One of the reasons why used cars cost almost as much as new cars is because there aren’t that many used cars left. Not inexpensive ones, that is.
“Cash for Clunkers” saw to that.
It was marketed by the Obama regime as a way to “stimulate” demand for new cars at a time when people weren’t buying as many of them as the government wanted them to. In order to do that, the supply of used cars was reduced – by paying people to throw them away. They were styled “clunkers” – implying they were junk when all most of them were was old.
Hundreds of thousands of older cars, trucks and crossovers – 677,081 to be precise – were destroyed in an epic, unprecedented orgy of waste funded by government (and so paid-for by taxpayers).
But it was also something more – and worse – than that.
After the wave of waste had passed, what was left was not much – that wasn’t new. This “nudged” people who otherwise would have kept their old “clunker” (and thereby, kept their money) into buying – and making payments on – a new car before they otherwise would have been ready, financially, to do so. Thereby “nudging” more people into spending above their means and buying into more debt, sooner. This, in turn, drove the cost of new cars higher as the artificially created demand enabled the car industry to build more costly cars with more standard features that people signed up for loans to buy because it was either do that or walk.
It is why you cannot find basic cars – or trucks – anymore. 
It also drove young drivers off the road before they ever got on it.
When “clunkers” abounded, it was usual for teenagers to drive one. Because that is what a teenager could afford to drive. Everyone who today is older than 40 remembers because if they weren’t driving a “clunker”when they were 16 or 17 then one of their friends was. Like an after-school job at McDonald’s, a “clunker” was a stepping stone to something better.
But you don’t get to something better first, usually. That’s why the first thing is called a stepping-stone.
Decimating the supply of “clunkers” decimated the ability of teenagers to be able to afford a car. Maybe some were lucky enough to have parents who could afford to buy them a not-“clunker” but many did not. The point is very few 16-17-18-19-20-21-year-olds can afford to buy a car that isn’t a “clunker” on their own.
And so they don’t.
Instead, they spend their money on smartphones and video games – and stay at home.
Often until they’re 30.
It is not a coincidence that interest in cars (and driving) among the foregoing age cohort has declined markedly, something that has never happened before. Something that is the opposite of what was always the case, before. Pre-“clunker,” kids approaching 16 pined for their driver’s license – and their first car – because the acquisition of both was a passage into functional adulthood. They were still in high school and lived at home. But they could drive to school – to wherever they liked – in their own car. Maybe you were only 16 – but you felt like an adult and were much closer to being one because there was no longer all that much difference between you and adults.
But when you cannot afford a car what is the point in getting a license to drive? This is why an unprecedented percentage of young people in the 16-21 age bracket do not even have a driver’s license. It is for essentially the same reason that most adults do not have a private pilot’s license. Have you priced an airplane lately?
So, there’s that. And there is also something else. A precedent was set by “clunkering” vehicles deemed throw-aways by the federal government. What is to prevent the government from doing the same again – using a similar pretext?
For example, the “need” (created, once again, by the government) to replace the “revenue” (what government styles the money it takes) formerly generated by gas taxes that is winnowing as a result (again!) of government actions. Specifically the government’s relentless insistence that all new vehicles (not just cars) get ever-higher-gas mileage and for that reason, reduces the “revenue” collected at the pump with each fill-up. And the government’s pushing of electric vehicles, which generate no gas tax “revenue” at all, thereby creating the “freeloader” pretext the government loves so very much because it plays on people’s envy and sets them at each other’s throats, which is always a boon to government.
Enter the mileage tax. More formally, tax-by-the-mile, which works just like it sounds. You get taxed “x” for each mile you drive. The beauty of this being it also serves as a means to monitor your driving – and control it.
But how to do that? How, specifically, can it be done with older vehicles?
The answer is – not as easily. Certainly not as intrusively. Owners of vehicles made since the early 2000s can be taxed-by-the-mile very easily. They all have On Board Diagnostic ports that can be easily plugged into with a device that can automatically transmit data about how far the car is driven. No need to check the odometer once a year. It can be checked continuously.
Not so with pre-OBD vehicles. These would need to have their odometers checked – and that might be too much trouble . . . for the government. Or so the government will say. Maybe it will say that any car that lacks the “technology” to be so monitored cannot be used on government roads and must be turned in.
