Just before Titanic hit the iceberg, the lookout screamed a warning – too late. The rest is history. Something similar is happening onboard the SS Stellantis.
Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram truck dealers all over America have signed an open letter warning parent company Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares about the “rapid degradation”of their brands, which is chiefly the result of these brands having had most of the models that sold (such as the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger) either taken off the market or altered in such a way – the way one alters a male dog – as to make them a harder sell. As in the case of the Ram trucks that used to offer V8 power that are now powered by turbocharged (and hybridized) sixes
Chrysler has been left to twist in the wind with nothing to sell except a minivan since the end of the 2023 model year – which is already almost two models years in the rearview. Are there even any Chrysler dealers left? They have been folded into Dodge/Ram/Jeep dealers as a kind of slow-fade into the inevitable oblivion. It’s an example of what the letter calls the “short term decision making” of corporate parent Stellantis. And Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.
“For over two years now, the U.S. Stellantis National Dealer Council has been sounding this alarm to your US executive team, warning them that the course you had set for Stellantis was going to be a disaster in the long run . . . a disaster not just for us, but for everyone involved – and now that disaster has arrived,” reads the letter, in part.
Yup. It was about two years ago that the decision was taken by Stellantis that subsidiary brands such as Dodge and Chrysler would be shorn of their best-selling models because these were costing Stellantis – the parent company – too much in regulatory compliance costs. The Dodge Charger and its two-door sibling the Challenger, along with the closely related Chrysler 300 sedan sold well but each sale resulted in costs – to Stellantis – in the form of fines for noncompliance with Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) which are basically federally mandated MPG minimums; these are now scheduled to rise to about 50 MPG and vehicles like the big (and heavy) and V8 powered especially Charger/Challenger/300 could never be “compliant” with that.
So – paradoxically – each sale of one of those models, which may have made money for the dealers, cost the parent company (Stellantis) money. There were also the losses associated with having to buy “carbon credits” – from Tesla, chiefly – as the price of making and selling vehicles like the Charger, Challenger, 300 and anythimg else with a V8 that have a too-big “carbon footprint.”
Tavares has vowed to arrange things so that Stellantis would not have to pay for what Dodge/Chrysler – and Jeep and Ram – were selling. That it would be “carbon neutral” in just a few years from now.
So, no more Charger, Challenger or 300. And also no more V8 for Jeeps and Ram trucks, either. But the Hemi V8 was kind of like the meat in a hamburger. Take that away and what’s left isn’t hamburger anymore.
And good luck trying to sell that to people who want hamburger – and not something else. Or something less.
Like what Dodge is left trying to sell right now, which is a reskinned Fiat (another brand that is part of the Stellantis combine) crossover badged as the “Dodge” Hornet, which debuted last year as the replacement for the Charger/Challenger. It hasn’t gone over well with Dodge buyers – just over 9,300 Hornets were sold in all of 2023 – and so it’s become a “disaster” for Dodge dealers, who currently have not much else to sell.
It’s analogous to why GM decided to cut bait as regards its former Pontiac and Oldsmobile divisions, which were once among GM’s best selling divisions. But the compliance costs of selling Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles that actually were those things – powered by Pontiac and Oldsmobile-built engines – were too high and so they were shorn of their brand-specific engines (this was back in the ’80s) which led to the end for Pontiac and Oldsmobile.
This is why the Charger and Challenger and 300 were ended – in the manner of a summary execution rather than a lobotomy. The Hemi V8 had to go – in order to staunch the bleed of compliance costs – and once the Hemi was gone, the Charger, Challenger and 300 couldn’t stay.
Stellantis pins its hopes for the survival of the Dodge brand on a still-not-yet-here electric/partially electric Charger but the market for electric things is about as hot as the market for meatless “hamburgers.” It hopes the new Hurricane inline six – which is another compliance engine – will be enough to get enough buyers to forget about the V8s that used to be available in Ram trucks and Jeep vehicles like the Wrangler and Cherokee.
So far, those hopes have not been realized, which is why it’s looking pretty hopeless for brands such as Dodge and also Jeep and Ram. Hope for Chrysler is all-but-gone.
It seems likely that Stellantis is going to cut bait – probably no later than the end of next year – if the the Chrysler, Dodge and (yes) Jeep and Ram brands aren’t generating enough money for the corporation – and real soon.
Look how many recently healthy brands – including VW – are all-of-a-sudden looking a lot like the Titanic did about an hour after it hit the iceberg. By then, everyone on board began to understand what was inevitable.
A similar understanding appears to be dawning once again.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you like items like the Baaaaaa! baseball cap pictured below, you can find that and more at the EPautos store!
It’s almost like government via its regulations is trying its best to destroy things that made the west what it was – the “stellantis” cars are some of the most American cars people can imagine…. I guess they have to kill it off like they did the 4 olds….
The CAFE fines were just the cost of doing business. What’s more profitable a few hundred dollar fine per vehicle or zero dollars because people won’t buy mopars without v8s?
A few comments:
The problem with small cars like the Hornet. They would sell, if they cost half as much. They are just too expensive for what they are.
I’ve been seeing lots of videos of Stellantis dealers full of new vehicles with HUGE sticker prices $60-120k. RAM’s, Jeeps, etc, fully loaded just sitting there. Guessing what few base models come on the lot probably do sell. I imagine there aren’t many of those to even begin with. Dealers are probably partly to blame for only stocking higher trim too.
I think people are realizing they are getting so much less for a higher price. I’m never going to pay those kinds of prices for a Chrysler product, especially without a Hemi under the hood. In fact I am no longer interested in taking a gamble with those brands without a Hemi. I have been burned before by undersized engines. You don’t have the right size engine, no sale.
“ I think people are realizing they are getting so much less for a higher price “
The higher price used to buy you a higher level of comfort – better sound deadening, plusher seats, the V8 engine. Now you get the same lame s**t in the high end unit as the base model. My ‘18 Grand Cherokee “Limited” has the same thin uncomfortable seats as the lower end “Laredo”. The ‘05 GC we traded (mistake ) seemed to have the last of the old school comfortable MOPAR seating. All day seating not 45 minutes let me outta here seating. On a trip years ago we had a 2001 Chrysler 300M for a rental, what a wonderful driving comfortable car and we were in it 10 to 12 hours several days.
Sorry auto makers, paying more for a dash full of more gizmos doesn’t make up for skimping on the basics of what we used to take for granted in a comfortable car designed for American size adults.
[…] Guest Post by Eric Peters […]
It’s carbon DIOXIDE
Carbon is black and dirty and just sounds icky.
