“Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice. And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love, and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.”
Jason Chaffetz, Republcian Rep., Utah
But Republicans don’t want to give people much choice when it comes to transportation. We should all rely on cars and planes. Forget trains, buses, and subways. They would rather build more and more freeways, taking away the tax bases of central cities.
The cost of a cell phone pales in comparison to cost of a car, even a decent used one. Then there is all the gas, service, and parking places for it.
And the car has destroyed many a downtown because people prefer going where there is “free parking”. But what is the cost of that free parking: rain runoff (filled with contaminants) and heat radiation.
And what is the cost of health care compared to a cell-phone. We each pay $238 for medical insurance deducted from our Social Security checks. We don’t pay anyway near that for our cell phone service. And the iPhone that is not fully paid for costs only $16.67 per month.
And what is the cost to the rest of us for an uninsured person? Companies should worry about people showing up sick because they can’t get afford medical care. All of us should be concerned about somebody who doesn’t get care for a communicable disease. Did you ever hear about Typhoid Mary who worked in food service? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon. Although she never became sick from typhoid, she was a carrier who infected many of the families she cooked for.
Health care for all of us means better health for all of us. True conservatives would want to keep as many people well as possible.
Showing posts with label automobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label automobile. Show all posts
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Monday, January 02, 2017
Driverless cars on ice?
Auto manufacturers warn about using cruise control when roads are slippery, even with rain.
Then how are driverless cars going to react with ice on the road? Go five miles per hour?
Then how are driverless cars going to react with ice on the road? Go five miles per hour?
Sunday, December 04, 2016
Software: automobile or yard equipment?
Software behaves more like yard equipment: one has to continually add fuel and oil, tighten bolts, and clean many parts.
And it seems every time we turn around there is a new update.
With cars, we go months without any service other than adding fuel and maybe a wash. And maybe we get one update a year on some warranty part.
And it seems every time we turn around there is a new update.
With cars, we go months without any service other than adding fuel and maybe a wash. And maybe we get one update a year on some warranty part.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Let’s Stop It with Global Warming Denial
The blogosphere is filled with nitpicking about NASA’s supposedly only 38 percent certainty about 2014 being the warmest year for recorded data. Does it really matter if 2014 was the warmest year in recent history or the third warmest year? The trend is still up even though there may be slightly cooler years or there may be cooler spots that had been warmer.
Think of your house in winter. Assume it is a five-room house with a basement. Assume you have no central heating and your only heat is from electric space heaters.
If you turn on one space heater in one room, you will feel warmer by the heater and colder as you move away from it. Suppose you turn on a space heater in every room. Each room will warm up near the space heater and be cooler away from the space heater. If you are on the opposite side of the room, there is no room-heating! And if you go to the basement, you have proven that there is no household warming!
What happens if you put a space heater in every corner of each room and in every corner of the basement? You will have a very warm house, maybe an unbearably hot house.
So what happens if you have a few steam-powered factories? Not much. What happens if you add hundreds and thousands of steam-powered factories. Well, the areas around these factories may be a bit warmer, but few will notice until they go into the factories.
What happens if you have a few steam-powered trains? Not much, just like with the factories.
What happens if you have a few thousand gasoline-powered cars? Not much. But if you take lots of measurements, you will find that the temperatures are rising slightly around the areas where these factories, trains, and cars operate.
What happens when there are hundreds of thousands of factories and trains and millions of cars? Where is all the heat from these going to go? Magically back into the ground where the fuel came from?
Add to this that these factories, trains, and cars generate carbon dioxide. Since the Earth takes in energy as ultra-violet radiation and sends out energy as infra-red radiation, you would think there would be some stability in energy. But carbon dioxide (and other gasses) block infra-red radiation. The more carbon dioxide we dump into the atmosphere, the more heat will be retained on earth. The more generators of carbon dioxide we have, the more carbon dioxide we will have dumped into the atmosphere.
Let’s go back to our household heaters. Nowadays, we use electric heaters. Any carbon dioxide that results from our use is generated outside the house. But what if our heaters are fireplaces and wood stoves? The carbon dioxide is being generated inside our house. If we are not careful, we could suffocate ourselves. To make sure we have enough oxygen, we have to have leaky windows and doors or some controlled source of oxygen.