Maybe it will say such cars are . . . “clunkers.” Not paying their “fair share.” And – of course – contributing to the “climate crisis.” (It is no longer merely “change,” that being not quite scary enough).
Naturally, the government will “compensate” the soon-to-be-former owner – perhaps with a “credit” that can be applied to the purchase of a new EV.
That is how it’s likely to play out. Do not delude yourself into believing it could never play out that way – because it already has played out that way. Once the government does a thing – and gets away with it – the odds of the government doing the same (and worse) again rise to a near-certainty, on the same principle that a dog who gets away with snatching a porkchop off the dinner table will go for a steak the next time.
. . .
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Very good article Eric and matches my sentiments exactly. Obongo was actually encouraging fools to get further in debt with cash for clunkers. The joke is they did it again with EV subsidies, a rebate when you buy a Tesla, cash for EV junkers.
The initial purchaser is eager for a tax write off, eager to virtue signal, doesn’t know shit about cars, could care less any environmental damage long term, has no plans on keeping it long enough to worry about the battery longevity, just wants a new toy to show off, get in the exclusive Tesla club.
And now we have a nation full of short lived EV’s which are not easy to recycle. It reminds me of planned obsolescence, the idea that consumers are kept on squirrel cage loan treadmill by changing the look of a car so you have to have a new one.
I first learned about how these “helpful” government programs are actually screw jobs. Before cash for clunkers you had VA loans. The way it works is the government guarantees the down payment, so that the bank will lend the full amount when a veteran buys a house.
So the Vet ends up more in debt. Good for the banks, and good for the political careers of the Washington socialist parasitic ruling elite. Everyone loves a freebie.
The VA loan scam was eventually extended to all peons which created the housing bubble and eventual collapse in 2009. Anyone could buy a house with no money down, overnight approval, as the bank sold the mortgage as soon as they generated it. So what did the bank care if you could not afford it or had no income? They called it NINJA loans, No Job, No Income loans – and did no background or credit check.
So the real reason cash for clunkers is not generally known, we have a fiat debt based money system – that means every dollar in circulation comes from generating new debt, and as debts pile higher, the “system” becomes unstable – because at anytime the system could implode and the recession could become a depression.
So to stop a cascading debt collapse – banks and their political whores need everyone to get more in debt. This of course LOL makes the system more unstable. They do this in each recession, and they are terrified by it, so they will become ever more extreme in policies to keep the party going – forever it seems. With every recession they kick the can down the road – and if you remember GW Bush even said he didn’t want to be the president when the system collapsed. His father GHW Bush would make speeches about steady as she goes, so terrified was he that it would happen on his watch.
But Klaus Slob knows better, he knows the system will reach an limit and implode in the mother of all great depressions, and he is planning on rolling out a new high tech surveillance society in the next big collapse, the great reset they call it. And you can see this right now in the Frog Republic – the peons are burning the system down.
I have my doubts that we will ever see the WEF dream of 15 minute cities, I think what is far more likely is civil war, nuclear war, debt collapse – and a complete rejection of the current monetary system. No one is going to want bankster money system 2.0, they are going to hang them for causing us such misery in the first place. I think the gold standard is coming back regardless of wishes of any political clown.
Thanks, Jack!
I like your point about EVs being another “clunker” program, too. You’re right – they are. Only the “clunkers” are the EVs, themselves!
I agree, and so many EV owners are finding out that the EV is very limited – just as you have warned us – good job.
An individual car dealer just up the street traded/or bought one of those Chevy Bolts – and can’t sell it. I drive by his lot everyday and see it sitting there, it’s been there at least 6 months, it looks good, but he can’t find a buyer – and now he is using the Bolt to store stuff – which looks really bad. He must be a hoarder or something. I might go talk to him and find out what is going on. Anyways, I suspect he is the “bag holder”, he got suckered when the owner unloaded it on him.
I am sure the EV like the Bolt is a fun car, for the first 2 years, then as you drive it you start noticing the range is decreasing each week, so that makes you nervous and anxious to sell it. I am thinking EVs are a flash in a pan, and as the initial cultural euphoria cools off, the demand for them will decrease.
BTW this same euphoria, caused by the Fed money pump, is cooling off in housing. Housing Bubble 2.0 has reversed, prices across the nation are now falling, and you can check this in real time on Zillow, just search for your home town, zillow, home values, and find the chart.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention the EV boom and the housing boom are related. I believe the euphoria and near vertical rise in home values – like out here in the west where some areas like Boise went up 10x in 2 years, caused such giddiness that woke consumers ran out and bought a Tesla.
