Older cars were easy to work on by the owner with just a few tools. Manufactures and the government generates more money that forces customers to pay an expensive shop to mark up parts prices for higher taxes. With the new cars, computer parts are more expensive and if a customer wants to work on their car one need expensive diagnosis equipment. As mentioned by ALS "guys working at the salvage yards are too lazy to pop off the fender to get to that one light assembly screw, thus the broken tab." confirms the general "don't want to work" attitude the government and manufactures play on the dummied down "government give me, no work policy", baked into an expensive ugly appliance like product where there's no longer any enthusiasm, except the shape of a tail light that says "I'm different". The saddest part is one is forced to buy equipment they might not want to save money, such as an A/C unit over just having a vent. Even the old light bulbs can be be bought and easily replaced with the latest lighting, is now buried deep in the new car at the owners expense to replace. The most laughable part is when people says $26,000. is cheap when this used to be the average price to buy a home. Since 40% of $26,000 or $10,400. goes for unnecessary parts and government agencies the average working family can't afford, with now EPA latest $5000. new added charge is being pasted to the buyer, why should anyone complain about marking the price up another $2000. per car for the clean mpg members? Don't we have any contributing value? LOL!! In reality an economy cars are built and sold in other countries for $5000. There is only one other very small country in the world that pays a tax on the tax multiple times than the USA, where the supposed "free" politically correct citizens are happy about it! Everywhere else there would be riots!
That's why our petrol is so dear here in the UK. We pay tax on the tax. 72% of our fuel price is tax.
Very true! More like pre-1970s, though, as I recall. Most 70s cars already had the same lame ventilation issue we do today. Many pre-1970 cars did have optional or add-on air conditioning, but then they didn't try to force us to buy it through inadequate ventilation.
My first motoring experience was with a 1939 Hillman Minx, and on that you could open the windscreen using a winder above the dash. It also had a steel sunroof and, if memory serves me well, vent flaps in either footwell.
Basjoos Wow I hadn't thought of those kick vents in perhaps 45 years.Yeah they made sense Now the little wing vents I had them on my 1980 D-100 long bed pickup. Good thing because the QC was so poor back then that my actual windows FROZE/RUSTED shut. No kidding somehow despite almost constant use-new orleans is hot all year and not "cold" in the winter-the crank geared handle RUSTED solid! Cheapskate me I wanted the truck to be clost to $5200 OTD so I skipped the $500 dealer installed AC- huge mistake Anyway the tiny wing vents got5 me through 3 more NOLA summers(6 months long) No road salt in south louisiana-so strictly poor quality plating rust control-heck for a few $$ could have used SS. And those miserable POS plastic lenses!! Who in the world thought saving perhaps 2 lbs was worth your headlights becoming nearly worthless in 3 years or so!! Crummy forward lighting-big safety defect-for 2 lbs!! I'm a weight nut-bicycles motorcycles cars trucks-but safety should trump weight! I always have to look up how to replace bulbs on the 1998 suburban and the 2006 Prius-not one bit intuitive. Oh and I hate those hidden plastic POS fasteners-which snap about 1/3 of the time-the ones that hold various crummy plastic trim elements on. Just use a freakin' screw/bolt-sink it a bit.
It's always been well understood that the economy is the businesses and the customers who are one and the same create not just the market, but all innovations, even before the US colonies came to the US to escape government market manipulation. The phrase, "the mother of invention is necessity." is artificially being created to redirect people into believing a political government or corporation only can do this and this heritage no longer belongs to the people who need to be protected from themselves and other people. We see what they have created $5-$10 per gallon gas, overweight cars that can no longer be worked on or provide true value, not to mention over turning other governments through coup or war killing more woman and children that the supposed enemy. Sadly, the following generation looks to the enemy to take care of them. As to prior and for this reason cars built on the same principles use before have more value will save the owner much more money quickly getting it back on the road, can be built and driven as the US law provides, as a "household" item,rather than a commercial vehicle, as thee car you own now, not exempt from the government's control, only if people buy them. Where your spend your money is your vote. The cycle car prototype I built off the original 1900 design is very fuel efficient (100+ mpg) and inexpensive to buy, that I'd hope could create jobs by local entrepreneur mechanics, cutting out government and corporations. With a simple design, the car can be built for under $10,000!