A simple thought experiment shows that we are definitely putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For millennia, people cooked their food and warmed themselves with wood fires. The wood provided the carbon for fuel and the trees absorbed the carbon dioxide to grow more wood. This is a virtual cycle: what gets used for one purpose is recycled to produce more of the original substance.
Then people discovered coal in the ground. This burned better than wood and was never rotten or damp. For millennia, the techniques for extracting coal were too inefficient to provide world-wide use.
As the world population grew and agriculture spread, more trees were cleared for buildings and farms. This meant less wood was available for fuel and alternatives were needed. Extracting coal became more efficient.
However, its use wasn’t always efficient. Many fireplaces and factories didn’t burn coal efficiently and much soot was dumped into the air. This resulted in dirty laundry and more cases of pulmonary diseases. As late as the 1940s, steam locomotives would spew cinders and other pollutants as they rumbled by. At the time, we lived right next to the tracks in an otherwise nice neighborhood. We would have to brush our hair after a train passed.
Coal and other fossil fuels are inefficient for another reason. They ain’t making them anymore! We have drained the swamps where critters large and small drowned and slowly broke down into coal and oil. We have also “drained” the easy access to oil and coal. Now we blow up mountains to get coal and pound the heck out of the underlying rock formations to get oil and gas. The first has ruined towns and rivers. The second is causing minor earthquakes.
Both of these operations remove thousands of trees and other vegetation that would absorb carbon dioxide. Add to that we want larger and larger parking lots, wider and wider highways, and larger and larger buildings. We will need more oil for these and will take away more of the carbon sink vegetation. This is a vicious cycle; things only get worse.
Meanwhile we have more and more carbon being burned and many people making lots and lots of money producing carbon fuels. To understand the denial of global warming, follow the money. As Adam Smith wrote in his “Wealth of Nations”, those who live by profit are not to be trusted.
You can find more thoughts like this at my blog: http://magree.blogspot.com.
Think of your house in winter. Assume it is a five-room house with a basement. Assume you have no central heating and your only heat is from electric space heaters.
If you turn on one space heater in one room, you will feel warmer by the heater and colder as you move away from it. Suppose you turn on a space heater in every room. Each room will warm up near the space heater and be cooler away from the space heater. If you are on the opposite side of the room, there is no room-heating! And if you go to the basement, you have proven that there is no household warming!
What happens if you put a space heater in every corner of each room and in every corner of the basement? You will have a very warm house, maybe an unbearably hot house.
So what happens if you have a few steam-powered factories? Not much. What happens if you add hundreds and thousands of steam-powered factories. Well, the areas around these factories may be a bit warmer, but few will notice until they go into the factories.
What happens if you have a few steam-powered trains? Not much, just like with the factories.
What happens if you have a few thousand gasoline-powered cars? Not much. But if you take lots of measurements, you will find that the temperatures are rising slightly around the areas where these factories, trains, and cars operate.
What happens when there are hundreds of thousands of factories and trains and millions of cars? Where is all the heat from these going to go? Magically back into the ground where the fuel came from?
Add to this that these factories, trains, and cars generate carbon dioxide. Since the Earth takes in energy as ultra-violet radiation and sends out energy as infra-red radiation, you would think there would be some stability in energy. But carbon dioxide (and other gasses) block infra-red radiation. The more carbon dioxide we dump into the atmosphere, the more heat will be retained on earth. The more generators of carbon dioxide we have, the more carbon dioxide we will have dumped into the atmosphere.
Let’s go back to our household heaters. Nowadays, we use electric heaters. Any carbon dioxide that results from our use is generated outside the house. But what if our heaters are fireplaces and wood stoves? The carbon dioxide is being generated inside our house. If we are not careful, we could suffocate ourselves. To make sure we have enough oxygen, we have to have leaky windows and doors or some controlled source of oxygen.
A simple thought experiment shows that we are definitely putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For millennia, people cooked their food and warmed themselves with wood fires. The wood provided the carbon for fuel and the trees absorbed the carbon dioxide to grow more wood. This is a virtual cycle: what gets used for one purpose is recycled to produce more of the original substance.
