

Buying a lottery ticket is not an advisable financial move, as the estimated return is lower than the investment. Not quite like the riveting rocket science scene. However, it is safe, not surprising, to acknowledge the real reason why one should abstain from buying lottery tickets. Not because of the low likelihood of winning, but because of the dangers and delusions it demands. A reasonable point in favor of lottery spending $ is that it gives hope, and, in a way, you are buying a pleasant state of mind. You are buying the chance of a magic trick that will ease worries, solve problems, and take you into a world beyond your wildest dreams. But as Whittaker’s example shows, dreams can easily become memes, or nightmares. It is easy to think that you can do better than those who failed before you, see US politics. And maybe you are right, but do not be a fool, keep it cool. It will not be an easy path of least resistance. If you hit the jackpot, it’ll hit you back, and if you mistake your heartbeat for the sound of drums in Rio, go see a doctor. And a lawyer. And a financial advisor.

UNDERHÅLLNING

Playing Runescape FOR SURVIVAL

Playing Runescape for Survival TEXT GUNNAR ÅKERLIND ILLUSTRATION ROISIN CALLAGHAN

Throughout my childhood, just like for most of my friends, gaming was a source of entertainment and the greatest competitor for my spare time. However, in the context of an economy in decay and where resources are scarce, online gaming has come to take up a different role in the lives of many Venezuelans. It has become a necessity for survival. I was a gamer in highschool. When I wasn’t studying, you’d find me by the computer, playing games or watching others play on YouTube. Now the act seems like a waste of valuable time, if I could even find time to play, that is. Back then however, I was glued to the screen for hours on end. Either trying my best to survive in the dark wilderness of Don’t Starve or shooting down the enemy team in Dirty Bomb or Counter Strike Global Offensive. I even have an embarrassing amount of time on Geometry Dash. The game which takes the prize for getting the most of my time was Team Fortress 2, an iconic team based FPS.

Within this game (like many others) there was a function which allowed players to trade items with each other. From this function a market arose. I won some and I lost some, but to me this little market was still only a part of the game. For others, these virtual economies have come to mean so much more. The measly money one can make from playing and trading in online games in this sense has next to no value in the richer parts of the world. Look to Venezuela however, a country with a collapsed economy and inflation off the rails, where these

OSQLEDAREN #4

sums which to me seem negligible can be a significant sum. A sum large enough to survive on even. And in a context where jobs are few and salaries low, what seems like entertainment becomes essential for survival. The game Old School Runescape has become a staple in the lives of many Venezuelans. This game allows “mining” of the in-game currency where gain is proportional to time put in. By dedicating hours on end to simple, repetitive tasks, one can earn enough money to make a significant addition to a Venezuelan household. The article “How Runescape is helping Venzuelans survive” by Mat Ombler at Polygon gives a colourful insight to the situation by reporting one Venezuelan’s struggles. “Martinez”, a former accountant, turned to Runescape when inflation had made his former salary inadequate for survival and one neighbour recommended the game, which now has become “super mainstream” in Venezuela. He puts it harshly: without his “gold-mining”, his family would starve.

UNDERHÅLLNING

But let’s zoom out for a moment. How come these Venezuelans need to slave away in this virtual world when their country is one of the wealthiest on earth? In terms of natural resources, Venezuela is rich. Minerals, metal and most importantly the world's largest confirmed oil reserves sound like the basis for abundance, yet the Venezuelan economy is the very opposite. In terms of acquiring basic necessities, survival has become a day to day struggle for many. The story of Venezuela's economic collapse begins with the development of the economy in the first place. As Venezuela holds immense oil reserves, the logical conclusion for both private and state-run enterprises was to invest in this area. Exports of oil came to make up a majority of the Venezuelan economy and laid the foundation for the growth of the country. Simultaneously, reforms and economic policies by the Venezuelan government during large parts of the current millenia created a strong reliance on imports, something which was possible due to the revenues generated from oil exports. Various shortages would arise during the later years of the ‘00s, with 2010 being a significant year for the economic decline. These negative turns were marked by the country’s leader, Hugo Chavez, declaring an “economic war” to regain control of the economy. An economy based on oil exports as well as a large reliance on imports would prove a disastrous combination when in 2014/2015 the oil prices started to drop globally, leaving Venezuela in a very precarious position. Shortages increased and the economic situation started to deteriorate at a dangerous rate.