Historically, many wars were lost due to lack of fuel to either retreat or mobilize troops! If electric cars isn't a red flag signal to limit travel distance and lengthy down time refueling charge time over gas and diesel vehicles, this article should open everyone's eyes! https://www.theguardian.com/politic...all-diesel-and-petrol-cars-and-vans-from-2040
All very well, but here in the UK we are on the limit for electricity production. We have closed coal fired power station (Britain is built on the stuff and when it was cheap to import we did so, and saved our resources), our nuclear plants are coming to the end of their life and no one wants to build new ones and when Scotland gets their independence most of the renewables will go with the Scots. The current UK government has enough problems with Brexit, Indyref2 and lack of support, without starting a battle on another front.
Not yet. They are talking about free movement ending in March 2019. Immigration from non EU countries will continue under the present controls.
You Brits have lots of coastline meaning lots of wind potential-offshore-where no one should whine about "ruining my view-or noise is giving me cancer-or killing migrating birds(guessing not too many birds migrate across atlantic or to the Arctic) Granted wind electricity is much more expensive than fossil fuel and "someday" you will be able to harvest tidal or wave energy So GB Ireland "should" be able to harvest wind--just like the USA-lotta coastline means lots of wind I think I read some number recently- 25 cents per KWHR for USA offshore wind-think that was cost-not price Now I pay 11 cents-New Orleans suburb-NG and a Nuke- So the 25 cents is well over 3x (assuming profit 1-2 cents per) Wind is pricy-but not crazy pricy-probably roughly what NG OIL fired plants charged when oil was $145/barrel You Brits should do OK energy wise Maybe all the wind energy potential makes up for all your miserable looking beaches (cold rocky rough water pitiful looking sand) Slight aside-one of my uncles-went to Ireland- found "somewhere" "AL-A-HEES" he claimed we-Driscoll side of family- were from-1840's or so Sent a picture of coast-looked cold wet windy rocky very rough sea (they put tiny hide boats in THAT-no wonder they drank)
Jocko, there is a lot of replica kit car companies in the UK. Are these car prices par with manufactured cars there or more or less? Are there many individually home built cars seen on the roads? Ever since the Internet search engine optimization was set up, I can not find any information about "homebuilt cars" anywhere, only customized manufactured vehicles or replica kit cars. I'm interested knowing about any historic change of laws for UK's citizens and if the differ from the US. Has UK citizens ever had a choice, as in the US to be subject to common law or corporate maritime laws? I ask cause the central banks were the kings strong arm to collect the tax and the common citizen was subject to being a land owner's serf. When did that change, if ever? Where there ever any change of laws in the UK at any time that gave citizens more rights? Has the UK citizens ever been granted any constitutional unalienable other rights besides contract laws? Since the US colonies revolted in the late 1700's, The UK continued to try and collect from the US, conspiring to establish many different central banks to create high interest debt in the US against the will of many US presidents. Though they all had gone bankrupt up to 1860 till then, the UK central banks began threatening to coerced Lincoln into a indebted relationship with the UK, which Lincoln responded by creating a contract agreement which the USA was now a corporation in order to borrow more money from the central banks creating more debt. Lincoln stated, "I fear the the UK banking creditors more than the state governments." Unbeknown to many, the US citizens still pays on this perpetual debt today. Was there any cause for the UK to change it's country status to a corporation? Could Lincoln's change of attitude could give cause for the UK to take a different position in their relationship? Did the UK ever incorporated the country as a business entity like Lincoln did making the USA a corporation to raise money for the federal government to fight the US states? If the UK did not then, did the UK ever do it, such as, when the US congress voted in the UK central bank system in 1871? Also, after George Soros became a billionaire from bankrupting the pound, is he still welcome to visit the UK, since the $10. per gallon price of gas in the UK, is based on the devalued pound? I appreciate any insights or knowledge on the UK you might share to enlighten me on this!