Then people discovered coal in the ground. This burned better than wood and was never rotten or damp. For millennia, the techniques for extracting coal were too inefficient to provide world-wide use.
As the world population grew and agriculture spread, more trees were cleared for buildings and farms. This meant less wood was available for fuel and alternatives were needed. Extracting coal became more efficient.
However, its use wasn’t always efficient. Many fireplaces and factories didn’t burn coal efficiently and much soot was dumped into the air. This resulted in dirty laundry and more cases of pulmonary diseases. As late as the 1940s, steam locomotives would spew cinders and other pollutants as they rumbled by. At the time, we lived right next to the tracks in an otherwise nice neighborhood. We would have to brush our hair after a train passed.
Coal and other fossil fuels are inefficient for another reason. They ain’t making them anymore! We have drained the swamps where critters large and small drowned and slowly broke down into coal and oil. We have also “drained” the easy access to oil and coal. Now we blow up mountains to get coal and pound the heck out of the underlying rock formations to get oil and gas. The first has ruined towns and rivers. The second is causing minor earthquakes.
Both of these operations remove thousands of trees and other vegetation that would absorb carbon dioxide. Add to that we want larger and larger parking lots, wider and wider highways, and larger and larger buildings. We will need more oil for these and will take away more of the carbon sink vegetation. This is a vicious cycle; things only get worse.
Meanwhile we have more and more carbon being burned and many people making lots and lots of money producing carbon fuels. To understand the denial of global warming, follow the money. As Adam Smith wrote in his “Wealth of Nations”, those who live by profit are not to be trusted.
You can find more thoughts like this at my blog: http://magree.blogspot.com.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Beep follow up
“The beep that cried wolf” was gone the next morning. Either the driver was able to start the car without a problem or somebody gave him or her a jump start.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
The beep that cried wolf
Just as we finished dinner, a car out front started beeping. We waited for the driver to come and turn it off. Then the beeping stopped. But, in what seemed like two minutes, it started beeping again. I assumed the car belonged to a staff member or a customer of the restaurant at the other end of the block or a student who parked and walked up to UMD.
I went out, wrote down the license number, make, and model, and went to the restaurant. The cashier wasn’t particularly interested because she had her hands full with several orders.
When I came back, the lights were blinking but the honking had stopped.
I hope the lights don’t wear the battery down.
My big question is what good are car alarms. Unless there is a lot of foot traffic around, nobody will bother to look if a thief has broken in. We hear so many false car alarms that most of us assume nothing but a malfunction is happening.
I went out, wrote down the license number, make, and model, and went to the restaurant. The cashier wasn’t particularly interested because she had her hands full with several orders.
When I came back, the lights were blinking but the honking had stopped.
I hope the lights don’t wear the battery down.
My big question is what good are car alarms. Unless there is a lot of foot traffic around, nobody will bother to look if a thief has broken in. We hear so many false car alarms that most of us assume nothing but a malfunction is happening.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Riding a rocket to a standstill
Our son and his four-year old son were coming from Japan to the Twin Cities in the last week of August. My wife planned to stay in the Twin Cities until Labor Day and then bring our grandson back to Duluth with her. I didn’t want to stay in the Twin Cities that long and wanted to spend most of the weekend at our cabin.
There was no point in driving two cars down so that we could come back separately. Ah ha! This is my chance to try Jefferson Lines’ Rocket Rider. I went to Jefferson Lines’ web site and determined that my best choice was to get the bus at 5:55 P.M. at the University of Minnesota stop. That seemed the easiest to find. The bus would arrive at UMD at 8:55 P.M., just in time for me to catch the 9:00 DTA bus down the hill.
I ordered my ticket online, printed it out and tucked it in my backpack.
After I had my ticket and before we left for the Twin Cities, the rains came. And the rains came. Our sump pump turned our lawn into a swamp. There was so much water that it washed the mulch and gravel down from the side of our newly-built steps to the front walk. It even undercut the steps. There goes going to our cabin on Saturday.
I fretted about it for the rest of the week, even more so when I was in the Twin Cites and more rain was coming in Duluth.