Playing Runescape FOR SURVIVAL

The horrible conditions are illustrated time upon time by reports of people going to great lengths to secure the nourishment needed for their survival. A 2017 article by The Guardian reports that zoo animals are likely being stolen and butchered to be used as food. Once again on the theme of zoos, one article from The Daily Mail shows images of emaciated animals as a horrific reflection of the economic situation in the country. Both The Daily Mail and The Mirror reported on people eating rats as a last resort against hunger, which had already been a necessity for prison inmates. As the crisis intensified around the start of 2015, international intervention turned the difficult situation far worse than dropping oil prices alone would have done. Venezuela is still under harsh sanctions from the US, the EU and Canada among several others in order to combat the current administration on claims of authoritarianism and oppression. While these actions are often claimed to be in the interest of democracy and the Venezuelan people, it has the very opposite effect on most Venezuelans. As one can read on the United Nations’ website, an “Independent UN rights expert calls for unilateral sanctions to be dropped against Venezuela,” Stating that the sanctions are to the detriment of those who need help the most. Once again, the statements made by the UN are clear as day: “Imposed by the United States, European Union as well as other countries, the sanctions have sparked economic, humanitarian and development crises, devastating the entire population, especially those living in extreme poverty, women, medical workers, individuals with life-threatening diseases and indigenous peoples.“

OSQLEDAREN #4

This becomes another addition to the long list of suffering following American intervention in South America, including when the US backed the installation and rule of the infamous dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile. We return to Martinez, the accountant turned virtual gold miner, who now lives in Peru along with his mother and girlfriend. Using money made from Runescape they managed to flee the country and escape the ever deteriorating problems in the Venezuelan society. Many other expats like him use their money made from mining to help their less fortunate relatives who remain trapped in the difficult Venezuelan reality. Without a change of course for the country, more will follow the path of Martinez and his family. Today, the Venezuelan economy continues to spiral out of control. Through a nightmarish synergy of poor planning by the state, a dropping oil price and inhumane sanctions, the everyday lives of the Venezuelan people stays on a path of difficulties and suffering. Some search garbage for food while others have been forced to kill and consume their pets out of hunger. In this horrible context, for many with access to the internet the virtual markets of online gaming became a lifeline. Once we enter the internet, we largely become equals regardless of external circumstance, yet the role the virtual worlds plays in our lives is so very different. For some, a game is a pastime and a source of joy while for others that are less fortunate, gaming becomes a necessity for survival.

UNDERHÅLLNING

Meal Replacement Review

Meal Replacement Review TEXT OSQLEDAREN

We tried meal replacement products from four different brands - so you don't have to! All of these products are intended to be able to replace or supplement a normal diet, and are all vegan! Seeing as they have been growing in popularity both on campus and on the general market, we thought a taste test would be interesting. Taste Texture Smell Design Average

Most often when you see these products they'll be in powder form, we elected to try the bottled versions for consistent consistencies. And with increasing avaliability, you may start seeing this product category more often. Notably, Huel is avaliable in some supermarkets. And several companies offer discounts when you order with a continual subscription, complicating the pricing somewhat. We did not take the price in to account in the scoring.

Taste Texture Smell Design Average

1.4 2.1 3.1 1.9 1.9

Price Calories

32/36 SEK 330 kcal

2.1 2.1 1.8 2.1 1.8

Price Calories

Taste Texture Smell Design Average

2.3 3.4 1.8 2.0 2.1

Price Calories

26 SEK 400 kcal

2.6 3.4 4.1 3.4 2.9

OSQLEDAREN #3

3.0 2.8 3.4 3.2 2.7

2.9 2.8 3.8 2.6 2.7

3.9 2.8 4 3.3 3.1

2.7 2.8 2.8 3.1 2.5

2.8 2.8 3.6 3.2 2.7

39 SEK 500 kcal

Taste Texture Smell Design Average

1.7 2.8 2.4 4.6 2.3

Price Calories

42-52 SEK / 50 SEK at ICA 400 kcal

2.4 2.8 2.6 4.9 2.6

2.7 2.8 2.7 4.5 2.6

2.8 2.8 2.5 4.4 2.5

Recruitment opens soon for

Operations Team DATES: 21 MARCH ‘22 - 10 APRIL ‘22

THS ARMADA /thsarmada

/ths armada

PÅ CAMPUS

RESTAURANGENS NUTIDA HISTORIA

Restaurangens nutida historia TEXT CARL HOUSTEN FOTO VICTORIA ROHRER ILLUSTRATION CORNELIA THANE

Restaurangen ligger som grund för många av kårens verksamheter, och ser till att kårhuset är befolkat. Eftersom restaurangens utformning och verksamhet debatteras i Kårpolitiken tog vi en stund till att prata med dess verksamhetschef.