Calling CO2 “carbon” is like calling rain hydrogen.
It’s been pretty dry here in Michigan lately. Sure could use a little hydrogen.
Maybe a little C₂H₆O tonight and be glad that my 5 old cars may be all I’ll ever need (as long as that magical mixture of butane, pentane, isopentane, benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylenes is still available).
Totally OT but a bit ago I watched a young buck in a Tesla take an on ramp onto I-65 north. I will grant the acceleration was impressive albeit completely unnecessary given the traffic. That said I’ll bet he’ll need to recharge well before I need to refill.
As long as there are no more bailouts. I think the industry could use a little creative destruction.
One of my neighbors has the Hornet. I had no idea what it was. Not the worst looking vehicle in the neighborhood.
Car companies come and go, it would be of no surprise that in the current recession a great shakeout wittles down all the brands. So many brands + record high prices + recession = shakeout coming.
Most unfortunate for the car companies has been the Great CO2 Hoax, the green agenda coupled with a meddling government and MSM propaganda pumping has created a massive cultural delusion of CO2 causing runaway warming. The public now accepts all these regulations and controls as normal, part of the process to “save the planet”.
It is all nonsense of course. Just another cultural delusion we have to survive and overcome. Like religion, but a climate religion – you are not allowed to question the CO2 dogma. CO2 is like God, invisible. So you must take their word for it.
EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT CO2 IS DEAD WRONG
Low CO2 caused the megafauna extinctions of the Late Pleistocene. Plants stop growing below 240ppm, and 20,000 years ago CO2 was down to only 180ppm. The fact is, current CO2 level (420ppm) is at bare recovery level for a healthy planet.
Almost all of the CO2 heating effect is in the first 20ppm. At current levels, doubling CO2 has almost no effect. Ice age CO2 levels fluctuate between 180-280ppm, which means that during ice age cycles CO2 is having no effect on temperature.
https://www.therightinsight.org/media/uploads/images/climate112-1%20Heating%20Effect%20of%20CO2.jpg
Real climate scientists have made the astute observation that all glacial maximums end with low CO2, and all ice age inceptions start with high CO2. This means that CO2 does not drive temperatures at all. That also means the observed temperature vs. CO2 data is exactly the opposite of the warming claims.
We are still in an ice age that started 2.6 million years ago. Fools think CO2 controls the climate, CO2 is a trace gas, and a slight change in a trace gas does absolutely nothing to the climate. The amount of solar radiation reaching the planet controls the weather, not a trace gas. Ice age cycles are heavily influenced by orbital cycles (which affect how much light reaches earth), look up the Milankovitch cycles.
The real threat is exactly the opposite of the MSM claims, the real threat is ice age inception.
We are 8,000 years past the Holocene optimum, meaning 8,000 years past the highest temperatures of the current interglacial scientists have labeled the Holocene, the planet, in fact has been cooling for the past 8,000 years.
Global Warming is a modern political hoax, pumped up by the MSM into a massive destructive cultural delusion.At no point in earth’s 4.6 billion year history has CO2 ever driven climate. In past ice ages CO2 was 10 times higher than today. Al Gore who claims CO2 drives temperature is wrong, and has no science degree, training, or knowledge.
Climate VARIES over time; it’s just that we hairless apes live, at best, a century, and therefore we don’t have the perspective of Geological Time. We’ve prospered overall as a species, not only due to the dominance of White Europeans, which is ENDING, but also due to a period of relative warmth that made agriculture capable of sustaining eight billions of us. That, TOO, will END, at least for about fifteen to twenty generations, as another “Ice Age” hits, and renders virtually all of Canada and a great deal of the Plains and the Great Lakes region uninhabitable. Not only are lands suitable for grains, especially wheat, iced over, also lost are access to great deposits of petroleum, shale oil, and natural gas.
It won’t be necessarily all that bad; mankind has lived through “climate change” before, and he’ll endure it AGAIN. And actually, the first to see their numbers dwindle won’t be the whites in “temperate” climates that get a lot colder; it’ll be all the black and brown people living in tropical climes, who won’t notice that much of a change; if anything, the cooling off actually will make the “rain forest” more pleasant to live in. But as the ruling elite of these tropical “paradises” are highly dependent on communications, expertise, and financial subsidies from White Europeans, and soon will find themselves without, they’ll be plunged into the bloodbath of revolution. Sad to say, most of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Sub-Continent, and SE Asia will see their respective nations fall apart, as they degrade into being ruled over by various warlords that still have access to technology to maintain their dominance, while the rest, their numbers dwindling to medieval levels, will revert to about the Fourteenth Century in terms of their tech, with scraps of what was the modern world left until they wear out.
As a likely war, involving nuclear weapons, will probably also decimate white peoples, and utterly destroy the non-whites among them, as they too won’t have the survival skills to cope with a post-war scenario, White Europeans, in both Old and New Worlds, will be too busy with local matters to bother with the devolving world in the tropics. The upside is that they’ll rebuild fairly quickly, in, say, a century or too, and maybe THIS time they’ll learn to keep those “Not of our kind, dear” OUT.
The executives got theirs. that is all that matters to them. the company tanks. their stock options don’t. their retirement is in the millions. looting the lower workers. those at the lower end don’t get their retirement. they get a pink slip.
i knew vw was on their way out. i have a friend who works in the automotive with vw porsche audi and he said after tdi. the corporation closed up their phone support for dealers pretty much. took all the veteran reps and moved them to another office. replacing them with new one that have no idea what being a rep is all about and they certainly won’t help the dealer. the warranty departments consolidated and reduced to a handful of people whose job is to deny claims not pay them.
when a manufacturer starts looting the dealers for their failure as they have done. removing anything that helps the dealer and customers. they are pretty much on their way out. you do that when you want to keep the money in the companies bank and save it for the executives and stock holders though those too end up looted. their loss is not as hard to take as hourly and salary people get hit with.
a handful of people at the top rake it into their accounts and stop paying claims. stop customer service. and crushing the workers as well. cutting their jobs, their pay, their benefits.
all of them are on their way out. one by one. the cost of obedience to the state is total destruction. Atlas Shrugged comes to mind.
Wikipedia lists the managers of Stellantis’s four US brands:
Chrysler — Christine Feuell
Dodge — Matt McAlear
Jeep — Antonio Filosa
Ram — Christine Feuell
Who ARE these people? At least in the general interest media, I’ve never heard of them.