Well, it wasn’t raining when my wife dropped me off at the U of M stop in Minneapolis. The bus arrived on schedule. I gave my ticket and travel bag to the driver and got on a nearly empty bus. Plenty of window seats left.
The next stop was the Union Depot in St. Paul. I was glad that I didn’t chose that as my stop. Even though I have some familiarity with Downtown St. Paul, I couldn’t keep track of the streets that the bus driver used. Besides, there must have been twenty people waiting for the bus.
Two young men got on that were speaking some foreign language that sounded Slavic to me. I asked the man that sat next to me “What Slavic language are you speaking?” He looked at me in consternation and said that was German, they were from Basel, Switzerland! Finally, I understood why my German colleagues in Basel were upset with their Swiss colleagues for holding meetings in Schweitzerdeutsch. Anyhow, the two young men were impressed that I had spent several weeks in Basel. We had sporadic conversations after that; my seat mate was engrossed in a book, as was I.
The driver announced that we would be at UMD by 8:30. But he didn’t consider the heavy traffic going north for the long weekend. It didn’t really clear up until Forest Lake. Although the bus driver allowed lots of room behind the cars he followed, my guess is that he was going 75-80 miles per hour. It seemed that he spent more time in the left lane than the right.
As darkness fell, I had a harder time knowing where we were. I would see the signs as the bus approached them, but I never saw them as we passed them. Of course! There often were not any cars close enough behind to shine lights on the signs.
We arrived at the West Duluth bus station sometime before nine. Most of the passengers got off there. The Swiss asked if I was familiar with an address in the 300 block of E. Superior St. One was getting the address out of a guide book, but I didn’t think to ask to see the entry. I suggested they take any of the buses on Grand Avenue and offered to look up the schedule on my iPhone. They said they would take a taxi.
The bus arrived at Kirby Plaza after nine. I didn’t want to walk home with a heavy backpack and a travel bag, and so I had to wait until ten. Oh, to be back in Basel where one tram line ran every ten minutes even at midnight!
I’ll spare you the details of how I fixed the erosion by our front steps, but I think the new sod will hold and be green. But the task left me too tired on Sunday to go to our cabin, and I was still to tired on Monday. So, my rocket ride left me at a standstill.
What did I think overall about the Rocket Rider? It beat driving alone for two-and-a-half hours. The seat was comfortable and I got to read a good portion of a book. The overall time was longer, considering having to come from Shoreview to Minneapolis and waiting forty-five minutes for a local bus ride of three minutes. The $27.99 I spent for a senior ticket would beat the $50 or so that I would have to spend for gas. But that’s round trip for gas. I would be ahead with an SUV over a bus had I taken the bus both ways. If I had taken the Prius, I would have spent less for gas for a round trip than I would have spent for one way on the bus.
If you consider a family of two or more, then the car is definitely a better deal than a bus trip.
I couldn’t find any quick information about the Northern Lights Express, but my guess is that it may be a good deal for somebody traveling alone city center to city center. All others would find a car cheaper and quicker. That’s a hard thing to write for a guy who likes trains.
Mel would move back to Basel but it would be too far from his cabin.
There was no point in driving two cars down so that we could come back separately. Ah ha! This is my chance to try Jefferson Lines’ Rocket Rider. I went to Jefferson Lines’ web site and determined that my best choice was to get the bus at 5:55 P.M. at the University of Minnesota stop. That seemed the easiest to find. The bus would arrive at UMD at 8:55 P.M., just in time for me to catch the 9:00 DTA bus down the hill.
I ordered my ticket online, printed it out and tucked it in my backpack.
After I had my ticket and before we left for the Twin Cities, the rains came. And the rains came. Our sump pump turned our lawn into a swamp. There was so much water that it washed the mulch and gravel down from the side of our newly-built steps to the front walk. It even undercut the steps. There goes going to our cabin on Saturday.
I fretted about it for the rest of the week, even more so when I was in the Twin Cites and more rain was coming in Duluth.
Well, it wasn’t raining when my wife dropped me off at the U of M stop in Minneapolis. The bus arrived on schedule. I gave my ticket and travel bag to the driver and got on a nearly empty bus. Plenty of window seats left.