The bonfire of the vanities of the nouveau riche.
And did you see, Jack, where the O’Biden regime is now mandating those who have good credit pay more for their home, so that those who cannot afford a house can now somehow buy one? Didn’t these fools learn anything from the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle the last time around? Apparently not, but yes I believe you are right. And both may very well go bust together as well.
Interesting stuff in UK on cc emission scameras. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12267075/Man-filmed-pulling-ULEZ-camera-outrage-mayors-hated-low-emissions-scheme-grows.html
Wanted to share
GAME OVER, MOTORISTS – TFL recruiting Road User Charging Operatives
Charge by the mile road use….coming soon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUa9v0f3cKI
In London….. if your car has low emission standards (an older car) there will be a daily fee to drive in the city. Soon other cities will start the same program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z277xH_EFEU
I was recently the victim of a woman who must hav “spaced out”. or had a clot shot short term blackout. Claims did not see me at all! I was making a right hand turn in residential neighborhood ,she was making a left from other direction. she in huge gmc suv cut her turn so close (way past
centerline of road. if i wasnt there it would hav been no problem)i had nowhere to go and she ran me over!
The worse part about it is a 1999 toyota corolla with 78k miles on it may be “clunkerd”. I expected to hav that car for another 10 yrs govt medalling notwithstanding. I saw through that cash for clunkers scam immediately because i was the kind of person who would most likely be affected.
Only ever bought 1 new car from dealer. All others used. saved lots of money.
As an example bought a used 94 gmc safari for 1000 or 1500 about and lasted over ten years, had to change fuel pump, replace bak break lines, minor things like that (i do my own repairs). the new car i bought had its fuel pump fail in a month after bought it. (98 s10 blazer). great car otherwise.
Govts are controlled , see the 2013 i think it was gillens and page research done at princeton in about 2013 i believe. U.S. is oligarhy what majority of population wants they get like .001percent of time while the rich and corporations get like 99 percent of what they want.
what do u expect when bribary is legal in politics.
Ive been thinking of buying another older mid-lates 90’s car. i think most manufacturers made some very good long lasting vehicles in those years , then get backup engine/ trans if hav place to store. ive talked to a couple peeps (supposed middle class) still working, complaining about unaffordability of cars.
gotta start thinking like cubans . the only real cars that a normal person can maintain is pre odb1/odb2 and pre smog controls. especially when parts start becoming scarce or mandated away.
i recenently bought brake lines that i could not get to not leak. they scored the unions . upon inspection they all had ridges that damaged the unions. had to double flare all the lines myself. AGS looks like they didnt grind ridges smooth . it was for my 98 mazda b2500/ford ranger.
what a hassle. never had a problem ever with replacing old rusted brakelines using unions before. hope its not a portent of things to come.
Can anyone explain to me why car batteries got so expensive and less quality?
someone told me is from a lawsuit someone brought against bat manufactures?
it costs 11 dollars a month extra here on long island to opt out of smart meters.
all cars r gonna b wireless connected so no need to hav connection to odb port, as i believe all new cars are.
Zorg’s speech in The Fifth Element as entire movie was great!
great comments guys
Billy, at least you CAN opt out of smart meters! Here in PA, the corrupt GOP Statehouse Speaker was, shall we say, cozy with the electric company? The law that got written was that we cannot opt out of the damn things. Also, a couple of old women in the Philly area tried to have them removed on health grounds. Guess what the Dem controlled state Supreme Court did? They UPHELD the law and forbade the women from having the damn things removed. So, count your blessinga that you can opt out of smart meters; many of us can’t.
Well, maybe some fine Independence Day we’ll get our collective head out of our ass and take our freedom back from these tyrants.
I’m not holding my breath, though.
Out here in Central WA I see more side by sides out on the road. This is farm and ranch country so the farmers are “allowed” to drive them on the roads. I expect to see them in town, we’re fed up with WA government taxes and regs and WA is chomping at the bit for a mileage tax. Won’t be collecting anything on the farm rigs zipping around here!
I have 91 Silverado, great shape. There are many that vintage still in use in our area, from ratty to restored. No one here is giving them up.
If they screw with the gasoline supply I’m hoping the Indian Tribes step up, they already have reservation gas stations and their own supply trucks.