Do they ever think of visiting a little mayhem on their tormentors, such as Pete Buttigieg, Michael Regan, Jenny Granholm and Sophie Shulman? Or do they rather have erotic fantasies about getting bound, gagged and ritually whipped by these domineering ‘crats?
By the way, did you know that Stellantis — whose brands are mainly Italian, French and American — is headquartered in the Netherlands? That’s why it’s called Stellantis NV — Naamloze Vennootschap = Incorporated.
Naamloze vennootschap to you too, Dutch comrades.
headquartered in the Netherlands…
A tax dodge….very low tax rates there….show the profits on the books there….show no profits anywhere else…pay no tax anywhere else….use all the roads, infrastructure, etc., for free…buy something from them…all the money leaves the country….all the huge control group owned corporations…the same story…only the slaves pay tax…
Buy locally from small independent businesses….
“the company tanks. their stock options don’t.”
That’s not how stock options work. An option is just that — the company gives you the option to buy their stock at a later time at or slightly below the current price. A company tanking drags down it’s value, which drags down the stock price. If the current stock price is below the option price, you would be a fool to exercise it.
Granted, they play all kinds of games to inflate the stock price, but you can blame Clinton and his team of economic advisors for getting us into that mess.
‘they play all kinds of games to inflate the stock price’
Stock buybacks by corporations first got legal clearance in the early 1980s. By no coincidence, an 18-year bull market launched in 1982.
Buybacks shrink the equity of a company, offsetting the dilution caused by stock options granted to executives. If you think this sounds a little fishy, I agree.
Corporations observe a buyback blackout window for a few weeks around their quarterly earnings reports. Despite that, buybacks basically are share price manipulation, same as the ‘pools’ that were used in the 1920s to kite prices. (How did that episode work out?)
Equity is the cushion which corporations use to weather recessions, when their earnings turn to losses. Shrink equity, and you’re skating on thin ice. Boeing, to take one example, was warned this week by rating agencies that its credit status may be cut to junk. No more commercial paper for you, lads!
Bottom line, the system is fragile. At this point, you could knock it over with a feather. But all the QE in the world can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again. 🙁
Bill and Hillary Clinton were BOUGHT by Wall Street who supplied their “advisers”, so they’d make a killing in the SHORT TERM by cashing in their stocks and options, and then moving on; having looted their respective companies.
It was the SAME at GovCo. Especially with the PHONY claim that Clinton “balanced” the budget. He did NO such thing; what happened was that he could count Social Security tax receipts, which were on an all-time high, thanks to the Baby Boomers being in their peak earning years, which swelled Uncle Sam’s coffers. Of course, that “surplus” went immediately into T-Bills, which is to say that Uncle had more money to spend, and SPEND it He did. The trouble is, when those T-Bills, which, due to their volume of issue, came at LOW interest rates, came due, and there was LESS Social Security taxes coming in, as the “Boomers” reached retirement age, as of 2008, the first born in 1946 hitting age 62 (coincidence with the market crash of that year?), and more out of the productive economy had to be taken to sate Uncle’s voracious appetite, what did they THINK would happen?
This, IMO, is why the Democraps and the Corporate Elite that back them want to take over Health “Care”…because they don’t WANT to “care” for a large population of old people who are overwhelmingly WHITE…they want to KILL them, by neglect if possible, by more OVERT means if necessary. It ends up being the same dogma of “useless eaters” who trusted in the Ponzi scheme of “Social Insurance”, which works as long as there’s a new generation of suckers willing to pony up. The trouble is, the ever-increasing NON-WHITES that make up younger Americans don’t feel that need, and neither do their “Kosher” overlords. We old whiteys have served our purpose, and like old cattle, the feed will stop coming to the lot, and they’ll herd us onto the rail cars to the slaughterhouse, to become dog food or whatever slop they’ll mix into the “Soylent Green”.
But no one says we have to LET THEM.
“fines for noncompliance with Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) which are basically federally mandated MPG minimums”
They need to spend some of their marketing budget to hire lawyers to contest the CAFE regs after the Chevron decision.
If the major Car Companies had spent the compliance money on lawyers/bribes and nixed the excessive executive pay they could have gotten rid of or watered down CAFE. In the before times Lee Iacocca took a salary of $1, when he was turning around Chrysler. If they passed a law that CEOs and executives of major corporations had to be native born US citizens 90% of this this idiocy would vanish overnight. They still might be stupid but not WEF Globalist stupid!!
Uh, how many Americans attend the WEF confab in Davos every year, hmmm?
Iacocca being the “Dollar-a-Year Man” was the greatest PR ploy ever done by a Corporate CEO, it made him popular and in a position to tell that UAW to go fuck itself, which was overdue. Mr. Iacocca took a chance, but he had already made enough that if things didn’t work out, he’d still have a comfortable retirement. He took compensation in stock and options which, once the Government-backed loan was paid off, EARLY, and Chrysler’s stock went up, Up, UP, he cashed in, HUGELY.
The only problem was, while his backing of the “K-car” platform, and making a whole slew of cars and minivans off it, an idea which he didn’t invent, as it’d languished since about 1974, as the engineers knew what they wanted to do, but it meant more or less shuttering most plants and getting rid of them, contracting what of their RWD platforms still made the company money, which they did at the underutilized AMC Kenosha plant, which also led to Chrysler’s 1987 acquisition of AMC, mainly for the Jeep brand, and retooling with a far more “modular” means, to quickly switch between lines based on the same platform IAW market demand.
Chrysler got twelve model years out of that “K”, which evolved into the “Extended K” (Dodge 600, Chrysler LeBaron, and the first minivan generation), the “EEK” (Dodge Dynasty, Chrysler New Yorker, and later the second minivan generation), and the “Y” platform (Chrysler Fifth Avenue and Imperial). These would be superseded by another generation of related FWD designs, with the “Cab Forward” approach, which carried Mopar into the 21st century.
Since then, the company has LOST its way.
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” – the Sagan standard
The Earth is heating up and it’s Man’s fault. So says the claim. Yet the evidence presented would be lost in statical noise if it weren’t teased out by throwing away contradictory data and P hacking. None of the predictions made by “the models” have come to pass. Yet the only consequence to the researchers is more funding. And the corporate press doubles down on The Message™.
And so what if it is? The hubris of these midwits claiming that their chosen average temperature is the ideal, and that the Earth’s atmosphere is somehow a static system is absurd.
Or that life is mobile and can adjust to new conditions.