The next stop was the Union Depot in St. Paul. I was glad that I didn’t chose that as my stop. Even though I have some familiarity with Downtown St. Paul, I couldn’t keep track of the streets that the bus driver used. Besides, there must have been twenty people waiting for the bus.
Two young men got on that were speaking some foreign language that sounded Slavic to me. I asked the man that sat next to me “What Slavic language are you speaking?” He looked at me in consternation and said that was German, they were from Basel, Switzerland! Finally, I understood why my German colleagues in Basel were upset with their Swiss colleagues for holding meetings in Schweitzerdeutsch. Anyhow, the two young men were impressed that I had spent several weeks in Basel. We had sporadic conversations after that; my seat mate was engrossed in a book, as was I.
The driver announced that we would be at UMD by 8:30. But he didn’t consider the heavy traffic going north for the long weekend. It didn’t really clear up until Forest Lake. Although the bus driver allowed lots of room behind the cars he followed, my guess is that he was going 75-80 miles per hour. It seemed that he spent more time in the left lane than the right.
As darkness fell, I had a harder time knowing where we were. I would see the signs as the bus approached them, but I never saw them as we passed them. Of course! There often were not any cars close enough behind to shine lights on the signs.
We arrived at the West Duluth bus station sometime before nine. Most of the passengers got off there. The Swiss asked if I was familiar with an address in the 300 block of E. Superior St. One was getting the address out of a guide book, but I didn’t think to ask to see the entry. I suggested they take any of the buses on Grand Avenue and offered to look up the schedule on my iPhone. They said they would take a taxi.
The bus arrived at Kirby Plaza after nine. I didn’t want to walk home with a heavy backpack and a travel bag, and so I had to wait until ten. Oh, to be back in Basel where one tram line ran every ten minutes even at midnight!
I’ll spare you the details of how I fixed the erosion by our front steps, but I think the new sod will hold and be green. But the task left me too tired on Sunday to go to our cabin, and I was still to tired on Monday. So, my rocket ride left me at a standstill.
What did I think overall about the Rocket Rider? It beat driving alone for two-and-a-half hours. The seat was comfortable and I got to read a good portion of a book. The overall time was longer, considering having to come from Shoreview to Minneapolis and waiting forty-five minutes for a local bus ride of three minutes. The $27.99 I spent for a senior ticket would beat the $50 or so that I would have to spend for gas. But that’s round trip for gas. I would be ahead with an SUV over a bus had I taken the bus both ways. If I had taken the Prius, I would have spent less for gas for a round trip than I would have spent for one way on the bus.
If you consider a family of two or more, then the car is definitely a better deal than a bus trip.
I couldn’t find any quick information about the Northern Lights Express, but my guess is that it may be a good deal for somebody traveling alone city center to city center. All others would find a car cheaper and quicker. That’s a hard thing to write for a guy who likes trains.
Mel would move back to Basel but it would be too far from his cabin.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
What if the horseless carriage hadn’t been horseless?
From the loose notes on my desk, my cartoon about designers’ efforts to make systems backward compatible:
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lack of transit options is a business tax
This entry was inspired by "Southwest light-rail is good for business", Star Tribune, 2012-03-16.
Opponents of light-rail, expanded bus service, and other non-auto transit options claim that we can't afford the taxes to build these. Some of these same people claim that businesses shouldn't be taxed.
Somehow we do have taxes to build more and more roads. Somehow we do have taxes to police and repair these roads. But what do more roads get us? More congestion. How many times do you come to a standstill at rush hour (or in large cities, on rush day)? Do you remember 10 or 20 years ago when the freeways had fewer lanes? Do you remember coming to a standstill maybe less than you do now? So more roads were built and more people used them. A sort of build it and they will come situation.
So people lose time because of traffic congestion and businesses have less ready-to-work employees. And many employees leaving early "to beat the rush".
But for those who don't want to tax businesses, do you realize the automobile culture levies a heavy tax on them? If a company has 1,000 employees at a location working a day shift, how many parking spaces will the company have to provide? What is the cost of those spaces? Who pays for those spaces? Could the land be better used for other purposes?