Back when I was a kid we’d go to Florida to visit my grandparents. Somewhere near I believe Roanoke, we’d have to pay tolls on I95. This was accomplished by tossing quarters in baskets along the way. Pretty crude but effective. I’m sure people paid “extra” by missing the basket from time to time, and the state probably collected quite a few slugs too.
A few years ago I took the PA Turnpike from New Stanton to Bedford. The toll gate read my license plate when I entered and exited. A few months later I got a bill in the mail for around $40! Part of that fee was for the processing company, which has interstate agreements to share plate information. What was wrong with the old system? Well, cash for one thing. And tollbooth operators for another. Cash handling being an “inconvenience” for motorists and a cost center for the Turnpike Commission. All those paper tickets and dollar bills, making change… and employee theft. Not to mention the pension funds and health insurance benefits owed to every employee. So automation takes over.
One would think governments would enourage cash, since cash handling requires a lot of people. People paying income taxes, the collateral that keeps the debt ceiling always rising. Automation is capex, and capital investments get a tax break. But who ever said governement knows what its doing?
Speaking of debt ceilings, exactly what is “sustainable” about 32 trillion in FedGov debt? If anyone believes that debt will ever be paid, they need psychiatric care. Seems to me that debt would be the very first target of any movement toward “sustainability”. I think what the Psychopaths In Charge want to “sustain” is their graft, corruption, and the accompanying wealth and power. To hell with the sane people.
Kinda OT but in my neck of the dunes in Eastern NC, there have been a number of really bad accidents lately. Head on collisions at speed, blown stoplights, multiple deaths at a time, hours long road closures from insanely damaged vehicles and the need for helicopter airlifts. Mid-day, no alcohol. People are spacing out. The geoengineering? The 5G? The jabs? All of the above?
It’s gotten so bad lately that DOT has put up electronic signs that say “stop at red lights.” Like, WTF? Well, the other day I was stopped at a red light for a good 15-20 seconds when a dump truck doing 50 just blew by me without even attempting to stop. It’s an absolute miracle the cars crossing noticed, stopped and didn’t enter the intersection or vehicles would have been airborne. My head is on swivel more than ever.
Been noticing much more absolutely insane driving in my area, too.
Imagine driving down the Interstate at 65 m.p.h. and come up behind someone in a van doing 55 m.p.h. in the right hand lane. You go to pass in the left lane and soon after the the van speeds up next to you and just as the van gets slightly ahead of you it swerves in front of you & you have to slam on the brakes – hard. The idiot in the van turns into one of those cop turn-around spots and heads in the opposite direction down the Interstate.
Similar thing happened at slower speeds at an intersection in the city. It’s nutz.
Indeed, it appears that being passed in the left lane wakes them up (from their texting), and they have some sick need to immediately speed up to how fast they “intended” to drive, before you get by them. Having spent most of my working life in construction, it was not uncommon for me to regularly take long drives on dual lane highways. I could have retired a lot sooner if I had five dollars for every time I passed a car by a five+ mph differential while closely regulating my speed, and ten minutes later being passed by them. Who were not regulating their speed at all. Which means they were a moving obstacle.
Uptick in wrong way head on’s here in WA, both western (crazyville) and eastern (remnants of red conservatism here and there).
General driving skill, common courtesy, sanity in short supply. The animals run wild here cops hands are tied due to “equity based” legal system. I’m no fan of Geatapo level policing but this place has swung way too far off the other direction.
Cash for Clunkers! No Way! Not for peanuts, anyhow. Better be plunking down a hundred grand, which is not enough.
The gov has no cash, they owe 30 trillion dollars to somebody.
Trade even up for the vehicle you have for a Tesla or a Lucid Air or a new Ram with an ICE. Keep the Dodge, sell the Tesla, sell the Lucid Air, then buy a Dodge pick’em up truck with a big V-8.
You sell the sizzle, electric vehicles have nothing else. Then they burn to a crisp.
Hunt down a 1958 Dodge Power Wagon and make it great again.
Indeed, one can do an enormous amount of work on an old vehicle for a fraction of the price of a new one. Especially on a ladder frame, which essentially lasts forever. Or at least your lifetime.
Ahem, the Vega station wagon was not a clunker. It was the Raped Ape!! 🙂 It was all I could afford as a pimple faced teenaged idiot that did farm work.
