To clarify, while there is more "good" TV now, through a mainstream view of any platform it really does all look like the same damn crap all over the place.
Except that there most commonly sold car is half that, plus maybe $500. Then if you factor in cost of ownership, which its crazy not too, subtract another $5000 or so.
If you, like myself, prefer value and quality issue like body panel alignment then I agree, stay away from Telsa for now.
But it's subjective. I have friends that prefer an EVs with tech gadgets. And they're happy with their Telsa.
Feels like an efficient market to me. There's lot of car options at different price points and quality standards. Clearly a lot of Tesla's customer are happy with their offering.
What's the argument here? That Ford, Kia, Toyota, Chevy et al should start mis-aligning body panels on purpose because some people will accept it anyway - or not know any better?
Of course not, that would be absurd. Tesla has enjoyed a ravenous fanbase for quite some time - majority of which might be willing to accept shoddy workmanship just so they can claim to own a Tesla - that doesn't make it right nor okay.
Like I said earlier... the quality issues coming out of Tesla have no excuses. They are the absolute basics of production automobile manufacturing. The basics.
30 seconds spent in QC would catch mis-aligned body panels... but they allow them to go all the way out to customers, and then pretend they had no idea what's wrong if the customer tries to reject the vehicle.
These things are not mutually exclusive - you can simultaneously be in love with your Tesla while also being disappointed at the lack of fit-and-finish and quality control.
I think that's the exact point of the previous comment. Don't stand for misaligned panels? Don't buy a Tesla. The free market will promote those vehicles that have a good enough value proposition over the ones that don't.
I'd rather have a misaligned panel than a garbage infotainment system since my interactions with the infotainment are significantly higher. I'm assuming you don't check 99% of the cars you see for panel issues, but if it's a Tesla, you do - it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
While Tesla can probably improve its manufacturing and QC processes over time (as they have), other OEMs have it much harder with insourcing half the vehicle components back in-house while developing great software capabilities.
My Nissan Leaf cost even less than that. It was one of the first off the line, too; built after they swept all the tsunami debris out of the factory. The body panels line up just fine. Best not get me started on our $15K Scion's quality in comparison.
"I sure wish a tech billionaire would do something about this. Their inaction on countless fronts, in fact their complacency in undermining progress on environmental causes in global politics, is one of the thousand reasons I got out of tech."
- Which industries (and organizations) are you still in at this point?
I've come to realize over the course of 20 years pursuing a career in tech, that work itself is the primary impediment standing in the way of ever working on my dreams. Sure, someone can moonlight and try to change the world. But 99 people of out 100 will never even come close. There's nothing more pathetic than a visionary with no access to resources.
Right now I am working with a guy in the solar industry, doing handyman work around his house until we come out of quarantine. It's hard work physically, but I find my mental health has recovered and my motivation and work capacity have never been higher.
I'm basically living the ending of the movie Office Space and searching for spiritual meaning. I donate plasma to make rent, and am looking into apps like Bacon (Uber for hourly jobs) as a way to transition out of obligation-based employment. Work should be a straight-up time-for-money exchange. Taking advantage of our work ethic and patriotism, saddling us to someone else's vision of meaningful work, is one of the great travesties undermining the American Dream. I learned this the hard way moving furniture for 3 years in my early 20s to support my web business because "someone has to do it". No, someone doesn't have to do it. Stand up for yourself and leave if your job stinks. Let the free market adjust wages to what they should be, double or quadruple what they are now. Don't get suckered into indentured servitude.
Soooo you still live in our society? Including using bottled water? Cloth from overseas? Consuming highly processed food?
You are very much dependent.
Whats the difference between me, working in tech, having a good job, great money and being able to put everything i earn in my own land and become independent with something between 40 and 50 versus you? Stoped working, doing small jobs barely making it, not having any money for any sustainable development on your own?
If you are not doing it, everyone else will do.
Either you understand and accept that the world is going to look different in 50 years and you are ready for it with the minimum footprint you need or you go more extreme to try to change something.