OSQLEDAREN #3

PÅ CAMPUS

Vill du börja med att berätta lite om dig själv? - Jag är en person som älskar mat och dryck. Det är min passion. Det och fotboll. Det är kul, det handlar mycket om att umgås. Kul sätt att umgås tycker jag. Och mat: för mig är lite speciellt. Jag är uppväxt i en familj som bedrivit hotell- och restaurangverksamheter. - Jag började jobba när jag var ganska ung, jag tror att jag var 14 faktiskt. Jobbade varje helg och varje lov med egentligen, att städa och diska. Och sakta sen in i köket. Direkt efter gymnasiet åkte jag och jobbade som volontär i en fattig del av Costa Rica. Det är lite min berättelse, sen efter det har jag jobbar i branschen och utbildat mig tills jag efter många svängar hamnade här på THS. Hur länge har du arbetat på THS? - 10 och ett halvt år nu. Det går snabbt. Hur kommer det sig att du sökte dig hit? - Jag vet inte hur mycket jag sökte mig hit egentligen. Min bakgrund är då att jag efter att ha utbildat mig och jobbat på välkända krogar jobbade åt en känd hotellkedja i många år. Och där jobbar man efter devisen att allt man gör ska vara det bästa. Våra gäster betalade mest och dem krävde mest. Det fanns ingenting man kunde säga nej till och inget man inte kunde ordna. Det var kul och väldigt lärorikt, jag brukade jobbade åtminstone 80 timmar i veckan. - Efter ett antal år kände jag en längtan tillbaks till Sverige och kanske till familjen och min fru framförallt. Då var jag nära att hoppa på ett annat jobb i Sverige åt ett hotell, men kände att det var så långt ifrån det jag gjorde och inte alls höll samma standard. Jag var rädd att jag skulle gå och vara missnöjd. Tidigare när jag jobbade fanns förutsättningar för att man skulle prestera det bästa. Kravet ställdes och det gick att leverera, men jag kände att det inte gick på samma sätt i Sverige. För att sätta det i kontext beskriver han ett uppdrag han hade där kunden hyrde flera privatjet för att flyga ut bröllopsgäster till en obebodd privatö 36 timmar innan festen skulle börja. Han åkte båt tid i 12 timmar och arbetade 24 timmar i streck för att förbereda allt. När bröllopsgästerna kom låg han och sov på stranden. - För att komma tillbaks till Sverige- jag kände att mat är kul. Dryck är kul. Jag ville försöka applicera det jag lärt mig på ett annat sätt. Och utmanas på det sättetkanske med

RESTAURANGENS NUTIDA HISTORIA

små marginaler försöka skapa något fint och bra. - När jag tog det här jobbet hade jag själv varit en universitetsstudent kanske 5 år innan. Jag minns att jag var urfattig, så jag förstår ju liksom vikten i att det ska vara billigt, det ska vara nyttigt, det ska vara schysst och sådär. Så jag tyckte det var något som var tilltalande och tänkte- vad är det värsta som kan hända? - Här står vi ibland och diskuterar att en kaffe kostar hela 10 kronor för en liten kopp. För 10 år sen där jag jobbade tog vi 240 kronor för en caffe latte. Här så försöker vi uppnå någonting som ger mycket mer värde för pengarna. Hur såg restaurangverksamheten ut när du började här? - Det fanns ju ingen restaurang. Det fanns ingen restaurangverksamhet överhuvudtaget. När jag började här hade andra aktörer nyligen bedrivit verksamhet i huset och det hade inte varit så lyckosamt. Jag tror att man snittade 18-20 luncher om dagen. Det fanns dessutom inget alkoholtillstånd, och man kunde då inte genomföra särskilt många event. Vad ligger ni uppe i nu? - Under hösten har vi snittat kanske 350. THS var delägare i den tidigare restaurangverksamheten, men blödde pengar. I samband med avskaffandet av kårobligato-

riet så såg man över sina verksamheter och bestämde sig för att driva restaurangen i egen regi. Då tog man hjälp av konsulter som var med och rekryterade nuvarande verksamhetschefen. - Man gjorde en stor ombyggnation av plan 2. Då började jag här- jag fick ritningarna på hur det skulle se ut skickade till mig när jag jobbade på Maldiverna. Så kom jag hit i Juni och det var fortfarande byggarbetsplats. Absolut inte färdigt. Det skulle vara klart till hösten då vi skulle öppna för mottagningen. Vi hade ingen budget på den tiden så jag gick ut till second-hand butiker och köpte målarfärg. Klädde om möbler själv. Han berättar att det sällan var att det var mer än 20 personer i huset, det fanns ingen verksamhet. Konsulterna som hade hyrts in tog fram en rapport. - Den här konsultrapporten jag hade fått hade fokuserat hårt på vad studenter vill ha, eller vad man tror att studenter vill ha. Det var tydligt i den att man ville ha något som gick snabbt, billigt och enkelt. Mycket mat. Det gick lite stick i stäv med hur min matfilosofi ser ut. Visst det kan gå snabbt och vara mycket mat, men det behöver inte betyda att det är billigt och enkla råvaror. Utan man kan vara lite smart i hur man arbetar. - Vi skulle öppna restaurangen, den blev inte klar i tid. Samtidigt hade vi accepterat alla bokningar för mottagningen i augusti. Fullt med fester. Då kände jag att fan, jag kunde inte börja jobbet med att ta in massa beställningar och inte kunna hantera det. Så att vi reserverade båda gasquerna, nu är det köksplatser i ena men då var det festlokal i båda. Så vi stod där och lagade all mat till mottagningen. Det var jävligt tufft, men vi levererade allting. - Och sen öppnade restaurangen på hösten, efter mottagningen såklart. Då hade vi ett uttalat mål att vi skulle nå upp i först 120 luncher om dagen, och inom fem år 200 luncher. Vi växte ganska snabbt och intensivt. Redan till jul hade vi snittat över 120 om dagen. Jag kommer ihåg, då gick vi upp till Kårledningens kontor som då låg i Gamble och skålade champagne. Gjorde likadant efter att vi nådde 200. - Den stor anledningen till att vi bedriver restaurangverksamhet är för att vi ska kunna serva alla i huset. Vi ska kunna ha pubar, lunchföreläsningar och finnas till som en service.