When I got out of the service I graduated up to a used Cavalier. First new car was a Grand Am, which was after grad school.
One step at a time. Hard work. Patience. Things uncommon today.
Today, college grads expect to come out the gate driving a brand new BMW/Mercedes, or similar. While carrying a couple of hundred grand in student loan debt, because they didn’t feel like working their way through college, like young men and women used to. Even including my gladly departed former wife.
And do not forget John, these are the same fools that think you and I should be forced to pay off their student loan debt because, well, mommy and daddy raised them with a silver spoon in their mouths, and they feel entitled to your money, as well as everyone else’s.
Mr. Kable,
“Because they didn’t feel like working their way through college, like young men and women used to.”
That was impossible, even when I went to college, unless you had quite the high-paying job. I worked the entire time I went to college, and STILL owe money due to loans. After “government money” got involved, tuition and all the ancillary expenses went sky-high. And good luck with a scholarship if you are a white boy and your parents both work(ed).
You COULD still work your way through community college (at least back then) and get a couple years taken care of that way, like I did, but as far as the universities were/are concerned, forget about it.
My former wife did it, graduating from a State University in 1972. Her parents had paid for it her first year, but couldn’t afford it after that. She was on her own, and worked two jobs most of the time. And no debt.
Hey Mr. Kable,
I believe it. It used to be possible, at least for those with a little gumption. I believe when government became involved, to “help people”, all of that came to an end, because the new infusion of taxpayer money persuaded universities to commensurately increase tuition. Federally subsidized and guaranteed loans also fueled this inferno, and now, working though a university education is very difficult. It might be possible if you take one or two classes a semester? Full-time, however, I don’t think is possible any longer.
Ah, college…the only place where parents and children voluntarily pay tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to be indoctrinated over a 4, 6, or 8 year period.
I understand if a student is going into STEM, but most other degrees aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Society pushes higher institutions as required “learning”. Most students leave with very little education, but a boatload of debt.
Neither my husband or I graduated with a college degree. I left in my final semester and my husband made it through one semester at the local community college. We were lucky that we never had to deal with that debt. My husband was out $500 for his one semester and my employer paid for mine, but I had to stay on for five years to wipe it clean from the books. I look back and realized how indentured servitude works. :). It was a small price to pay though.
I wish society would push vocational and trade schools more. Most jobs require training, not necessarily a degree. If one starts young enough and builds experience, personally, I would prefer that over a four year degree that says “I am supposed to know this”, but there is no work history to show otherwise.
I can’t speak for others, but I learned more being out in the field than I ever did behind a desk.
Hi RG,
I agree. The degree I earned at GMU did not train me to be a writer. But it was necessary (at the time) to get a job as one. The idiocy of this struck me at the time – and still does. The criteria to be hired to report news or write commentary ought to be – can this person write? Can they communicate the necessary facts coherently and correctly, as well as grammatically? If they can, then of what relevance is a degree? Yet – at the time – you could not even get an interview if you didn’t have the degree.
And that’s why I got mine!
Indeed, it is not uncommon for there to be a ceiling regarding promotion. That if you have no degree, this is as far as you will go. Regardless your performance or value to the business. I’ve experienced it a few times. I think it might just be the case that “I had to go through the stupidity, pain and suffering of getting a college degree, so you have to as well”.
Hi John,
If one is dealing with an employer then they are likely to have their hands tied. That is unfortunate. I have no love for Corporate America and refused to play their game. In twenty years in business, I have never had someone ask if I have a degree. That doesn’t mean I don’t take continuing education classes, research, and read…it just means I skipped over calculus and anthropology.
Look at a list of the most successful people in the world …most have dropped out of college – Oprah, Jobs, Assange, Larry Ellison, Gautam Adani, Paul Allen, David Green, etc.
I am still a believer hard work and common sense will always prevail. A degree does not show one’s brilliance or ambition. I think businesses that put limits or prerequisites on hiring lose out on many good applicants/workers in the long run.
Just my $.02.
Hey RG,
It almost seems to be the opposite where I work. Those who arrived in their positions through years of attrition are in no mood to promote college-educated workers anywhere near them. I think it’s partially an issue of tribalism, partially a disdain for the “culture” running rampant in modern universities, and even a tiny bit intimidation, at times.