phoebeisis. We have lots of coastline, and Scotland has wonderful beaches, even if we don't always have the weather to enjoy them. We have masses of onshore wind farms too. We have lots of migrating birds, coming from Northern Europe and Russia, and unfortunately the North Sea is the best place for offshore wind farms. The west coast is so much rougher, wider and deeper. As you can see our beaches are pretty busy! Donald Trump brought a court case, here in Scotland, to prevent an offshore wind farm being built in view of one of his golf courses. He was as successful here as he has been in the US courts. Scotland produces enough wind generated electricity for 95% of Scottish homes and in May, for 11 of the 31 days, produced enough for 100% of the homes. rockrohar. You never ever see a home built car on the roads in the UK. There are not even all that many custom cars. Our MOT test and Construction and Use regulations make kit cars very difficult for small companies or individuals to produce. The European Crash Test legislation make car manufacture very expensive for small concerns. The heavily modified cars you see on the likes of Ecomodders wouldn't stand a chance of being deemed legal in the UK. And court costs make it foolish for an individual to raise a challenge. The UK legal system dates back to the Magna Carta in 1215 but it is very far from feudal. We have also included a lot of European law onto our statute books. We have Magistrate Courts, Sheriff Courts, High Courts, the Appeal Court, the Supreme Court and currently the European Court of Appeal. We have very high Human Rights ideals too, which are not to everyone's taste! Scotland has a separate but parallel legal system to the rest of the UK. We have three possible verdicts. Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven. Not Proven seems to indicate "yes he did it, we know he did it, but we just can't prove it"! We have different drink drive limits (much lower) than the rest of the UK and we are currently trying to introduce a minimum price for alcohol (to avoid the 99p for 3 litres of White Lightening cider that the kids drink). George Soros may not be particularly welcome in the UK but he would not be prevented from coming here. He didn't do as much damage to the pound as Gordon Brown did when he sold off half the UK's gold reserves in 1999 - 2002.
Editor's note: P.J. O'Rourke wants his own personal central bank. The famed satirist wants to get rich and stay rich. So he started doing some research... In today's Masters Series – originally published in the June issue of our new American Consequences online magazine – P.J. discusses how to go about creating it... who he would appoint to his board... and what else he can get his central bank to do for him... My Personal Central Bank By P.J. O'Rourke, editor in chief, American Consequences Most of my colleagues here at American Consequences are skeptical about central banks. Not me. I like them. I want one of my own. Of course, I don't want an enormous central bank like the Federal Reserve. Where would I put it? Although we live in a big old house in the country, we don't have enough bedrooms to host seven Federal Reserve Board Governors and a dozen Reserve Bank Presidents at those Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings they have all the time. We'd have to put some of them in the hayloft. (Do they bring their families?) Plus, we'd have to feed them. I hope FOMC members are okay with weenies and burgers on the grill and a cooler full of beer. No, what I want is a compact, household-size type of central bank for my own personal use. A small, handy O'Rourke Central Bank that would fit in the laundry room or in the mudroom between the dog kennels. The reason I want my own central bank is that I've been reading up on the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the mandate it gave to the Federal Reserve Bank – specifically, the mandate as it was amended during the 1970s and '80s in "Section 2A. Monetary policy objectives." I have two monetary policy objectives. Monetary objective: Get rich. Policy objective: Stay rich. Therefore, I was interested to see what Section 2A had to say, which I quote below with my own comments in brackets. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates [e.g. the O'Rourke checking account balance and Visa card limit] commensurate with the [my] economy's long run potential to increase production [maybe someone will turn one of my books into a hit movie], so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment [I could do without "maximum employment," but I've got three kids to put through college so it's not like I've got a choice], stable prices [especially for the shoes and clothes my wife and daughters shop for on the Internet], and moderate long-term interest rates [ on the credit card debt to pay for those shoes and clothes]. My kind of mandate! But there's a problem with getting the United States Federal Reserve Bank to exercise its mandate on my individual behalf and help me reach my monetary policy objectives. I have to stand in line. The Federal Reserve is a large establishment for use by the general public – kind of like the men's room at Penn Station in New York. And, kind of like the men's room at Penn Station, all sorts of stuff goes on inside the Fed that I don't want anything to do with, such as mopping up government deficits and pissing on free enterprise. I prefer a private facility. In fact, I prefer a private everything – private railroad car, private jet, private tropical island. But these are expensive. According to what I've read about the history of central banking, a private central bank would have a zero-dollar purchase price and virtually no maintenance costs. (An extremely condensed history of central banking: In 1694, the English King William III was fighting the Nine Years' War with France and ran out of money. He said, "Let's have a Bank of England to borrow some from." The Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, said, "Jolly good idea." And Bob's your uncle.) Most of what a central bank does is "open market operations." These consist of buying bonds from a government. In the case of the O'Rourke Central Bank, I'm the government. I have any number of "PJ Treasuries," "P-Bills," "J-Notes," etc., all neatly hand-lettered on my personalized stationary and available in denominations up to $1 godzillion with maturities ranging from "after I'm dead" to "when hell freezes over." A central bank pays for bonds by issuing currency. I'll use the color Xerox down at the copy store. It's not counterfeiting when a central bank does it. Of course, my central bank will need to be a "politically independent" institution, the way the Federal Reserve is. The President of the United States can't just tell the Chairman of the Federal Reserve what to do. On the other hand, the President does appoint the Fed Chairman and the Fed governors too. So I'm going to appoint my dogs, Clio, Georgie, and Bodey. They're very cute dogs so I don't foresee any problems with Senate confirmation. (Senators rejecting cute dogs would cause a furious national outcry on Facebook and Twitter.) I assure you my dogs are very independent. If I tell them, "sit," or "stay," or "come," they just look at me with dull incomprehension and keep on chasing squirrels. And yet I think I can get them to give me a unanimous bark of approval for pursuing my monetary policy objectives... "Clio, Georgie, Bodey – want a treat?!" Now, what else can I get my central bank to do for me? A central bank manages the currency and money supply of a nation. In this case that's the United States of Me. I'm headed back to the Xerox machine at the copy shop right now. A central bank also manages a nation's interest rates. There are a number of different interest rates that a central bank manages – target rate, nominal rate, effective rate, discount rate. Therefore my central bank will manage interest rates so that I, too, have a variety to choose from. There's that ultra-low rate on my Visa card balance that I mentioned before. But in other situations, I'd like other rates. No more 0.4% six-month CDs, please. The Reserve Bank of My House will make sure that the return on my savings account falls somewhere between Venezuela government bond yields and Mafia loan shark vigorish. My central bank can take care of this because another thing central banks do is oversee commercial banks. And my local bank could use a little oversight. Next time I go there I'll bring Georgie, the chairman of my Fed. Georgie is an adorable black Lab, but she also has teeth like a set of steak knives and a deep and fearsome growl. Then I'll explain to the bank manager that when I balanced my checkbook, yes, I did add a $1,230 check I wrote to my previous balance of $984 instead of subtracting the $1,230 from the $984. But that's what a government does with "off budget" federal spending involving such programs as Social Security. Therefore, using official U.S. federal budget math, I now have $2,214 in my checking account, not -$246. And Georgie will provide oversight by going, " Grrrrr..." That's one more thing central banks do – facilitate government debt and deficits. In fact, harking back to