PÅ CAMPUS

Meal Replacement Review

OSQLEDAREN #4

PÅ CAMPUS

Snart kanske du får äta pizza i Nya Matsalen

Snart kanske du får äta pizza i Nya Matsalen TEXT CARL HOUSTEN FOTO VICTORIA ROHRER

Huruvida pizza ska få serveras på ett sektionsmöte i Nya Matsalen, eller inte, kan låta som en banal fråga. Men på Kåren är det senaste årens mest infekterade ödesfråga. Under Kårfullmäktiges andra sammanträdande 21/22 skickades en motion på ämnet in för tredje året i rad. Denna gång hade Kårstyrelsen höga ambitioner att reda ut det. En juridisk konsult hyrdes in för att delta på mötet- Han hävdade bland annat att THS kan vara landets mest juridiskt komplicerade organisation. Detta sammanträdande av Kårfullmäktige, var också det första där en motion i frågan har fått genomslag. Intressekonflikten ligger i vilken lösning som ger störst studentnytta. Å ena sidan finns restaurangen till för att skapa rörelse i Nymble och ger oss ett permanent serveringstillstånd, vilket möjliggör den mängd event som finns i byggnaden. Å andra sidan upplever en del studenter att en del av byråkratin bakom detta hindrar engagemang snarare än att främja det. Exempelvis tillåts i dagsläget inte studenter tillträde till restaurangens kök- och vid servering av alkohol på serveringsytan regleras utbudet av mat så att det måste köpas in från restaurangen. Motionen i fråga har ibland kallats för "pizzamotionen" och syftar att underlätta problemen som upplevts i samarbete med restaurangverksamheten och lokalbokningen genom förslag på en ny policy. Ett ytterligare perspektiv som är viktigt att ha med sig i detta är att restaurangen har 11 anställda, och att deras arbetsförhållanden måste tas i åtanke.

I ett försök till att reda ut trasslet som ofta benämns "restaurangfrågan" har vi talat med involverade parter och lyssnat in deras åsikter. En drivande röst i frågan och motionär har varit Erik Nordahl från I-sektionen. Vi träffade honom för att ställa några frågor. Vad har du haft som mål att uppnå i ditt arbete med restaurangfrågan? - För mig personligen har det handlat mycket om att studenter inte blir lyssnade på och att man inte tar hänsyn till en stor del av studentkroppen. Jag började engagera mig i Kårfullmäktige 18/19- och det är så mycket som är konstigt och inte stämmer. Det finns många studenter som är apatiska. Mitt mål har varit att hjälpa människor få sina röster hörda och ändra på hur saker fungerar. Som vadå? - Det är svårt att sätta allt i text. Men i grunden har det handlat om att det finns många studenter som inte känner sig respekterade; som blir förbisedda. Som känner att det är mer jobb att samarbeta med THS än vad det är värt. Jag har gått här i fem år och har hört så många olika historier. Från olika bakgrunder. De som fixar fester, spexare, internationella, de som engagerar sig studiesocialt och inom studiepåverkan. Det överhängande målet har varit att påverka så att dem får en röst. På vilket sätt tror du att ditt förslag kommer leda till en ökad studentnytta? - Jag tror att det är väldigt viktigt att vi bör-