I do often wonder if that final reaction contributes to my employer’s rewarding of my efforts by further sequestration on pigeon-holing. Oh, the pay is kept “competitive”, to use HR vernacular, but it seems the more I learn (and life REALLY MEANS a lifetime of education if you wish to stay current and relevant), the more I’m kept in the dark and away from any kind of influence or decision-making roles.
So be it. My lab will rise this year. Soon.
Hi BaDnOn,
Do they promote those who are not college educated?
It sounds like they are more fearful of competition for their job or someone wanting to come in and create change that could affect their unwillingness to learn or adapt.
I have held one real job (excluding working for myself over the last two decades) and although I was the top revenue creator at the firm (not including the owners) they fought me on every suggestion of advancement I brought to their attention. They didn’t fear for their job (hell, they established it), but they did not want to change the processes that they had ingrained and felt complacent with no matter how antiquated they were.
Good luck on the new business. You will do great!
Raider Girl,
Thanks! And yes, there has been considerable fear of change and resistance at times. Such is human nature, but improvement and innovation require willingness to change.
You are right, RG. I am surrounded by people at work who hold bachelor and some have masters degrees. And yet, as the saying goes they are “book smart but street stupid”. A few of them will make it when SHTF. The rest may very well not. So much for the degree. One MD I know, who is on his late 30s, has $500,000 of medical school debt. As much as I would like to go back to school and do something else, I cannot stomach having that much debt. And two, I refuse to get the jab for the privilege.
I agree, RG. I work with plethora of people with degrees that have no common sense at all. Not all of them, mind you, but a good chunk of them. Either they never had it to begin with, or they found such simple things in life to be relatively unimportant once they got that degree or MD.
If you enter the military with a college degree, you start out as an officer. In general, the purpose of a college degree is to select for those smart enough to be indoctrinated and obedient so as to be entrusted by the system to “manage” the others. It’s a very socialistic, “scientific management” style that applies throughout all large organizations. The manager class is often the most compliant and tenacious defender of the system because their personal interests become directly aligned with it.
Even applies to K-12. I learned FAR more after graduating. I in fact learned almost nothing after learning to read, write, and do basic math there.
><I can’t speak for others, but I learned more being out in the field than I ever did behind a desk.
Both are necessary, IMO.
Mens et manus (mind and hands), because, in theory, theory and practice are the same, whereas in practice they may not be. Somehow, knowledge becomes much more "real" when you have to use your "book learning" to solve actual, real world, problems.
One of my closest friends taught what was called "industrial technology" for ten years at a high school in SoCal. He is a very original thinker, and his class attracted a cross section of the student body, ranging from top students who were about to get a "full ride" to prestigious universities to f* ups one step away from juvenile hall. They all worked together, and accomplished some amazing stuff, all "project based." Pose a problem, then solve it.
These days, specific technical knowledge is likely to be out of date in five years anyhow, so you had better have a solid grounding in basic principles, and be able to apply that knowledge in novel circumstances.
Hi Adi,
I agree with you that everyone needs to know the basic principles. Learning should not end when one graduates, but I am not a believer one has to graduate to learn. The “hands on approach” that schools required many years ago seem to be prioritized less and less (e.g. home ec, auto mechanics, woodworking, etc. ).
There are some good teachers out, even a few excellent teachers, but a walk through any public school (or university) will showcase they are the exception, not the rule.
One does not need to be behind a desk for eight hours a day to learn. Basic principles can be taught outside the institution of schools. How do babies learn to talk? By watching those around them do it. It doesn’t require a classroom.
A hundred years ago very few people held a college degree. I would argue that our country was more superior (and smarter) than. Too much schooling (the indoctrinated kind) snuffs out creativity and critical thinking. It breeds obedience. One look at our medical profession today displays that.
We had a discussion on this forum about two years ago that IQ was not fluid. It was pre determined at birth. Thomas Paine (one of my favorite guys) had five years of grammar school education. Benjamin Franklin only had two years of formal education and ended school at the age of 10. Thomas Edison went to school for two months!
If we teach children the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic (and teach it well) a child/adult’s willingness to learn is based on their own drive and ambition. No amount of formal education will achieve that.
Hi, RG,
>willingness to learn is based on their own drive and ambition.
Yes, exactly. “Self actualization” comes from within, and should be driven by natural curiosity, not the expectations of external authority.
>I am not a believer one has to graduate to learn.
I agree. The most important thing is to learn to think critically, and to be able to teach yourself, as well as learn from others. Anyone who believes “learning” is about sitting in a classroom, listening to lectures, and taking notes, has entirely missed the point.