King Billy in 1694, that's all central banks do. And I've got plenty of debt and deficits already and don't need any more. Also note that, per King Billy, the debt and deficits always seem to be used to finance bad ideas such as a Nine Years' War with France. Or nowadays, massive entitlement programs that devastate work ethic, destroy family ties, and strip people of their personal responsibility and self-respect. In my case the debt and deficits would probably finance a Harley-Davidson. At my age this would quickly turn me into a "rolling organ donor." Which makes me wonder whether having my own personal central bank is such a good idea after all. The main difference between governments and individuals is that governments have central banks and individuals don't. The other main difference between governments and individuals is that governments are much stupider. This is because governments have central banks to fund their stupidity. Individuals are forced to be "fiscal conservatives." If we become ridiculously indebted far beyond our ability to repay, we lose the house, the car, and the boat. Individuals are required to have a sensible "macroeconomic policy." It's fine for the Fed to ruin whole sectors of the economy by creating an immense pool of assets that only exist on paper. But when an individual does that, he's Bernie Madoff. Individuals are constrained by a cautious and moderate "foreign policy." An individual can't afford to invade a neighbor's home. He'll be shot (especially up here in rural New England where I live). Individuals don't have the assets to damage the social fabric with public policies that turn inner cities into war zones. The only individuals who have those kinds of assets are drug lords... and they get arrested. So... I wonder. If I had my own central bank and the unlimited power that an unlimited amount of money would give me, would I start to become as stupid as a government? What's to stop me? Regards, P.J. O'Rourke
In reality, nothing has changed there! I've heard Gordon Brown's speeches promoting global government, like many American politicians who would sell out their own mother. Many of the oligarch globalist say the US is the last sovereign government standing in the way of global government, because of citizen's unalienable rights being protected, prevents a global socialist dictator from controlling the world. The propaganda to sell the younger generations on free hand outs and protecting them from polluting and killing themselves, it seem these kids are buying into it. Thinking biodegradable cars that can't go very far between charges are better than the old easy to work on reliable cars is now dangerous and old fashion. The truth how governments killed off millions of their own citizens in the 20th century (Stalin, Mo Se Tung) by empowering the government to enslave citizens to debt, these kids know nothing about are ready to give away their rights on a silver platter!
Jacko Thanks-nice beaches. I wondered about the migrating birds-wind power. So birds do come down from the north-into the best wind turbine area. Hmmm I wonder if as the wind turbines become bigger-their RPMs would drop enough to make them a little less deadly-longer interval-(but deeper blades so maybe not) I wonder how narrow a path the migrating birds take? The migrating birds are a tough problem-guessing you can't turn the things off-locking blades instead of feathering them? The Scots -aren't they getting ready to dump England? Most of the oil-off Scotland- and long memories-not as if they have ever loved the English(who does?). Guessing recent immigrants are mostly in England-(big cities) not Scotland. Our neocons-with their ARAB SPRING-have disrupted the ME. Their intent-deposing "evil ME tyrants" would immediately turn the countries into "democratic countries"-clear miss. You Europeans can thank our arrogant neocons for that!
Our first referendum was to stay part of the UK, but there was a lot of lies told and scare tactics used. Plus the fact that the SNP didn't make the most of their facts. Most of the oil is off Scotland but the UK government says it is almost all gone! and the drop in oil prices hasn't helped the Nationalists cause. Scotland has been very popular for immigration from EU (mainly northern Europe) because we have welcomed immigrants and refugees with open arms. Our population is decreasing so we need a steady influx. Immigration to Scotland has gone on for almost two centuries. Non EU immigration has mainly concentrated in England. London's population is now officially more than 50% non UK nationals with 35% born outside the UK.