Even taking at face value that historical data can be trusted cannot be questioned. I’ve seen antique thermometers. The craftsmen who built them didn’t exactly have CNC mills and laser straight edges. Heck, Harbor Freight still can’t make an accurate tape measure. Drawing a glass tube down to a straw small enough for capillary action at an exact range wasn’t really perfected until the 20th century. But even assuming it was perfect, over time the thermometer’s scale gets out of alignment, or maybe the regular guy is on vacation and his substitute looked at the mercury and decided it was just below the line instead of it being right on the line or slightly above. Instruments were probably good enough in the 1800s at the few sample points that existed. But wide scale weather monitoring didn’t really get going until after World War II, mostly to assist the growing aviation industry. Before that meteorology was basically a hobby for dandies. And that’s just in the United States and Western Europe. China, the Middle East, Siberia, Antartica? No record exists because there were no weather stations, even into the 1990s.
But will the corporate press allow debate? Well, perhaps, at the level we witnessed on Tuesday night, with loaded questions and prewritten conclusions. Like everything else, any questioning of the narrative is met with overwhelming backlash on a personal level. There’s a reason why I don’t use my real name on the Internet, because anyone can DOX me at any time, and there is an army of horrible people who look forward to Ultraviolence. Because the claim is so thin and fragile any question will cause it to shatter into nothing.
Always wondered at the hubris involved in thinking something as vague as ‘the science’ could ever be settled. How can a bunch of low IQ midwits insist they know whats best for the planet? Or, a better question, is why do the rest of us allow it? A system so wondrous and complex as the rock we live on, seems impossible for even the greatest human mind to comprehend in its entirety. Then theres the tiny part about 250, maybe 300 years, if we chose to be generous, of recorded data, which still amounts to no more than a fraction of a fraction in the lifespan of the earth. But the adherents of global warming have been filled with religious fervor. And like a wild fire, the whole thing will need to burn itself out. At this point, I’d vote for any so called climate change expert to get a little of the old Ultraviolence, good and hard. If they’re allowed to continue to set policy, we’re headed back to ox carts and plows.
Not even plows, sticks. Metalworking iron or bronze requires the demonized carbon. You can have sticks and mud peasant.
Sticks are carbon… Mud, peasant, you can have mud.
Why do “we” allow it? Because “we” aren’t impacted, at least at any level “we” notice. “We” complain about the high price of today’s cars but then make sure “we” tell everyone how much we paid in a humble-brag style of keeping up with the Joneses. And because “we” aren’t all that curious, “we” don’t bother looking at alternatives outside of what “we” are used to.
“It is what it is…”
I guess I forget to empty the frogs out of my pockets this morning. My curiosity is pretty narrowly focused, and I do have a fair amount of hubris. Which is why its so hard to understand the hubris involved with predicting the weather with such fervent certainty. The whole thing has a sort of pebble in my shoe quality most of the time. I should probably just forget about all this nonsense, take the wife and critters, find a nice place, and go enjoy my remaining sunrises/sunsets with boat drinks and herbal refreshments.
“Ecological collapse” is a false doctrine that is used by “greenies” on the left to usher in a bolshevik communist society in which they are the exalted ones that “the rest of us” have to obey.
The earth is much more resilient than most people (and all greenies) realize.
One active volcano spews more pollutants than in all of mankind’s history. Let’s not forget the deep sea “vents” that are presently spewing out sulfuric and hydrocarbon compounds and have been doing so since earth’s creation. Ever hear of the La Brea tar pits?
Mankind has done much more to “clean up” its own pollution sources, a good thing, but is no match for what the earth spews out of its depths on a daily basis.
Environmentalism is about CONTROL–nothing more.
There are billions of dollars to be made on the phony, false concept of “globull warming” (oops, I mean “climate change”). Attention greenies: Climate is ALWAYS changing…
Environmentalists are not content with promoting clean water, air and land, but are hell-bent on controlling human behavior, and yes, promoting extermination plans for much of humanity as these anointed types consider mankind to be a pestilence (except for themselves) to be reduced in population by any means necessary.
Environmentalists HATE the God-given concept of private property and have imposed government-backed and enforced land use controls on private property owners without compensation, clearly an unconstitutional taking of private property.
If environmentalists want to control land use, let them purchase it themselves, not by government force. Today the only method of negating government-imposed land use restrictions is shoot, shovel, and shut up.
If environmentalists have their way, the earth’s human population will be reduced by approximately 90%, (utilizing plandemics and poison “jabs”) with the remainder to (be forced) to live in cities, in soviet-style high rise apartments, utilizing bicycles, buses and trains for transportation. The use of automobiles and access to pristine wilderness (rural) areas will be off-limits to us mere mortals, and will only be available for these anointed environmentalists. Long-distance travel by personal conveyances will be severely restricted or eliminated.
In a nutshell, today’s environmentalism IS bolshevik communism like watermelon-green on the outside and red (communist) on the inside.
It is interesting to note that communist and third-world countries have the WORST environmental conditions on the planet. Instead of the USA and other developed countries spending billions to get rid of that last half-percent of pollution, it would behoove the communist countries to improve their conditions first. Here is a question for you environmentalists: Why is there a push for restrictive environmental regulations, but only on the developed first-world countries, and not the gross polluters such as India and China?
RK: Just your point about the inexactitude of thermometers over the past few centuries would be enough to call into question all of their alleged historical temperature data. Hell, just the angle of view of an old thermometer might effect the perceived temperature. A tall guy looking at it might view it differently than a short guy.
However, the people manipulating these “data” are not merely mistaken. Their claims are all made in bad faith in order to create a pretext for grift and control.
Right. They’re arguing over fractions of a degree over decades. There’s no way historical records are that accurate. Anyone who’s ever rebuilt any antiques knows the tolerances are horrible compared to today’s precision. That’s why mechanical devices were overbuilt in the first place, to allow for slop. And they conveniently ignore real world changes like urbanization that alter the local conditions.
If anyone ever considered the sheer energies involved in an “ordinary” volcanic eruption or Tropical Storm, they’d see that any arguments of man-induced “Climate Change” are HOOEY. Sorry, you arrogant SOBs, mankind just isn’t THAT important. Indeed, if an alien race plopped an exploratory probe into, say, the Amazonian jungle or the Sahara desert, their scientists might conclude that this funny planet orbiting that unremarkable G2-class star is some primitive “Jungle World”, or a barren wasteland.
I never understood why the car manufacturers willingly let themselves be gelded and continue to say ‘please sir, may I have another’. When their costs increased due to compliance fatwas issued by the EPA they should have taken out full page ads stating something like ‘your favorite vehicle now costs $5,000 extra due to government regulations, if you think this is unfair please contact your Congress person and request they put a stop to this’. Probably too late for that now but it could have been nipped in the bud.