Look at the suburbanization of our shopping areas. Any business has to provide a certain minimum of parking. And smaller businesses have to allocate so many handicapped spaces, even when the farthest general parking space is closer to the building than the nearest handicapped space in Sprawl Mall is to the main entrance!
How come the anti-government, pro-business party isn't listening to the pro-transit businesses? Especially when that same party claims businesses can do things better than government?
Opponents of light-rail, expanded bus service, and other non-auto transit options claim that we can't afford the taxes to build these. Some of these same people claim that businesses shouldn't be taxed.
Somehow we do have taxes to build more and more roads. Somehow we do have taxes to police and repair these roads. But what do more roads get us? More congestion. How many times do you come to a standstill at rush hour (or in large cities, on rush day)? Do you remember 10 or 20 years ago when the freeways had fewer lanes? Do you remember coming to a standstill maybe less than you do now? So more roads were built and more people used them. A sort of build it and they will come situation.
So people lose time because of traffic congestion and businesses have less ready-to-work employees. And many employees leaving early "to beat the rush".
But for those who don't want to tax businesses, do you realize the automobile culture levies a heavy tax on them? If a company has 1,000 employees at a location working a day shift, how many parking spaces will the company have to provide? What is the cost of those spaces? Who pays for those spaces? Could the land be better used for other purposes?
Look at the suburbanization of our shopping areas. Any business has to provide a certain minimum of parking. And smaller businesses have to allocate so many handicapped spaces, even when the farthest general parking space is closer to the building than the nearest handicapped space in Sprawl Mall is to the main entrance!
How come the anti-government, pro-business party isn't listening to the pro-transit businesses? Especially when that same party claims businesses can do things better than government?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Is "Consumerism" such a bad thing?
So-called conservatives and so-called progressives seem to deal in sweeping generalizations rather than looking at the sweeping scope of ideas and facts.
"Slow Consumption" is a case of looking at one facet of American life and assuming that it holds across all of American life. (Utne Reader, March April 2010)
Yes, there are cheap goods that wear out and that we toss and replace. But there are also many things that last and last.
Among these are the modern automobile. I am so glad that they don't build them like they used to. I bought a new 1997 F-150 truck in May 1996. In the fall of 2009 somebody asked me if it was new. Only a few times in those 13 years did I cancel a trip because of a problem. But it was undrivable only once; it had a flat tire. I traded it in this fall for an SUV and later met the buyer; he was pleased with his purchase.
We have furniture that is over thirty years old. We live in a house built in 1922. We have appliances that are less than ten years old, but mostly because their energy consumption is so much less; that is, the new is truly better.
Yes, we have gone through many coffee makers. But we wouldn't have to do so if we were willing to accept a little less convenience. We could buy a stovetop percolator for less than $15. If we kept it clean it would last for decades.
Film cameras lasted for years and years. I had an SLR for over 30 years with few repairs. But then digital cameras came along. They are so much more convenient and they are so much less expensive to operate. I can take the equivalent of over twelve rolls of film on a single memory card, over and over again. Think of all the chemicals that are not needed and that do not go into our water supply. I put the photos on my computer and never use prints except for display on a wall. Think of all the trees that are "saved".
Ah! computers! They are not long lasting. Not because they are not durable. I have a couple in my closet that are over ten years old that still work. But I don't want to use them; they cannot access all the information that is out there, including the online version of the Utne Reader.
Why? Because of Magree's first law of computing: the capability of software rises to meet, if not exceed, the capability of the available hardware. And hardware capability will keep increasing rapidly over the next several years.
Why? Because of innovation. What was known about computers in 1984 is a small fraction of what is known about computers now. Ideas build on ideas. We have a precursor in automobiles.
When Henry Ford built the Model T, did he have any idea about windshield washers, turn signals, side view mirrors, electric starters, automatic transmissions, seat belts and air bags, radios, power steering, power brakes, and hundreds of other features we would not be without in today's cars?
Change is a constant in our society. It has many downsides, but change can bring about a better life for all. Without change, many of us would be peasants in Europe working long, hard hours for the lord of the manor.