OSQLEDAREN #3

jar prata om en verksamhet styrd av principer och som är demokratiskt förankrad. Han påpekar att det har funnits väldigt lite skriftliga styrdokument och insyn i styrelsens arbete och prioriteringar. Många studenter får enkla nej som svar utan förklaring eller bakgrund, vilket också gör det väldigt svårt att motsätta sig. - Det handlar mycket om att faktiskt ha en diskussion och att studenter ser att man kan förändra. Sålänge folk tror att man inte kan förändra saker så kommer ingen förändring ske. - Studenter ska känna att deras vilja ska representeras. Restaurangen är en del av det men det slutar inte där. Vi kan inte ha en kår där medlemmarna inte känner sig representerade. Om vi inte faktiskt får studenterna att känna sig delaktiga så är det ingen idé. Hur känns det att ha fått igenom din motion? Är du hoppfull att verksamheten kommer ändras som du tänkt dig? -Ja, jag är hoppfull. Det är inte bara för att vi fått igenom motionen, utan också för att diskussionen med styrelsen och fullmäktige har förändrats mycket genom åren. Det har skett ett skifte i hela kåren i hur studenter ser sina möjligheter att förändras, och styrelsen ser på kommunikation på ett bra sätt. "Jag märker att samarbetet med kåren och styrelsen har förbättrats avsevärt i år jämfört med tidigare år."

PÅ CAMPUS

Kårstyrelsen har påbörjat utredningar och implementationer av den nya policyn. Vi talade med Ossian Ahlkvist som ansvarar för detta från styrelsens håll. - Vi fick med oss från föregående KS att det här är något att arbeta med. Redan på vår första konferens bestämde vi oss för att starta en grupp för att jobba med det och försöka ligga lite före i arbetet. Vad är det som kommer förändras? - Det är inte helt klart än. Vi har försökt uppfatta andemeningen i KFs beslut, vilket på ett sätt är att det ska vara enklare att hyra saker i Nymble. Och att den simpliciteten ska få gå ut över kostnaden att hyra. Det ska bli simplare att hyra en lokal och se till att det bara funkar. Det ska vara tydligare vad man får och inte får göra. - Internt i verksamheten ska det förbättras hur restaurangen fungerar. Det ska bli tydligare för dem vad deras uppgift är och tydligare hur dem ska uppnå de krav som finns. Men det måste också bli en rimligare arbetsbelastning för restaurangpersonalen, i år har dem haft jättejättemycket. De arbetar hårt för att nå kraven som finns från studenternas sida. Att vi kan fixa så att det är tydligare vad man får göra gör det också enklare för restaurangen att utföra deras arbete.

Snart kanske du får äta pizza i Nya Matsalen

- Bokningssystemet ska förbättras. Det överensstämmer idag inte med verkligheten. Man kan boka in saker man inte får göra, exempelvis. Tror ni att arbetet leda till en ökad studentnytta? - Ja, på flera sätt. Vi tror att om det blir enklare för folk att boka Nymble gör det att fler kommer boka roliga event. Det här är ett problem som funnits länge som nu görs något åt. Det här arbetet ger oss möjlighet att uppmärksamma olika saker- kanske rusta upp gasquen.

serveringstillståndet? Vad får man göra på serveringsytan? Som tillståndsägare är vi ansvariga för allt som händer där, om man inte villkorar det i kontraktet man skriver under när man hyr lokalen, är det ett kontraktbrott så skadar det inte tillståndet på samma sätt.

Hur ser tidslinjen ut? När får vi se ert arbete och när kommer studenter att påverkas? - Det finns lite olika delar i det. Vi har fått tre saker i uppdrag: att implementera policyn, att ta fram ett PM där tanken är att det är mer specifikt. Detta rapporteras tillbaks på Kårfullmäktige 04. Den tredje är att nästa års Kårstyrelse ska utreda hur det har gått att implementera detta, hur det ser ut i praktiken. - Utöver det vi fått i uppdrag att göra från Kårfullmäktige kommer vi ju också från olika studentbakgrunder och har sett missnöjen. Vi ser detta som ett tillfälle att göra saker bättre. När vi talade med restaurangkonsulten vi hyrde in kom vi fram till flera saker som bör ses över- vilka ytor ska täckas av

- Vi ska se till att alla blir nöjda och går framåt. Vi säljer in en paketdeal till hela verksamheten och fullmäktige. - Efter år av investering i den här frågan får man en väldigt stor insikt i hur saker fungerar. Jag vet då också när man ser detta från utsidan så känns det lite läskigt att ta tag i den här skitjobbiga pucken. Till exempel om man, som man borde, söker till Kårstyrelsen 22/23. Men det är ett superintressant projekt där man får ta med sig alla sina strategiska och operativa kunskaper från styrelsearbete.

OSQLEDAREN #3

Styrelsen har haft kontakt med THS kansli, restaurangen och kårledningen. Nu är det dags att koppla in Kårfullmäktige och en gruppering som arbetar med frågan, Festutsqottet.

"Det här är en rent studentpolitisk fråga och det är väldigt intressant. Folk har tyckt att det varit dåligt och man har försökt ge svar på det."