It was a double edged sword for the OEMs.
Having an incalculable amount of manufacturing regulations set by .gov was a benefit for existing manufacturers, as it provided a ‘barrier to entry’ to any new auto companies – at least until CIA asset Musk rolled into town.
^This.
The gas crunch in the 70s the Japanese automakers got an opening & in subsequent decades they set Detroit back on its heels.
The next shoe to drop is going to be Chinese imports. When they crack into the N.Am. market it’ll be over and they know it.
Much of the current regulatory mess has to do with CorpGov trying to forestall that eventuality.
In the end, common sense and the best product will win. But in between now and then a great deal of things can still get screwed up, and CorpGov is determined to get around to all of them.
The next shoe to drop is going to be Chinese imports. When they crack into the N.Am. market it’ll be over and they know it.
I don’t see why that would be the case. The Chinese mostly offer EVs (which consumers don’t want), their cars are generally of low quality, and their only unique selling point is price. Unless the government bans the internal combustion engine, the only reason why Western manufacturers wouldn’t be able to compete with the Chinese would be that they choose not to for whatever reason.
Because the CO’S make enough each year to allow a lifetime of indulgence. 2-3 years in the position and they have enough for anything that want and never have to work again. The don’t give a crap about the employees or the ancillary jobs lost. They are set.
Completely bought abd paid for and if they get uppity, well there is always the Epstein files to keep them in line.
It’s all in the vig, Mike. That $5k in MSRP was maybe $4.5k in increased cost, tops. Because of government mandates, they get an extra $500 on every sale. Going along is good for business.
And everyone right of center will blame the government (correctly) but ignore the company role in the incentive structure.
Would have worked!!
Correct Mike, Been saying/thinking this for a long time. And all of them had/have to do it.
Can’t hurt to start now. Even start from around the early 2000’s. ‘this much, because of…’, etc….
They wanted those Government CONTRACTS. Even something as mundane as some isolated ‘burg buying a few “squid cars” typically has some Uncle Sam bucks backing it, with the “strings” of various regs. Never mind what Uncle buys for HIMSELF, or pays for via various contractors.
The suicide death spiral cult continues apace.
Surely some of these overpaid company executives could see this wasn’t going to work. But they did as they were told by FedGov anyway. Hoping that a bankrupt FedGov would bail them out. Hell, they can’t even bail themselves out.
Of what use is a toaster if you can’t afford bread and butter? And that’s were the automakers are headed. Becoming toaster makers. Very expensive toasters.
As a cartoon depicted Fidel Castro and a gaggle of Cuban Communist syncophants puts it…
“Hey, we knew all along this ‘Mumbo-Jumbo’ wouldn’t fly!”
I worked for Chrysler for 14 years including through the mid to late 90s era where it was the darling of the industry. Record profits, record profit sharing. Most efficient domestic manufacturer. Innovative designs that created unique products that people wanted. Reimagined what the pickup truck segment could be.
Then the “merger” with Daimler occurred and the Germans began slowly gutting the company. Forcing Chrysler to use high cost & surprisingly low quality Mercedes parts. Rebranded its slow selling SLK as the Chrysler Crossfire. Daimler was addicted to bad decisions like the “Smart” brand which was anything but smart in most markets.
When it was becoming clear that Daimler had sucked out most of the cash from what had been Chrysler, the shell was practically given to Cerberus. A car company now being run by the guy that sells hammers for a living (Bob Nardeli from Home Depot). The horror! This is when I left.
After Cerberus had gotten done shaking the corpse of Chrysler around for a few years, it was again given away for basically free to the UAW and Fiat. Frankenstein reborn as FCA.
Then finally to Stellantis for its final death knell.
See a pattern here?
Burn Baby Burn!
I feel no sympathy for them. Literally decades upon decades of bad decisions coming home to roost. Executives paid untold millions upon millions for their bad decisions and lack of leadership.
The malinvestment needs to be purged. Not only from the auto industry that I loved but from the US in general. There is no path forward until this occurs.
‘The malinvestment needs to be purged. Not only from the auto industry that I loved but from the US in general. ‘– Burn it Down
Jeffrey Tucker expands on this imperative:
‘[By] 2016 the US had lost vast amounts of its manufacturing sector to foreign competition due to the [fiat currency] system set up in the Nixon era, not to mention victory in the Cold War which opened up new productive competition with the US. Donald Trump swore to end the problem, and how? By blowing up the GATT which had been newly labeled the World Trade Organization.
‘As a result of Trump’s efforts, which were not reversed by the Biden administration, the [Bretton Woods] system of 1944 now lies in ruins, with governments around the world experimenting with regional trading systems, tariff policies, and even new systems of settlement that could someday unseat the dollar as the world-reserve currency.
Meantime, the US has a major problem. Without dramatic domestic reform, it simply cannot compete on the world stage. This is because the US debt avalanche has boosted the industrial buildup around the world, even as the high-value international dollar makes imports cheap and exports expensive with no settlement system in place. This not only leads to perpetual trade deficits, but also subsidizes imports over domestic goods.
‘We need a simple return to fiscal and monetary soundness. Above all else, the United States must get its own house in order, with balanced budgets and sound money, even if that means letting go of its imperial ambitions abroad.‘
https://tinyurl.com/v4m63xx4
Jeffrey’s right, of course. But meanwhile, so-called ‘Biden’ is only doubling down, along with Clowngress. America’s insane proxy wars in Ukraine and Gaza are going to implode the whole system. Burn, baby, burn.
The question is: Who is “Biden?” Obviously the man behind The Resolute Desk clearly isn’t running anything. Kackling Kamala will be more of the same, a simple figurehead/automaton to put on a show for the corporate press.
“Who is John Galt?” isn’t really the right question. “Who is The Puppeteer?” is what we need to be asking.
Off topic: I’ve noticed a massive uptick in people saying “It is what it is” since the Wuhan Flu. I’d say it’s become the “Who is John Galt?” saying in reality. And it does seem like there’s a loss of libertarian minded wealthy who build instead of consume.
My retort to that fatalist comment “it is what it is:”
Yeah, but it’s not what it ought to be.
We know damned good and well who the “puppeteer” is. One of it’s UGLY appendages recently sauntered into the Clowngress and all but commanded the critters to line up and fellate him. Sadly, virtually all of them were EAGER. I don’t actually care for that ugly Muslim bitch from Michigan, but props to her for calling out that bullshit.