"Slow Consumption" is a case of looking at one facet of American life and assuming that it holds across all of American life. (Utne Reader, March April 2010)
Yes, there are cheap goods that wear out and that we toss and replace. But there are also many things that last and last.
Among these are the modern automobile. I am so glad that they don't build them like they used to. I bought a new 1997 F-150 truck in May 1996. In the fall of 2009 somebody asked me if it was new. Only a few times in those 13 years did I cancel a trip because of a problem. But it was undrivable only once; it had a flat tire. I traded it in this fall for an SUV and later met the buyer; he was pleased with his purchase.
We have furniture that is over thirty years old. We live in a house built in 1922. We have appliances that are less than ten years old, but mostly because their energy consumption is so much less; that is, the new is truly better.
Yes, we have gone through many coffee makers. But we wouldn't have to do so if we were willing to accept a little less convenience. We could buy a stovetop percolator for less than $15. If we kept it clean it would last for decades.
Film cameras lasted for years and years. I had an SLR for over 30 years with few repairs. But then digital cameras came along. They are so much more convenient and they are so much less expensive to operate. I can take the equivalent of over twelve rolls of film on a single memory card, over and over again. Think of all the chemicals that are not needed and that do not go into our water supply. I put the photos on my computer and never use prints except for display on a wall. Think of all the trees that are "saved".
Ah! computers! They are not long lasting. Not because they are not durable. I have a couple in my closet that are over ten years old that still work. But I don't want to use them; they cannot access all the information that is out there, including the online version of the Utne Reader.
Why? Because of Magree's first law of computing: the capability of software rises to meet, if not exceed, the capability of the available hardware. And hardware capability will keep increasing rapidly over the next several years.
Why? Because of innovation. What was known about computers in 1984 is a small fraction of what is known about computers now. Ideas build on ideas. We have a precursor in automobiles.
When Henry Ford built the Model T, did he have any idea about windshield washers, turn signals, side view mirrors, electric starters, automatic transmissions, seat belts and air bags, radios, power steering, power brakes, and hundreds of other features we would not be without in today's cars?
Change is a constant in our society. It has many downsides, but change can bring about a better life for all. Without change, many of us would be peasants in Europe working long, hard hours for the lord of the manor.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Cash for clunkers clinked
We would like to trade our 1997 F-150 pickup for a newer cargo van. The truck is getting older and so are we. Our getting older makes it more of a strain to climb into the back of the truck to put things way up front or to pull them back out.
So, should we have taken advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program? The trade-in value of the truck is $1900+, depending on whether it is considered good condition or very good condition. "Cash" for it would be between that and $4000.
But, we want to trade it for a cargo van; I don't think they meet the mileage requirement. Yep, they don't. I just checked Edmunds "Cash for Clunkers" calculator.
We were also reluctant to buy a new vehicle then because we don't want to take out a loan to do it. We wanted to save up and pay cash, even if it meant selling some mutual fund shares.
We may have saved also by waiting. Some have recommended waiting to buy until October when dealer inventories will have built up and they may bargain more. Also, the "Cash for Clunkers" may have increased the value of our truck. I have no idea how many F-150s were destroyed for the Clunker program, but I imagine that enough were to raise the value of mine. Not a lot, but, hey, an extra hundred or two dollars can pay for some nice option on a new vehicle.
So, should we have taken advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program? The trade-in value of the truck is $1900+, depending on whether it is considered good condition or very good condition. "Cash" for it would be between that and $4000.
But, we want to trade it for a cargo van; I don't think they meet the mileage requirement. Yep, they don't. I just checked Edmunds "Cash for Clunkers" calculator.
We were also reluctant to buy a new vehicle then because we don't want to take out a loan to do it. We wanted to save up and pay cash, even if it meant selling some mutual fund shares.
We may have saved also by waiting. Some have recommended waiting to buy until October when dealer inventories will have built up and they may bargain more. Also, the "Cash for Clunkers" may have increased the value of our truck. I have no idea how many F-150s were destroyed for the Clunker program, but I imagine that enough were to raise the value of mine. Not a lot, but, hey, an extra hundred or two dollars can pay for some nice option on a new vehicle.
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