PÅ CAMPUS

KÅRENS PENGAR - VAR KOMMER DE IFRÅN OCH VART GÅR DE?

Kårens pengar, var kommer de ifrån och vart går de? TEXT & GRAFER VICE KÅRORDFÖRANDE VENDELA FOLKE

Du har hört det förut. De klassiska slagorden: en krona om dagen. Det är vad det kostar att vara medlem i THS. På ett år summerar det sig alltså till 365 kronor. Men vart går pengarna? Som Vice Kårordförande är jag bland annat ansvarig för THS centralts budget och ekonomi. En jätteapparat som sträcker sig över vitt skilda områden och summerar sig till en årlig omsättning på 40 miljoner kronor. Ett privilegium där jag får djupdyka i och möjlighet att förbättra vår verksamhet, men också ett stort ansvar. I detta arbete har jag en grundläggande fråga som jag dagligen ställer såväl mig själv som min omgivning: hur skapar vi maximal medlemsnytta? Det är en fråga som aldrig blir färdig. Ovan nämnda medlemsavgifter står visserligen bara för ungefär 7% av våra inkomster,

men som idéell förening så tillhör alla våra tillgångar medlemmarna. Det är därför relevant att titta på hela vår ekonomiska verksamhet, men för pedagogikens skull så utgår vi från hur din medlemsavgift investeras i saker som kan skapa medlemsnytta. 55 kr per medlem går oavkortat till den sektion som du tillhör. Varje sektion får som minst 15 000 kr i sektionsbidrag av medlemsintäkter. Det beror på att det finns en del grundkostnader som behöver täckning oavsett hur stor eller liten en sektion är. Det innebär att en del ytterligare medel förskjuts till de minsta sektionerna för att de ska komma upp i 15 000 kr. I

praktiken betyder det att ungefär 58 kronor av medlemsavgiften går direkt vidare till sektioner. 31 kr går till THS byggnadsfond. Det är inskrivet i THS stadgar att 10% av kårens medlemsintäkter skall gå till denna för att trygga underhåll och utveckling av våra byggnader Nymble och Osqvik. Byggnadsfonden används inte till löpande underhåll utan större investeringar i renoveringar, ombyggnationer och utbyggnader. I praktiken räcker dessa öronmärkta medel inte så långt, utan betydligt mer behöver skjutas till. Mer om det nedan. 14 kr går till SSCO, Stockholms Studenters Centralorganisation där THS är medlemmar. De jobbar bland annat politiskt på en lokal nivå, nu senast med en kampanj mot höjda SL-priser för studenter. Det är även SSCO som äger studentbostadsbolaget SSSB, vilket verkar för att Stockholms studenter ska få tillgång till rimliga bostäder. 6 kr per heltidsstudent, oavsett medlem eller ej, går till SFS, Sveriges Förenade Studentkårer. De koordinerar och leder studentinflytande på en nationell nivå, exempelvis nu senast med en kampanj mot förslaget om höjd ränta på CSN-lån. Resterande 256 kr investeras på olika håll i verksamheten. Här kommer vi till det verkligt intressanta: hur investerar vi våra tillgångar för att skapa medlemsnytta? Grovt förenklat skulle man kunna säga att de går till de verksamheter som inte själva har förmåga att bära sina egna kostnader, men som bedöms skapa andra värden än monetära som väger upp detta.

OSQLEDAREN #3

PÅ CAMPUS

KÅRENS PENGAR - VAR KOMMER DE IFRÅN OCH VART GÅR DE?

Ett bra exempel på detta är lokaler i Nymble och Osqvik. Lokaluthyrningen där har dubbelt så mycket utgifter som inkomster. För att få dessa att bära sig själva ekonomiskt skulle priserna inte bara behöva dubblas en gång, utan troligen två gånger för att möta den potentiellt minskade efterfrågan. Kraftigt höjda priser skulle inverka negativt på sektioner och kårföreningars möjlighet att hyra lokaler, vilket är vitalt för deras verksamhet. Därför ligger priserna på dessa lägre nivåer och medel till utgifterna tas från andra delar av verksamheten. Andra exempel på verksamheter som bekostas av andra är studentinflytande, demokratiska fundament, kommunikation till medlemmar (bland annat genom den tidningen du nu håller i handen!) och mottagningsverksamhet, vilken inkluderar såväl den internationella mottagningen som subventioner av sektionernas mottagningar. Det är med andra ord ganska likt den fördelning av resurser som sker på sektionsnivå. En viktig fråga är restaurang- och eventverksamhetens del i detta ekonomiska omlopp. Restaurangens verksamhet går ekonomiskt ut på följande ekvation: den dagliga lunch- och caféverksamheten går plus minus noll. Kvällar och helger finns möjlighet till eventverksamhet i form av fester, konferenser och mässor. Event för studenter går minus, men kompenseras av event för externa aktörer som går plus. Här uppstår en svår avvägning av olika resurser. Den inkomstbringande externa verksamheten gör att priserna för studenter kan hållas nere. Utan den skulle priserna för studentevent behöva höjas markant för att gå plus minus noll. Samtidigt skapar de en