[Meantime, the US has a major problem. ]
Sure does….. check this.
“Israel will purchase the planes from Boeing at a cost of 1$ billion using funds provided by the US Congress to buy US-made weapons.”
Notice anything odd?
hmmmm…. This is what happens when “your nations elected officials” considers another nation more important. Used to be called treason.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/pentagon-renovates-israeli-air-base-make-room-new-boeing-military-jets
How would it have been better for those planes to sit on US Air Force bases around the world? Boeing will be saved. They use the same protectionist arguments you see from time to time even on libertarian sites.
The only question is who gets the tab for the planes and who gets the much larger tab for maintenance. Yes, in practice Congress makes us pay for both, but at least it’s not US airmen. And there’s an off-chance we might not get stuck for the entire maintenance bill. Our Bestest Buddies Ever(TM) might pick up a bit.
[How would it have been better for those planes to sit on US Air Force bases around the world?]
Maybe not being used to kill women and children in Palestine?
Are we not the nation that charges the father of the school killer because he provided the weapon? Things that make you go hmmmm.
[ but at least it’s not US airmen.]
Yet…..
“America is the golden calf and we will suck it dry. Chop it up and sell it off piece by piece until there’s nothing left except the worlds biggest welfare state that we will create and control.” 1990 Benny Milekowski (his polish name,,, furniture salesman Philadelphia) aka Bibi Netanyahu.
‘The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) continues to martyr the Palestinians.’ — Ilana Mercer
And we’re helping, claim two kikesucker Congress Clowns:
‘Two House Republicans have introduced a bill that would extend credit and employment privileges enjoyed by US military service members to American citizens serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
‘This latest affront to American patriotism is brought to you by Pennsylvania congressman and Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler, along with Ohio Rep. (((Max Miller))).
“Over 20,000 American citizens are currently defending Israel from Hamas terrorists, risking their lives for the betterment of our ally,” said Reschenthaler.
‘HR 8445 would give American IDF soldiers protections under two major programs for active duty US military service members, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).’
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/gop-bill-would-give-israeli-soldiers-us-job-and-financial-protections
You can bet that veterans benefits will be extended to include education and disability benefits (while REAL American veterans are denied benefits).
Serving in the armed forces of a foreign state is a basis for forfeiting US citizenship under the Nationality Act of 1940.
These 20,000 so-called ‘Americans’ (actually disloyal, treasonous Jewish impostors) participating in IDF war crimes should be stripped of US citizenship and barred from re-entry to the US.
Good luck getting (((Blinken))) and (((Garland))) to enforce US law, though. Sucks to live in an infiltrated, occupied nation.
‘Notice anything odd?’ — ken
Yes. Take the middleman [Israel] out of the picture for the sake of argument. Then Clowngress is just buying a billion dollars worth of planes, and giving them away to a fellow OECD rich country. That’s nuts.
Both Orange Man and Kackala are proposing tax cuts. But neither has proposed a single specific spending cut, although Trump has made the standard, pious R-party promise to ‘fight waste.’ I, too, oppose waste!
In current 2024 dollars, Jimmy Carter’s 1978 middle east peace deal has cost Americans a cumulative half trillion dollars, which forms part of the $35 trillion total fedgov debt. It’s going to hit $50 trillion in the next four years, regardless of which traitor administers America’s AFG (Aid For Genocide) program.
Israel is our misfortune.
No argument from me Jim.
Yep,,,, Israel will bring us down assuming Russia doesn’t annihilate us first.
Ergo, WE taxpayers buy these toys for Isra-Hell and GIVE them to that gaggle of criminals.
I used to work in this building. After Chrysler left it, the residents of Detroit went to work doing what they do. Gutting it for any vestige of scrap metals. The copper roof was as completely stripped.
https://youtu.be/kF-v6Mk1y7s?si=0oea5ocpWhquiNLI
This is a building that used to cost Chrysler about $400,000+ per year in property taxes for the privilege of operating in a ghetto neighborhood. The parking lots were gated and surrounded by razor-ribbon wire. The green manicured grass and art deco tower were like an oasis in the middle of a war zone.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2015/10/22/old-american-motors-site-sells-auction-500/74399014/
Hi Burn,
I watched about half before I could watch no more. It sickens me to see civilization crumble.
FTFA: “But one year later, Williams, 50, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years, three months in prison for violating the Clean Air Act for disturbing materials containing asbestos, the Associated Press reported.”
I guess the tweakers and street people who tore the place apart for copper will get mesothelioma in a few years because of their exposure.
Williams: get a clue, man. When you’ve got an asbestos-tainted white elephant on your hands, crash a plane into it and watch it collapse into its own footprint.
That’s how the pros do it, son.
Reminds of a scene from “Lord of War”, where an ex-Soviet Antonov An-12 air freighter, loaded to the gills with “illicit” weaponry, for sale to some sub-Saharan African warlord, is forced down in Sierra Leone by an F-5 Tiger II, as the InterPol agenty (Ethan Hawke) smirks in triumph when he and his Leonese assistants cuff him and set him down near the downed aircraft, just after he’s handed off the load of AK-47s to the locals, to their obvious delight. While one of the assistants offers to slit the gun runner’s (Nicholas Cage) throat right then and there, Hawke stops him, realizing that “by the numbers”, they don’t have the evidence, but they can lawfully detain him for 24 hours, which they do, leaving him handcuffed and sitting on a box, as he watches the locals strip that Antonov to a skeleton, even somehow removing and carrying off its turboprop engines!
Amazing how “industrious” those “knee-grows” can get if there’s LOOT involved!
Too big too fail was an awful precedent set back in 2008. Lots of voices said as much. government ignored the voice of the people, doing what it does best. They threw good money after bad, giving a sign to the corporations that the state would always have their back. This same narrative was reinforced during the flu to end all flus, as only big box stores were allowed to operate..
Now, US corporations have grown into vile monsters that couldn’t give a rip what their customers want or think. So many examples the last few years, with the embracing and celebrating of outlier degenerate weirdos, and mental illness. They don’t care if 95% of formerly loyal customers stop buying their products, they’ve got uncle sugar standing by, with helicopters hovering overhead and printers running full tilt.
Its becoming clear to me, all the iconic corporations here in the US will eventually go away, leaving us with few jobs, no large scale manufacturing, and a crumbling tax base. Maybe a Brawndo thirst mutilator type corporation will emerge. Then, the media will blame the victims. The narrative will shift; It was reactionary knuckle daggers and their zealotry that caused the completely avoidable crisis. All because some simpletons just cant live in a brave new world and accept that ‘love is love.’ It also fits the TPTBs obsession with mass humiliation rituals and the Problem, Reaction, Solution paradigm.
