Wednesday, September 20, 2017

It turns out the sharing economy was designed to pervert capitalism.

Autonomous cars have sort of plateaued. There isn't really much interesting to write about these days. So when I got a chance to go to an infrastructure conference - I was pretty interested. I wanted to see how the cities were going to adapt to these new cars. Because up until yesterday it seemed like they were getting pretty used to the idea and were friendly. I don't think I could have been more wrong.

Yesterday was the first time I ever went to a conference and it was so filled with propaganda I was just stunned. It was the most socialist-ey crap I'd ever seen at one of these things. And you know it was socialism because their idea is to force people to do things they don't want to do through financial force.

I was actually at two conferences yesterday and they were both the same. I will write about the other one a little later. And this is the point where I have to get pretty anon because it isn't hard to find the trouble makers in Silicon Valley. That would be me. I can't reveal any of the names or companies involved.

I will try to explain the best I can because their circular logic was so mind bending. It hard to even make sense of it today. But here goes.

Their idea is for people to only use 10% of the cars we do now. And the way they want to do it is through taxing your vehicle by the square meter. The more room you take up on the road - the more you pay. They don't give an eff who this hurts - they are going to try to tax you into the dirt. It's not enough that you drive a so called "green car" - it only matters how much room you are taking up on the road. So presumably a working man can expect to be crushed. If you drive a truck or a van, you will have to pay a lot more for that. And gawd save you if you have to pull around a trailer with your gardening tools or anything. Something that doesn't even have a motor in it!

And autonomous cars are not going to be immune to these crushing taxes because allegedly it's going to put so many people out of work - the government needs to tax them to make up for that false narrative. Even circling back around to a universal basic income. Never mind how many people the government will put out of work if they actually achieve their 10% goal. That means 90% of people working in the car industry will be out of work.

Somehow in this socialist utopia this vastly reduced amount of cars is going to cost everyone less. Because having less of something always makes it cheaper. As does taxing the crap out of them. Said in the most sarcastic way. One car is going to do the work of five cars or whatever. But somehow they never seem to drill down to who is going to pay for the repairs to these cars that are running 24/7. Because they are just magic.

Yesterday I actually figured out how Uber was able to break all the rules. I thought it was because they had douchey people like Ariana Huffington on the board of directors, but it turns out Uber fits their narrative. So, they are allowed to break all the rules. Uber is one step on their goal to normalize the "sharing" economy. Because in Silicon Valley right now their goal is to make you not want to own anything. You can't own your phone fully or any other electronic device these days. And they want to only expand this idea. Their goal is to "remake capitalism". An exact quote from one of the people.

And the thing that is so maddening is they try to convince you that they are using capitalism, but what they are really doing is complete socialism.

I mean, Uber on the surface is an amazing tale of capitalism. Who would have thought anyone could bring down the taxi industry?! But after what I heard yesterday, it seems like Uber is sort of a camel nose under the tent. Their real goal is to try and make it so everything lives in the cloud, and you don't really own anything - you just share it. They will make you share through financial force if given the opportunity. And these lunatics are advising our government. As if they needed any help being crazy. But it's so completely frightening when private business is asking our government to be more heavy handed when it comes to implementing their plan.

Now, I've had two friends that lived on communes. It was popular in the day. People will share for a while. But both of those friends have effing houses right now. One of them had TWO houses before the recession. Living on a commune and sharing crap is something you do in your 20's. But from what I can see about people is they are never getting rid of these cars until the government tries to crush them. Our car is our is one of the few places we can get away from people we don't want to be around. It's like our security pod. I can turn the radio up to 11 to try to drown you people out. Sure people ride the train, but if you see the faces of those people - the don't really want to be there.

After yesterday - I don't know how The Valley is working right now. It truly was one of the most bizarre days I've ever had. It certainly seems like they have been doing the long con on us.

7 comments:

  1. They'll try to ram through what they want through regulation, and so you're now hearing them stroke themselves with all of the feel-good stuff they think that regulation is going to bring.

    I can see where it'll make life easier for the cops when all of the cars obey the speed limit and inform them of who their passengers are through geo-fencing and mobile interception platforms. OMG CITIZEN ANTI-ZERO CAPITAL OF TEXAS REFUGEE HAS NOW ENTERED THE OBNOXIOUS DOMAIN OF CORAL GABLES, SEIZE HIM AND DEPORT HIM BACK TO BRICKELL AVENUE NOW.

    I'm also really getting tired of this "renting economy" of things I don't really want to rent. My place where I am, that's fine, I'm not staying here, and that's been made clear that I shouldn't stay here by natural events and other crap going on. But some things being rentals are just stupid. Why do I need to rent Adobe Creative Suite when I can afford to just buy the damned thing and the upgrades, just for starters?