högre konkurrens om lokaltillgång i Nymble. Jag är övertygad om att restaurangen kommer kunna gå plus minus noll och att en begränsad men inkomstbringande del extern verksamhet är värdefull. Intill ser du diagram över THS intäkter och utgifter under verksamhetsåret 2018-19, det senaste “normala” verksamhetsåret innan pandemin. Här kan utläsas hur vi får inkomster och hur våra medel investeras i olika verksamheter som på olika sätt skapar medlemsnytta. Värt att ha i åtanke här är att utgifterna är kopplade till just verksamheter. Administrativa kostnader samt lokalkostnader är utspridda på verksamheterna. Det beror på

Demokratiska fundament - Kårfullmäktige, Kårstyrelse och Kårpresidium, vilka verkar för att upprätthålla och utveckla kåren som demokratisk organisation International - verksamhet främst riktad till internationella studenter Medfinans - bidrag från regeringen och KTH för den lagstadgade verksamhet som bedrivs för studenter vid KTH Organisationskostnader - Medlemskap i SSCO och SFS, ombudstjänst för doktorander, redovisningssystem till sektioner Långsiktiga hyresgäster i Nymble - våra två dotterbolag Kårbokhandeln och THS Consulting Lokaluthyrning Nymble & Osqvik - all annan lokaluthyrning Studieplatser i Nymble - avtal med KTH för att vi tillhandahåller studieplatser i Nymble. Fr.o.m. 2022 har avtalet omförhandlats om så att denna verksamhet kommer gå runt OSQLEDAREN #3

att de inte har ett egenvärde, utan får ett värde när de används till något meningsfullt. Kostnaderna för Nymble är därför distribuerade över samtliga verksamheter baserat på hur stor del av Nymble respektive verksamhet använder. Detta skiljer sig stort från sektionernas ekonomi och ställer andra krav. Nymble kostar årligen runt 9 miljoner kr att hålla i bruk. Inte att förbättra, utan enbart det löpande underhållet. Det är en enorm summa och ungefär en knapp fjärdedel av THS totala utgifter. Det är däremot inte orimligt, på KTH är motsvarande summa en femtedel av de totala utgifterna. Mot bakgrund av denna driftskostnad blir det tydligt att den årliga avsättning på totalt ca 300 000 kr av medlemsavgifterna som är öronmärkta till byggnadsfonden är mycket liten. Ett av mina fokusområden under året är att utveckla vårt långsiktiga sparande, där expansion av byggnadsfonden är en av de viktigaste komponenterna. Ansvaret över att skapa värde för medlemmarna handlar inte bara om de som studerar här idag, utan även våra framtida medlemmar. Har du vidare frågor om vår ekonomi? Vilka verksamheter skulle du vilja investera i? Hur ser du att vi kan skapa värde för såväl dagens som framtidens medlemmar? Tveka inte över att skicka ett mejl eller hugga tag i mej på Nymble där allt som oftast springer runt.

PÅ CAMPUS

120 ÅR AV STUDENTLIV PÅ KTH

120 år av studentliv på KTH TEXT KÅRSTYRELSENS ORDFÖRANDE FILIP AXELSSON FOTO CARL HOUSTEN

Jag heter Filip och sitter i THS Kårstyrelse. Idag är jag dock inte styrelseledamot utan historieberättare, följ med mig på en tidsresa genom vår historia! Som jag tror att många av er vet så fyller THS 120 år under 2022 och i samband med detta så vill jag berätta om några av de stora händelserna som hänt i kåren och KTH:s studentliv över de senaste tolv årtionden. 1902 – Kåren grundas med målet att KTH ska avskaffa det så kallade ”pliktsystemet”. Som student var man tvungen att betala böter till KTH om missade en föreläsning. Boten låg på en hel krona, vilket var mycket pengar för en student på tidigt 1900tal. Denna fråga samlade studenterna och 30 januari 1902 grundades Tekniska Högskolans Elevkår (som 1910 döptes om till vårt nuvarande namn). Studenterna hade skrivit ihop en utredning om pliktsystemet men de behövde hjälp för att få rapporten i händerna på KTH:s lärare. Den hjälpen kom från självaste Kungen 1904. Utredningen ledde till en livlig debatt men tillslut kom beskedet – pliktsystemet skulle avskaffas! Med det så vann studenterna sin första vinst gentemot KTH, men det skulle inte bli den sista! 1910 – Spex på KTH är en mycket gammal tradition. Det som idag kallas Kårspexet kan spåra sina rötter till 1867, vilket gör det en av de äldsta föreningarna på campus. Kårspexet blir en officiell kårförening 1910 men vägen till dagens verksamhet har inte varit rak. Under långa perioder på 50- och 60-talet så tystnade rimmen och sången på KTH, förutom ett par jubileumsföreställningar. På THS 75-årsjubileum 1977 sattes en jubileumsuppsättning upp och sen dess har spexen varit regelbundna igen! 1930 – Nymble öppnade sina dörrar men frågan om ett kårhus har varit aktuell ända från att KTH började flytta till nuvarande huvudcampus 1917. KTH nekade kåren