In today’s world, you grow intellectually, all your life, or you die. Those who “go to school” to get their ticket punched and acquire a “credential” are the walking dead, IMO.
Hi RG, I thought you were a CPA. Is college degree needed forthat, i know there are tests that need to be passed to be a CPA. If you are not, kudos to you. You have built a tax/accounting business.
Hi Ugg,
I am an EA, not a CPA. To sit for the VA CPA exam you have to have 150 hours (Masters Degree).
Hasn’t enough time passed since then for used cars to be on the market?
Granted, they will be the new computerized garbage. That program destroyed so many old explorers, s10 blazers, and both normal and grand cherokees. I almost had my 1999 grand cherokee with the 4.0L 6 crushed in my ignorance, and was going to get a new Jeep Patriot instead. Glad I didn’t, ended up selling it to a private party and I bought a 1986 K5 Blazer instead in 2009, which I still have thank god.
I remember being so mad when I saw the 1998 Grand Cherokee limited with the 5.9V8 and gill hood in the trash lot, that was a dream car for me at the time
“Granted, they will be the new computerized garbage”
Which is exactly what they want you driving. A state manageable car.
Wasn’t government!…. always wanted a plane. Got my ‘license’ and then some POS litigious Americano fat ass didn’t check the seat lock and sued Cessna for his crashing a plane. The prices jumped immediately and have been out of my reach forever. I tried to recreate the same thing several times by purposely not locking the seat and never had a problem. Checking the seat was also part of the preflight. But of course, Americans aren’t responsible for anything! From there on it was history.
Some moron spills hot coffee on their self even after being warned and gets millions from MacDonald’s. One after another,,, dumbshit Americans litigate us into lawyer hell.
Today,,, all kiddies want for Christmas is a cell phone so they can tap nonsense all day long. Now required for schrool for track and trace. We couldn’t even have a calculator! Had to use slide rules and our head. Today Raytheon is rehiring retired folks to teach mistreated delicate younguns how to read blueprints so it can make more stinger missiles to sell to the Nazis to kill Russians. What the hell do they teach besides anal sex in schrools today. And we wonder why the US gave up trying to design a working hyper sonic missile that Russia, China and Iran have second and third generations in production!
Anyhow after seeing what government regulation has done to aviation you couldn’t give me a plane. Gov has sucked the fun out of flying just like it has done to everything else. Flew with the Civil Air Patrol until they got stupid and started flying DEA and ATF around. Then we were flying circles looking for Mary Jane farms. Can’t change a spark plug without someone having to sign off your work. No one signed off my work on Huey’s in Nam,,, another one of their made up wars.
Cash for clunkers, like EVs was/are just another step for the 2030 charades. Stupid Americans traded them in and bought new. Didn’t feel a bit sorry for them when they couldn’t make the payments.
” US gave up trying to design a working hyper sonic missile that Russia, China and Iran have second and third generations in production!”
In spite of the fact that US “defense” spending is more than twice that of China and Russia combined. I’m thinking hardly any of that budget is spent on “defense”, but on lining pockets and filling off shore bank accounts.
Hey those “G” suits for pregnant pilots don’t come cheap you know. As for those Raytheon missiles; they’ll take 3 or 4 years apparently before they are in production. I’d comment that seems like too little too late but I’m sitting in the peanut gallery here.
Maybe China & India can do better than the Russians whose hypersonic missiles are being shot down by Patriot batteries…literally 40-year-old technology.
The OBD-II port isn’t designed to have something permanently connected to the interface. Didn’t Flo have to settle a lawsuit (or multiple) over fires from their monitoring device?
The technology deployed by Transurban on their express lanes around DC and, coming soon, down I95 to Fredericksburg represents the future of vehicle tracking and tolling. Stereoscopic optical tracking, plate readers, and RF toll tag readers working together, but the last one really isn’t necessary for surveillance purposes.
The vendors can adapt the systems for surface streets, with the only limitation being cost and having the personnel with adequate IQ for deployment.