Too big to fail, is a concept which cannot be examined closely enough. If something is too big to fail, that means it can never die. That means there can never be a rebirth, or healthy new things coming into the world. It means the corrupt and decrepit old can never be fertilizer for a good and decent and healthy new.
It means that the status quo cannot fail but must be supported by the unimportant people. It means that virtuous people who sacrifice and save cannot buy useful assets at the bankruptcy sale and earn healthy honest profits.
It means satanic evil rules you.
Good news its it can only exist in a fiat system based on favors and not merit. That tells me it could be on its way out. Thing is, I’ve thought it was on deaths door for almost 20 years. Sadly, I may live the rest of my life under the oppressive system and never see the rainbow that comes after the storm. People I know irl wonder why I’m always rooting for a mythic collapse.
Nothing is ever THAT big nor unassailable. Even the mightiest of mountains will, in time, be eroded away; we just don’t live long enough to comprehend it.
At least we’ll have a restaurant corporation: Taco Bell
Only in San Angeles. Any version overseas will be stuck with Pizza Hut.
But you can always go into the sewers and underworld and get a RAT BURGER. Best damn burger you’ll EVER have!
When all restaurants are Taco Bell, all men should become Edgar Friendly.
Me, channeling EF
‘I’m the type of guy who goes to a restaurant and wants a paper menu, not a QR code downloaded while thumb fucking a sail fawn. I want to pay with cash, because, FYTW. I want a filet mignon, bloody, a baked potato, extra extra butter, sour cream, and bacon. Because it tastes good, and is good for me. I want a car not dependent on the vagaries of the “Power grid.” I want to make my own hooch with fruit organically grown in my own garden. I want to smoke big fat doobies, while owning an AK47 with a 100 round magazine. Why? Because I might suddenly feel the urge to go varmint hunting. I’ve seen the future, and its blue haired broads and 58 year old virgins living with Stage 4 TDS in their moms attics, drinking avocado-kale shakes, while wanking it to cat videos and getting blowies from their glowie EffBeeEye handlers, in between trips to Adam Kinzingers clowngressional office, the Cheny ranch, and the Ukraine.’
Stellantis (and other automobile manufacturers that are on the verge of bankruptcy or death) could always beg the federal government to bail them out. After all, the government already bailed out GM back when Barack Obama was President, and the Biden-Harris regime gave Moderna $176 million to make mRNA bird flu “vaccines” back in July of this year.
They have all been bailed out (including Ford) multiple times.
Stop the madness.
Of course. Most of the old fossils in congress remember the shellacking that they went through in the 1980s as jobs disappeared, which led to the House going Republican in the 90s (too bad Gingrich made sure to screw it up). The one bright spot (for the Emerald City) during this time was Iacocca’s bailout loan, so “more of that, please!” became the phrase that pays in Congress. Run elections on jobs, even though government doesn’t produce anything, and keep in office on military pork that makes… more jobs! Are they make-work projects? Of course. Is bankruptcy a bad thing? No… unless your retirement account is heavily invested in the status quo, then bankruptcy is horrible. Not to mention all the congress’ investment portfolios which are strictly confidential.
Last thing anyone wants to see is a replay of the pensioners on TV complaining about how they have to go back to work at 70. Except this time it will be 80 or 90.
Supreme predators attack Alaskan grizzly
22 seconds of sheer terror.
How it can get done.
The car companies can make dot gov look like fools, they really can.
Go to the Environmental Predator Administration, hat in hand, then hat whip the idiots in charge of the nonsense.
Go back home and make the cars you want so you can stay in bidness.
The Knights Templar were accused of every kind of crime, Demolay was burned at the stake.
The only reason was to bankrupt the Knights and steal everything they had, then kill them to boot.
All your stuff to us belong.
I didn’t know the story of the Knights Templar until I visited Portugal this past May. We went and visited their monastery which is now just an empty building outside of tourists, and the handful of employees that charge admission and run the souvenir shop. Well, it’s more like a huge castle, and the craftsmanship is amazing. Nobody makes buildings and sculptures like that anymore.
Also, if I understand it correctly, because of the Templars, the Portuguese government banned ALL religious orders. That seems really strange to me. Why in hell would they care about a group of people that get together to live how they want and believe what they want?
As Eric has often said, “To ask the question, answers it.”
The slave owners breed slaves for stupidity…the smart ones are eliminated…then only the stupid ones are left…they will believe all the bs…like the CO2 narrative..and the 15 min city/prison agenda…..the stupid slaves are a danger to the smart ones…they help the slave owners…traitors…
The slaves were given the right to vote for a president or prime minister…..they get to vote….but only for one of multiple /luciferion aristocracy/freemasons
The luciferion aristocracy control group on top
……the templars are the military wing, the freemasons are the political wing, the vatican is the religious wing, the financial wing is the swiss banks, they are the banksters….they invented banks and fiat money……
The Pharaoh’s feudal system is still in place today….King at the top…slaves on the bottom…the tax slaves and debt slaves..
The slaves should start their own narrative…..which would be…..
don’t listen to or co operate with the slave owners….. the aristocracy/globalists….
……penalize any slave that co operates with the slave owners or spreads their narrative….
…. don’t vote for anyone connected to the templars, freemasons, vatican or the banksters….
the slave owner’s narrative is divide and conquer …..
all the ideologies were created by the control group to get the slaves fighting each other….. religions, democracy, communism, fascism, liberal, conservative, capitalism, left vs right, black vs white vs bipoc…fake racism, woke, LGBQT, all pushed 24/7/365 by the globalist owned msm….
if you put red and black ants in a bottle and shake it, the ants will kill each other…the globalists are shaking the bottle….keeping the slaves fighting each other….
…if the slaves co operated with each other they could eliminate the globalists…
The pharaoh kings built obelisks…it is a phallic symbol…a symbol of pharaonic domination…the pharaoh king’s power……..the top is tapered…circumcised…the pharaohs circumcised the slaves…the mark of the slave…the same is true today….these obelisks are all over the world today…a sign of pharaoh still in power….
https://odysee.com/@G.I.U.R.E.H.:3/The-Deep-State—Knights-Templars-Sons-of-Pharaoh’s-Aristocracy-come-from-Ancient-Egypt:a
Templars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shOiFeZ5iZ4
Not very Last Grand Master of Templars Jacques de Molay burnt on Notre Dame “Island of the Joohs”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMPCeWCqPio
“Environmentalism is the new home of communism.” – Ayn Rand circa 1966
She hit ot on the head, and i winder how many bought into that crap then versus now.