And even if you do know that you might not change the world, if you would sacrifice for the society, the money you would earn in tech would allow you, as a single person, to funnel the money from the economy where you want to. You would do more good then tthe other person who is now doing your job and who is just spending and consuming it somehow.
And just to clarify another thing: In tech you are able to go to your boss and work half time and even then you would have more possibilities then in any other job.
I agree with you 1000%. Now let me ask you, are you willing and able to put your life savings towards saving the planet? Will you make a $10,000 or $100,000 donation to groups like 350.org?
I do regret not following my instincts and going all-in on the stock market and Bitcoin, etc though. I had $20,000 in the bank after a lucrative contract when Bitcoin was $10. I've been following AAPL since it was $12 per share after the dot bomb. Conservatively, I'd have at least a bazillion dollars had I simply not listened to everyone who talked me out of investing.
For anyone reading this, if you want to change the world, it's time to pull your money out of your investments and make large anonymous donations to groups with a good track record on the environment (or human rights, or whatever floats your boat). This pump and dump scam that the global elite are doing to inflate the stock market is about to pop. Don't give them your winnings. Pull out now and do something positive with your money.
I would love to and it feels like i'm sitting here waiting for everyone to stand up letting all the shit stay and start changing the world.
I started this by talking to people, changing my lifestyle etc. just to get more and more depressed about this topic.
Politics are not fast enough, there are enough people who really don't care and it doesn't feel anyone is starting it.
Im jumping between "saving the planet together" vs. "buying a small plot of land, building a small house on it, putting solar panels and solar thermy on the roof, buying/building a water reserva, building a storehouse and doing indoor farming and living my life until i'm dead".
My mental image of 'men eat meat' has changed the last 10 years for eating less etc. but then you talk to someone else and its the same simple/stupid talk as usual.
The sentiments you express feel familiar for a lot of people I imagine. I know people where I live in Idaho who are trying to do what you propose - buy a humble home, go solar and get off the grid, grow a garden and have chickens, etc.
Most of them are unsuccessful at achieving full independence, because they still work remotely and buy about the same amount of stuff as anyone else, as you suggested. But they do seem to have achieved a sustainable lifestyle and are happy.
The only one I know who really made it is my friend and old business partner, who has enough apps out that he has finally been making rent for the last couple of years. He lives extremely modestly (I don't think he even has cable TV) but he does still socialize and travel with his girlfriend.
In my own life, I've always had to choose between having money or time, but never both at once. That's the main way that the American Dream has broken down IMHO. We used to have a middle class in the US, with enough income to raise a family and take a vacation each year. Now the bottom half of the population works overtime yet has no net worth, and the top 1% are so obligated to their work that they toil away their lives worrying about when the music's gonna stop. Wealth inequality makes all of us slaves.
As far as eating meat goes, nobody understands that it's so much harder to stop being a vegetarian than to become one. I tried to abstain from meat as much as possible for ethical reasons, but had to start eating it again because my health failed a year and a half ago. I was working out heavily, and I think my body borrowed protein from my organs because I wasn't eating enough. Now I can only eat rice and beans once a week because my gut won't handle any more than that. I take a moment to mourn before each meal of meat, then thank the creator that I have it and consume it almost like a ritual.
So on that note, I guess I've come to terms with being part of a system since I must depend on it now for my very survival. I think I've realized what libertarians come to realize eventually. That going against the wind is great and all, but in the end, the weather wins.
Solar is no savior. VERY few people understand solar and how it works enough to even understand that power output on hot summer days like we're having now is one of the worst environments for PV performance. (PV cell voltage is inversely proportional to temperature because God said so - you make many times more power on a clear, cold day.). Don't forget that cheap Chinese $#!+ solar panels (virtually all you can get, now) only last about 10-15 years, even though PV breakeven is at about 22 yrs out of quality panels 25 year life. We will be waste-deep in toxic solar panel carcasses in another few years, and there is no economical way to recycle them. I joined the solar industry wanting to see it succeed, but it never will, except on islands or similarly remote areas where you have to ship in generator fuel otherwise.