SNP-is the "leave GB" party? England not concerned with the non EU-meaning muslims from ME +farther east-Afghans Pak. India-and from Africa ? Germany and France and Russia have significant muslim populations. My-USA- impression is they haven't integrated assimilated melting "potted" Your German cousins-not so long ago-attacked murdered their own citizens-jews-who were mostly assimilated-and were maybe 1% of their population Not so sure they are so different now not as different as they would like to believe. European history-pretty violent. Heck more violent than USA history-gaudy violent-industrial violent. Not sure I would care to be a Europe dominated by Germany. And safe bet the Russians certainly don't look favorably on a German dominated Europe. Oh well-we might be living in interesting times.Nuclear armed-ICBM armed N Korea- aiming at USA S Korea Japan
The same sales pitch of scare tactics were used for congress to bail out the banks, is the same psychological scare tactic that depression brings to the general population to try and sway opinion. (How will I live without being able to pay?) The other tactic is Agenda 21, with the opinion that "white supremest" are a bad race, must be displaced and/or mixed into other races to wipe them out. Even though most of the conveniences everyone enjoys today as a result of their work, now is responsible for threatening the world. This sales pitch scare tactic is an excuse to change the world that serves their Utopian dream world that serves their agenda. Historically this sales pitch of hatred and scare tactics has been used to go to war and kill innocent people and use banks and business as a mafia to subject and control people. For this reason, the founding fathers of the US government asked, "can the people keep their government?" It was during Lincoln's administration the "we, by and for the people" lost their government held for almost a century. It was after then, these leaders tyranny ruled through bribery, assassinations, corporate business take over, bought out the news media outlets in 1912, funded both sides of both world wars by the same central banks was evident the US was not the same government, since the US had been an isolationist government, not meddling in other governments, but meant only to be a steward for the people, not their leaders. By the colonies breaking the kings chain hold on them showed that real value is not money, but in man that understands, as a skill how to apply knowledge. Credit is nothing more than keeping your word. Anyone who refuses to work or keep their word no one will can put faith in or can trust, only lives in the hope they will learn value. Trying to place this value on some imaginary piece of paper allows a fake scare tactic we see in the news and in false flag operations to topple old governments regimes and fiat currency assumed value going bankrupt. The oligarch laugh at the people's bias normalcy continuing to give their value away. Politicians are the bankster's game show hosts of a republican and democrat boxing match, the same as the Roman gladiators days where the crowds were fed on the king's crumbs to keep the people subdued. The earth has an abundance of all the resources needed to create energy, which can not be valued until it's understood and worked. Yet we see the suppression of this knowledge that has been shown to work with and on the "old" technologies, such as the car, the same as the computer was available in the early 1960's, but not commercialized until the late date of the 1990's. The reason it was suppressed, was the fear the average man could access the truth about anything that threatened the greedy men who are the central bank. The policies, want to GET RICH off indebted people and STAY RICH by keeping people subjected under the their control is the evidence the environment or people are just stepping stones. It should be also noted todays oligarch only inherited wealth, never created it, now assume a "in your face" and "in plan sight" secret control by creating and funding false flag operations everywhere in the world with political correctness, that either furthers or threatens their global agenda, which has been an historic endeavor of all major governments, is a known fact, not a theory. "Where have all the jobs have gone?" "When will they ever learn?"
The SNP is the Scottish Nationalist Party, who want to leave the UK. I am a member though not an active member. The Scottish government (we have a devolved parliament) is an SNP government. I believe that the vote to leave Europe, which was a majority in England, was partially due to the influx of, mainly Muslim, immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan. Scotland voted to stay in Europe, but the UK majority was to leave, so we are leaving. As you say, the Muslim immigrants tend not to assimilate as well as the Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians have done. These North European immigrants are brilliant. Very close to the Scots in their outlook on life. They are very hard working and the girls are gorgeous! In my opinion Germany have tried twice before to rule Europe and failed, but now they are managing it peacefully using industry and commerce. I don't think Russia are too worried about Germany. The UK and France are the only nuclear powers in Europe, but as you say, we do live in interesting times!
