[ExI] robin hood steals from the poor protects the rich?

[William Flynn Wallace]

Maybe some of you could explain to me why anyone would buy a new car.  Now
if you are making $200K a year or better, then you can afford to waste
money.

Yes, waste.  A three or four year old car with low mileage and a good
repair history has greatly diminished in value - depreciation.  But not in
driveability.  I am willing to put up with a couple of dings here and there
and maybe replace the floor mats.  I just don't get it.  Drive a new car
around the block and you have diminished the value by many thousands of
dollars.  Whereas if you had to sell the used car you bought, you can get
nearly what you paid for it - or even more if you made a good deal to start
with.

bill w

On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 8:29 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
>
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> *From:* spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com>
>
>
>
> >…Sayeth MusK:
>
>
>
> “…u can’t sell houses u don’t own u can’t sell cars u don’t own but u
> *can* sell stock u don’t own!? this is bs – shorting is a scam legal only
> for vestigial reasons…”
>
>
>
>
>
> >…That sounds right to me.  That whole short selling business just feels
> like it enables and encourages wrongdoing.  spike
>
>
>
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> After I posted this last night, it occurred to me that Elon did sell cars
> he didn’t own, massive fleets of them.  About 5 years ago, he announced he
> was starting a new model which would sell for 35k, the Model 3.  A lot of
> people around here already had the higher-end stuff, the S model and all
> that sexy stuff and liked them.  I like those too, but I will be damned and
> sent straight to San Francisco before I will pay 80k for a car.  I refuse
> to pay more for a car than I paid for my first house, ain’t happenin, not
> now, not later.
>
>
>
> But 35k, well that is about an average car today, so I would carefully
> consider that, or buy one of those a coupla years old.  Our local power
> company has set up the rate structure to accommodate (and to favor)  these
> electric roller skates, so… I gave it careful consideration.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, another neighbor (not the one who owns two high end Teslas (a
> different neighbor)) plunked down 5k deposit to get on the waiting list for
> a 35k Model 3, which they estimated would take about 2 yrs, well, 2 yrs
> came and went, then 3.  Then we hear reports of the storage lot up there in
> Fremont filled with the new Model 3, and oh boy, we are soon going to get
> our Model 3.
>
>
>
> But that didn’t happen.  Tesla hipsters may know the real story, but the
> way I heard it, they took all those baseline models back into the factory
> and dolled them up with all the gazazzafratzes and crystal chandeliers and
> electric butt massagers and were offering them to those high on the Model 3
> waiting list for 50 to 60k, at a discount from what ordinary nobodies could
> buy that tricked-out Model 3.
>
>
>
> Tesla is like any other car company: the baseline model isn’t where they
> make their money.  The profit is in all those goodies they pile on top.
> Tesla was selling all that stuff and that’s how they were making money to
> fund the new factory in Texas: selling fleets of the dolled-up Model 3,
> most of them going in the 50s, some in the 60s.  California has been
> insufficiently polite to their best cash cow.  In Texas they know how to
> show a bit of respect for people who know how to make money.
>
>
>
> That story might be wrong or exaggerated, but that is what I heard from my
> disillusioned neighbor who demanded his deposit back after waiting 4 years
> for a baseline Model 3, which (as far as I know) still hasn’t been
> delivered to anyone for 35k.
>
>
>
> If that story is true, then Musk did sell cars he didn’t own, even if he
> eventually gave everyone’s money back who didn’t want to buy all those
> expensive trimmings.  Adrian might know the real story.
>
>
>
> spike
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