Hi Swamp,
Yup. Leftists were the ones who came up with the genius idea to use green as a cover for red. They began with Earth Day – way back in 1970. And look how far we’ve come since then…
…aaah yes, now the leftists want to (in some countries) put bags on cows butts to capture their farts, because their flatulence is “bad for the Earth”. Never mind bug eating. Good grief, someone stop this merri-go-round, I want off already!
The original earth day was the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth. Not exactly a coinkidink.
Oh, the inventor of earth day (Ira Einhorn) stuffed his girlfriend into a suitcase.
IDK that this psycho was the “inventor”, but his nihilistic attitude is far more prevalent among the “Green” crowd than many suppose. They’re all far more psychotic than the Madagascar penguins.
‘The Report From Iron Mountain (1968) suggests that some alternative enemy could be manufactured, such as … the threat of environmental pollution, which, the authors say, is not yet dire enough yet but could be “increased selectively for this purpose.” — Wikipedia
Two years later, the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. Half a century on, auto makers are being persecuted and fined for ’emitting’ CO₂, a gas that stimulate plant growth.
Oh in between the dirt, disgust there must be
Some air to breathe and something to believe
Liquor and guns the sign says quite plain
Somehow life goes on in a place so insane
— Uncle Tupelo, Whiskey Bottle (1990)
Zero mention of CO2 in 1970. Zero mention of greenhouse gas. Zero mention of global warming. Mostly hippy feel good nonsense about a river on fire with weepy chief indian commercials on duh teeeveee.
As muscle cars roar by. . .
As a kid in the 70s, the narrative was that we were facing an extinction level ice age, until it shifted to the loss of the ozone layer. Confusing times, maybe I should have paid closer attention.
1978: In Search of the Coming Ice Age. “Too much fossil fuel usage is causing global cooling”
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=0-ZDnSbNIYs
I believe the “Indian” in those commercials had but 25 percent Sioux heritage.
RE: “Since the Chevron ruling that said Executive Branch agencies can’t make law, why doesn’t Stellantis, et al, just tell the Feds to go suck an egg?”
I wonder if/when “et al” will start building & selling cars & trucks.
Some new, never heard of before, company of men builds something new & attempts to sell it to Da People.
Before Chevron, such was an impossibility,… but, now?
Like, oh what was that fella’s name who tried it last? Drucker, was it?
By trying to use the government to force their ideas on others, rather than fight the government for freedom to sell what sells, the automakers have very well earned the inevitable. And it’s not like some freak storm that hit out the blue. They were told by countless people that this is a stupid idea and will be their undoing the entire time. They all knew better, or so they think. Fuck ’em. My concern is limited to how I can pour some gas on their fire. Eat govt. shit and die assholes!
‘My concern is limited to how I can pour some gas on their fire.’ — XM
Enthusiastically seconded!
Then we will fight the battle of Chapter 7 liquidation vs Chapter 11 reorganization, with a fedgov cash injection and equity share.
‘Chapter 7, stairway to heaven.’ 🙂
What XM said, pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter.
Government regulations kill businesses.
I am always surprised how businesses always seem to forget who their customer is. Governments manufactures nothing, produces nothing, and services nothing. They are a collector of taxes, fines, and fees. They are a middle man. Businesses continue to bend over backwards to this middle man and forget it is the end user (and their tax money) which allows a business to survive. When you ignore the consumer you will fail.
“Government regulations kill businesses.” – RG
But, leftist think were it not for GovCo there would be total chaos and ruin. What they don’t understand is Government, as an institution, would not exist were it not for somewhat civilized people looking for ways to organize society.
And, to paraphrase Bastiat, if humanity as a whole is so stupid and evil as to not be allowed to live life unfettered, why is it the policies, programs and oversight of politicians, bureaucrats and social do-gooders are considered good? Are they not also members of the human race?
The problem is, eventually we need to have transportation. So far I don’t see any new entrants at the scale of Toyota or Ford. Kia perhaps, but they’re all about electrics too.
Without transportation you don’t go out to eat on a whim. You don’t go to work. You don’t stock up on groceries at the megamart. The cost of things will skyrocket (and quality will plummet) as we have to shop closer to home -which for many will become dollar stores and gas stations.
This will be celebrated by the investment class. As they no longer have to keep production high and prices low, they can concentrate on become a boutique brand. As usual, Apple leads the way. They sell premium handsets, while Android lives on commodity hardware. Google basically gives away their OS, letting hardware manufacturers compete for the race to the bottom. Apple maintains tight control over their ecosystem (to the point that the EU drags them to court for being a monopoly despite the fact that they have something like 35% of the mobile handset market in Europe -some monopoly). No one wants to own commodities without controlling the supply.
Can’t make money when there’s plenty. Unless you’re a small business with a tight niche market that needs cheap infrastructure in order to exist. Then you can compete with the big bland businesses that dominate Wall Street and the corporate press. Technology made small business boom in the 90s and 00s. Taking that tech away will destroy what’s left of Main St and leave it to the feline diners and drug addicts.
Don’t pour gas on their fire, be sure to add a good emulsifier or gelling agent first. Otherwise you may just shortcut the combustion process.
“Environmentalism is the new home of communism.” – Ayn Rand circa 1966
Since the Chevron ruling that said Executive Branch agencies can’t make law, why doesn’t Stellantis, et al, just tell the Feds to go suck an egg? This destruction of the auto industry won’t stop until they have the guts to stand up for their Right to build and engage in voluntary exchange with their potential customers.
If not, the whole thing will go down.
“Since the Chevron ruling that said Executive Branch agencies can’t make law, why doesn’t Stellantis, et al, just tell the Feds to go suck an egg?”
That’s the million dollar question.
Even though Musk is guilty for pushing the EV and carbon credit scam, he faces his own battle with federal bureaucrats in the FAA and EPA for Starship flight test 5. SpaceX issued a public statement calling the apparatchik out.
https://youtu.be/HXu1SCpLwmI?feature=shared
‘why doesn’t Stellantis, et al, just tell the Feds to go suck an egg?’ — Mark in BC
One word, Mark: Neuticles.
Tavares says he looks and feels the same after his gelding.
Are you the inventor of Neuticles? I remember the founder was on the Keith Larson Show about 20 years ago. Great stuff.