Hi Roscoe,
I’ve compared having one of those devices perpetually connected to your car’s OBD port to having a smart meter installed in your home. I’ve seen numerous stories over the years of smart meters starting fires, but that never seemed to stop government and electric companies from foisting them on people. And with the increasing authoritarianism from the Biden regime, along with their desire to foist EVs on the masses, what’s to stop them from decreeing that ALL vehicles on the roads MUST be electric AND have a smart meter like device permanently installed in the EV’s OBD port?
yes,,, the precedents are already set. That’s what some lowlife bunch of a-holes in NYC are using to outlaw NG stoves. Already Americans are lining up complaining the wait time to comply is too long! Appliance dealers are bringing in outside help.
I heard the same thing about leaving stuff plugged into the OBD2 port from “The Car Doctor” otherwise known as Ron Anainian.
Cash for Clunkers is my go-to example of an idiotic government program: Broken Window Fallacy in its purest form. Destroying useful goods is a bad idea, always and everywhere.
Back when that lunacy was ongoing, the interwebs were full of videos showing the procedure for rendering the engine of the accused clunker inoperable. I could not stand to watch. They made me feel physically sick.
I felt the same way Roland, what they did was criminal. How “sustainable” is trashing perfectly good equipment? My newest car is 20 years old and I plan on keeping it until it turns into rust particles. If govco launches another “cash for clunkers” program maybe I can buy one off somebody that’s only 10 years old.
Zorg’s speech in The Fifth Element, a monologue explaining Keynesian psychopathy:
https://youtu.be/KXwqUMkXFiI
But Zorg did admit being a monster before the end of the scene. Which our monsters never would do.
What will all those people who bought an EV to virtue signal about how “green” they are do when government seeks to TAX THEM by the mile, making some nonsensical claim like “Carbon taxes” or it’s to “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave the planet”? People on “The Left” who support things like censorship or taxes always seem to think it only affects “The wealthy”, their “political enemies”, “Science deniers”, etc., but it eventually boomerangs on THEM as well.
‘Hundreds of thousands of older cars, trucks and crossovers – 677,081 to be precise – were destroyed in an epic, unprecedented orgy of waste funded by government (and so paid-for by taxpayers). — eric
‘On July 2, 1937, the Soviet Politburo sent a telegram to local authorities ordering that “all kulaks and criminals must be immediately arrested.” In what came to be known as the Great Terror, 1,575,000 people were arrested during 1937-8, of whom 681,692 were executed.’ — John Spritzler, The People As Enemy
Cars, kulaks — what’s the difference? Taking out nearly three-quarter million makes a dent, from the communist point of view.
There is no restraint on the US Psychopaths In Charge. Lately the SCOTUS has knocked down a couple of the hundreds of criminal, immoral, and corrupt actions taken by them, but that can hardly be called a restraint. More of an inconvenience, until they figure out a way to get around the SCOTUS. We are still under the “emergency” powers granted soon after 9/11.
Problem is,,, the laws they struck down are laws they upheld previously.
And with a “proper” court, could easily be re-instated.
Pretext for “stacking the courts.” O’Biden needs to get reselected in 2024 so his handlers can add 10 more justices. Heck, why not 15 just to be safe?
It is all civilizational arson! Build back better. Morons went along with cash for clunkers without remorse. It was shameful to see people involved in such a wasteful scam. How could any person be involved in this and not feel like a dirtbag? They Blew up engines and crushed good cars because they were ‘just doing their job.’ Following orders is no excuse in Genocide or daily employment. When you are asked to do something wrong by someone claiming authority over you then you refuse, if we don’t we become slaves. Welcome to 2023. Most Americans are order following morons who believe in ‘Our Democracy’ and paying taxes so that the government can dictate things which are against the people while also being paid for by the victims of their evil scams.
Per mile tax has been on the horizon in Wa and Or for years. They are about to roll that trash out on us here because they claim there is a transportation budget shortfall. This of course means that they want to build transportation infrastructure which gets us out of our cars, which then we would not be paying per mile tax because we would all be on the mass communist transit.
Then who will pay for the ‘transportation’ system?
If the ‘Our Democracy’ crowd survives to see the collapse of the grid and all private transport they will act like they just had no idea it would end this way.
I imagine most of the people “following orders” never give those orders a second thought. Many of them were set up for it in the military. It isn’t even a question of questioning the order, just do what you’re told to get through the 8 hours and go home to beer and titty shows (or titty video games). Soak in some advertising for yummy food and wonder why you can’t see your dick without a mirror. Maybe get back into the PT regimen… starting tomorrow. Go to the VFW on weekends and relive the glory days.
Careers are for people with a future.