    Why should I pay rent to Evernote, for instance? What's it now, something like $70/year? It's not even the money, it's the idea that I'm going to bleed little bits of money through lots of little paper cuts for things that are below the level of being something I'm monitoring through proper accounting.

    So why should I pay rent for a road when my personal tax rate is higher than Donald Trump's personal tax rate? I'm already paying rent for the damned roads, it's called taxes.

    Also, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea that after I've left Miami in my "autonomous car", the charge gives out somewhere around such lovely places as Clewiston, South Bay, or (God Help Me) Belle Glade, the #1 spot in America for AIDS and nearly anything else that's bad and awful for poor people?

    OR MAYBE THESE PEOPLE REALLY HATE ME AND DRIVE ME INTO THE STORM PATH INSTEAD WHILE I'M SLEEPING. Yeah, so much for your idea that sleeping while the car's driving is necessarily a good thing. Welcome to The Internet of Hellish Things.

    No, seriously, these people can go to Hell, but if they're not up for that, I can set them up with a hybrid and a route to follow during a major hurricane, and let's see if they make it out of the Lake Okeechobee area with their stuff or even their lives. It's a pretty good approximation of Hell if you haven't visited. (The Best Barbecue Joint EVAR used to be in Clewiston, I've been told -- a shame, I'm always up for good brisket.)

    Hybrids really suck too -- Jeremy Clarkson can't even get one across England. London to ... Oxford? It just breaks down in the middle of southern England? It has to recharge for over a half of a day? They have to get Oxford students to throw them some aid and a bunch of extension cords? You'd have to be smoking something very bad for your mental health to think this is actually a good thing.

    BTW, I rode the train, happily ... in first class. I had my own suite, and I paid for the entire suite. I traveled around the country like that. It was a blast.

    But do know what was really, really cool about that? Being able to take a shower, even a very, very cramped one, while you're traveling through the Middle of Nowhere, North Dakota in the middle of winter. A hot shower ... and it's -35 F outside. Absolutely awesome. :-)

    Commuter trains though? I'll happily skip Chicago's Green Line. Those people are not happy with how things are working out.

    When I was in Chicago, I took a lot of taxis run by Polish people, some of the nicest people I've ever met. It made me want to visit Poland.

    Maybe after I get some health crap fixed, I will ... and I'm willing to bet I won't be picked up at the airport by an autonomous car. :-)

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  2. So, they want to tax vehicles by the square meter(it's YARD, bitches, this is America)? And they don't think that this will finally be the stroke of Leftist 'genius' that drives big trucks out of Kalifornia completely? And they fail to understand that without trucks, 21st Century life is literally impossible?

    Go for it.

    This is the point where the consequences of their stupidity will be obvious and unavoidable. Once they starve to death, we can get to refilling Kalifornia with sane people.

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  3. None of this is surprising, insane yes, but not surprising. What bothers me the most about all of it though is that it is an inevitability. All this leftist/socialist bullshit is inevitable. All we can do is fight to delay it. I'm 35 and hoping I'm just old enough to outrun this insanity, but with the advancements in technology we have today and the ever encroaching approach of big brother I fear I won't be able to.

    In a world gone mad, only the mad are sane. Government at work...

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  4. Capital of Texas Refugee - "Maybe after I get some health crap fixed"

    It's not a back problem is it? I saw that episode with Jeremy. Sometimes I wonder why people read my blog - but you... yeah... I totally get it now.

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  5. Anon - "I'm 35 and hoping I'm just old enough to outrun this insanity, but with the advancements in technology we have today and the ever encroaching approach of big brother I fear I won't be able to."

    I think we will always have to fight it - but honestly... we got as close to socialism as possible without actually adopting it. I really thought Bernie was going to win. So the fat that we turned away is a glimmer of hope. I will always feel that the only reason they get this stuff though is via confusion and trickery. When people start to understand what is really happening the will reject it.

    People want to be free. I guess I still believe that - though sometimes it depends no the day.

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  6. I take shots daily, but the amount in the shot is now one-eighth of what it was only a year and a half ago.

    Naturally, Hey Doc doesn't have a clue as to how I'm getting better.

    Hey Doc cannot understand because It's Just Not Supposed To Happen.

    But it is happening, and if everything goes right, in a couple of years or so, I should be good enough to do a bit of extended travel.

    Until then, I have a refrigerator full of cheaper medicine (viva Mexico!) and time enough to heal to the point that I don't have to drag around a big ice chest or one of those mini-fridges like you see in college students' rooms.

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