tillräckliga lokaler länge och hotade regelbundet att slänga ut studentkåren från de få lokaler som vi fick vara i. Tillslut lyckades kåren samla ihop pengar till ett kårhus som byggdes på Kungahusets mark nära campus. Detta är den äldsta delen av Nymble, den del som innehåller Gasquen, Gamla matsalen och Puben. Två tillbyggnader har skett sen dess, en 1952 (där KårX, Nya matsalen och Gröten ingår) och 1977 (där Kröken, Restaurangen och Kårbokhandeln ingår). 1956 – Är elektronen gul? Tro det eller ej men det var en av de mest kontroversiella frågor detta år. Detta år hade kåren gjort en färgtilldelning för de dåvarande sektionerna. Elektro blev vit och Kemi gul, men vid det laget hade Elektro redan använt den gula färgen för sina sångböcker – och var inte en viss elementarpartikel gul? Sektionen ockuperade Nymble i protest och den revolutionärsorkester som bildades blev sedan Promenadorquestern och med Baletten paletten (PQ) som har underhållit teknologer (i gulrandiga tröjor) ända sen dess. 1962 – Det var först 1921 som civilingenjörsutbildningarna på KTH blev tillgängliga för kvinnor. Innan dess fick kvinnor bara börja som specialelever. Det tog dock ett bra tag för alla utbildningar att öppnas. Sista programmet som öppnades för kvinnor var Väg- och vattenbyggnad (motsvarande dagens Samhällsbyggnad) vilket skedde så sent som 1962! 60-tal – Aaah, studentovven, en symbol för Svensk studentkultur. Ett fenomen som antagligen uppstod på KTH någon gång under 60-talet! En historia som jag hört på fysik (kanske en skröna, kanske sanning) OSQLEDAREN #3

är att det till och med var där som ovven började användas. Det kanske var en gåva från Televerket själva eller kanske uppstod av en annan anledning. Hursomhelst så kan man med säkerhet säga att på 70-talet var ovven väletablerad på KTH och spred sig sedan därifrån till resten av landet. 1977 – En av de mest uppskattade årliga eventen på KTH är Quarnevalen och Squvalp! Jag minns fortfarande mitt första år där jag fick se Quarnevalen för första gången och jag hoppas att ni som missat på grund av Corona ser lika fram emot Squvalp i maj som jag gör. Det var 1977 som Quarnevalen hölls i kårens regi för första gången och tre år senare uppfanns också Squvalp och har varit en del av KTH:s kultur ända sen dess. 2016 – Till sist ska jag dra en historia som en del av er kanske minns! Under 2016 var ett namnbyte från THS till KTHS aktuellt. Det fanns en rörelse för att vårt namn skulle matcha KTH:s mer och debatten var livlig. Tillslut gick en enkät ut till alla 9000 kårmedlemmar. Jag tror att ni kan gissa vilket förslag som som vann – 56% röstade för att behålla det nuvarande namnet. Vill du läsa mer om THS historia så kan du läsa mer i boken ”Osqulda och Osquar 1902–2002” som publicerades till 100 årsjubileumet. Den går att hitta i Nymble eller KTH:s bibliotek. Firandet av THS 120 fortsätter och 9 april kommer en jubileumssittning hållas för att fira tillfället. Ses vi där? Jag hoppas verkligen det så vi kan fira in en av Sveriges fetaste studentliv tillsammans!

OSQLEDAREN #2

Osqledaren #3 2021/2022 MONEY

Osqledaren #3 2021/2022 MONEY

Articles inside

Kårens pengar, var kommer de ifrån och vart går de?

Snart kanske du får äta pizza i Nya Matsalen

120 år av studentliv på KTH

So You Hit the Jackpot

Restaurangens nutids historia

Meal Replacement Review

Playing Runescape for Survival

Malvinas Democratic Success Story

Money Can Buy Happiness

Vetenskapens katedral

Should You Give Away All of Your Money?

The Monetization of Porn

New Chains on the Block

The Dream of Retiring Early

Too Little Too Late, KTH’s COVID Response

r/antiwork