Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.
But don't worry, you will be at moderate risk of the car breaking down before 10,000 miles and you can't fix the part because it has been deliberately engineered so that mechanics can't fix it and it has to be replaced.
https://xcancel.com/unusual_whales/status/1987985187918192870
it really brings a tear to my eye seeing cars becoming almost as unaffordable in the US as they are here.
Has wealth ever been more stratified? Like really objectively? Because I don’t think it has. I think right now the level of opulence enjoyed by the bourgeoisie would beggar all the Caesars and ancient emperors of China. Meanwhile the poverty of the poorest living human is probably nigh identical to the poorest in antiquity. They have taken an incomprehensible amount. They’re taking more than they have ever taken before.
Because this shit is happening and we’re all paying for it. The environment is paying for it. The biosphere is paying for it. If we seek to change this arrangement? They say…. WhO iS gOnNa PaY fOr it?
Edit: making the late capitalist bourgeoisie is the most expensive fucking thing we have ever done as a species and that sucks. Fuck that sucks so much, dawg.
I remember reading many years ago that we had passed the level of wealth stratification in ancient Egypt when the pharaoh owned all of the land by the Nile and leased it to peasants to grow food, so uhh I'm guessing "no".
how could we possibly know enough about ancient egypt to quantify the wealth stratification at any point in time? sounds made up to me, even if it is believable
It's a complex topic that I've only scratched the surface of, and of course with thousands of years of history there were multiple systems with multiple levels of stratification at different times, but during the time of building the pyramids at least we know from written records that the Pharoh in theory had extremely strong, centralized control of the country through a system of ownership of the land and its resources, which allowed them to marshal all of that labor into megaprojects like the pyramids. Later dynasties weren't able to do this, not because they lacked the technology or desire, but because economic control had decentralized to a degree where they simply couldn't control labor the way their predecessors did.
From there there's a lot of extrapolation, assumptions, and estimates, and it's totally valid to say that those estimates are too unreliable or that comparing an ancient economy to the modern one is an apples to oranges comparison and therefore not applicable. If we limit ourselves to just industrial economies the answer to the original question is still "no" but the data is much more concrete.
Because legions of scientists have dedicated their lives to studying it
we fixed the affordability crises by increasing the total cost of ownership
average younger GOP voter is probably like “wow thats way better than the 300 years at 95% APR i signed for my dodge challenger immediately after i enlisted!!”
That means Ford and GM are actually making 15 year cars, right?
You will buy the Stellantis cars that breakdown in the first 100 miles and you will like it!
Do cars seriously not hold up 15 years? I'm very obviously not a car toucher, genuine question
Cars can easily hold up 15 years of regular use if maintained properly.
EVs will probably last longer because there's so little maintenance and the battery degradation hype is way overblown
Protip: Get a van with room for an air mattress doubles as a home and only a 15 year loan rather than a 50 
I'll airbnb one of the beds to increase the value of my parking lot
Sublet the passenger seat
Renormalise private used car sales at a fraction of the price.
Yeah it's a hassle and there's a chance of buying a rustbucket. Though.. that's already fairly true of dealers too.
Brb starting a secular, modern, free-market loan service called "Serf."
The rent to own economy is here folks
It's communist to actually own a home.
you joke but home ownership is genuinely higher in china, cuba, and vietnam than in the us
Can't wait for rent to own groceries. When the card gets declined, your stomach gets pumped.
This loan was borrowed by your ancestors 3000 years ago and now you have to pay it off.
I did some jank estimates and I think the 50 year mortgage thing would stave off the affordability crisis for about 10 years before we're back to where we are now. Then back to the normal increasingly unaffordable housing. Then a total meltdown of material conditions when those loans start getting past 30 years and people become too old/sick to finish paying off their mortgages.
i mean, with current apr, 30 or 50 years doesn't change that much shit deal no?
plus developers would just immediately increase prices even if apr came down.
Also, longer loans typically have higher interest rates. So..
That estimate assumes there'd be a one-time 40% decrease in mortgage/down payment costs, then prices grow at the same rate they've been growing.
It could very well be overly optimistic. I did say it was jank.
but is it kinda rolling credit, so first years are devoted mainly to paying interest anyway, so it doesn't matter much that principal is spread out longer, the first year apr hard restricts you anyway (that say on 300k home you have to at least be able to pay say 21k in interest with 7% apr, independent of 30 or 50 years + principal a little bit, that part dependent) (without going into calculators, vibey based it would be like 8k vs 6k +21k, 7% drop or some shit)
which, assuming my vibey estimates in correct ballpark, the market will fuck in 2 years of rises as is.
What’s got me fucked up lately is this whole “everything needs to be a subscription” model would be so perfect for trains. The streetcar/light rail lines in most cities used to be mostly privatized but automakers were too concerned with dismantling that shit.
Why would anyone want a single-service infrastructure to be privatized? There’s economically and practically only room for one tram line, train line, water line, electrical line, etc. Therefore, competition is unlikely, which means that privatization is going to hurt the service.
well y'see the car is both product and subscription as you're tied to purchasing gas, tires, parts and maintenance, and when it's worn out after being so used to driving you'll probably get a new car
Soon - legally mandated predatory mortgages for anyone slightly above the poverty line!
/s
Healthy economy. Totally not a recession being managed by extending people larger and larger amounts of debt.
Now will people start paying attention to how everything is made to break down faster and not be repairable more and more every year? My last pair of headphones started breaking apart seriously the day I got them and ended up not lasting a year covered in a pound of duct tape. My last pair lasted eleven years and never broke at all. That was the lower end shit too.
Now will people start paying attention
the cool thing about really long terms on cars is that, so long as you don't own the car outright, you are likely required to maintain comprehensive insurance on the asset based on however much you still owe at the very minimum, rather than the actual exchange-value of the vehicle itself (which is certain to be less).
a nice little piece of business i'm sure the insurance formations are very eager to be a part of.
...
there's a little cynical game i play lately, based on the late stage capitalist reality that the only sectors of the US "economy" currently "growing" (aka elegantly extracting, if you're a worker) are part of the F.I.R.E. economy (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate). these are the dominant capital formations in the US. their power in US political economy has left the stratosphere due to their massive holdings. anytime there is a significant change reported, i make note of which formations benefit. and anytime some minor humanitarian reform is foreclosed upon as "unrealistic" (universal healthcare, public housing, etc), i make note of which formations would be negatively impacted.
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate interests are the invisible voices of our god.