loving your avatar, too; very topical.
What do you do when you get laid off or let go for long periods of time? One suspects it hasn’t happened to u yet. Just think, with this model of wervice, if you do get laid off, your leaseholder will know instantly. With your ultra smart car if they feel you might not make the next payment your car gets bricked. Yay technology. Not owning shit only works if your life works perfectly .
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I hear that argument a lot, but I also know folks personally who were 1) laid off and 2) their very out-of-warranty vehicle had issues that they could not afford to repair, leading to the purchase of an even crappier used vehicle… But at least it was ”certified” now. For what little comfort that gave if it, too, failed.
IMHO, If I was laid off and had the option, I’d personally much prefer to switch to a cheaper vehicle that allowed me 1) fixed expenses and 2) a reliable vehicle. Part of that, of course, is living within your means and having a cushion of savings to cover you until you are once again gainfully employed. I’ve been a contractor on and off since 2005 (including presently) so I’ve always had to brace for the sudden loss of income contracting comes with.
Of course, that only works if you can find gainful employment. I know from my early days as an adult and on social assistance that late / overlimit fees, minimum balance fees, etc. Ultimately end up being a tax on the poor, and these ”monitors” to ensure compliance would provide new vehicles to those that otherwise could not afford them, while holding them to ever stricter requirements and stiffer penalties should they falter. Exactly what folks in precarious positions don’t want to deal with.
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I’d encourage you to look into that further. Henry Ford had an entire propaganda apparatus, the purpose of which was to instill this bit of wisdom in the populace. The reality is that Ford faced a labor market in which, due to unique factors that don’t usually pertain, he was able to lower the company’s costs while increasing wages. He played this brilliantly in the press, and at the same time made most of the extra compensation contingent on workers’ pledging not to drink or gamble or allow their wives to work. In short, what an asshole. Same as it ever was.
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Some years ago, I’d had the idea for a movie, a kind of modest, perhaps low-budget thriller, about a young single mother who wins a new car in a sweepstakes, told from the perspective of the car. Once the car’s intelligence is plugged into her life and the life of her child, it sees all, knows all, and knows more about what’s going on around them than they do.
i would much prefer to own outright a vehicle than to lease one. whenever i buy a new car i set up automatic withdrawals from my paycheck into a growth and income mutual fund sufficient to pay for a new car in 48 months and then let it accumulate in value until i need a new car, which generally takes about 12 years. i then take distribution on the mutual fund sufficient to buy a new car and start the process over.
the current model of leasing is so much more expensive than ownership outright, or even payments with interest that i find it ridiculous to even consider it. it would take a vastly different model of leasing to even allow me to contemplate using it. as it is, i call it the “fleece” option, as in the dealership is fleecing the lessee. on car sales the repair shop is the major profit center for the dealership on new vehicle sales although, if the dealership keeps the financing in house, financing can become competitive with the shop. car leases, on the other hand are even more profitable than the repair shop. it really will take a completely different paradigm of leasing for that to be anything other than a ripoff.
even with a totally different model for leasing cars, the surveillance vehicle described in the article is so incredibly disturbing i stand by my original comment above–
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So I heard the freakinomics show yet did not hear anything that realated to this post. Yet you have this long quote that didn’t come up in freakanomics but could you link me to the actual quote you posted.
How can you legally “brick” my cat because I might miss a payment? Sounds like a great way to let me get out of any future payments with a little help from my lawyer who assures your honor his client would have continued payment but the leaseholder made it impossible to job hunt a tortuous interference
Cats tend to brick themselves. It’s called baptism.
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Dang autocorrect. Nap time
To
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Further, this transformation seems to be a trend John Deere has bought into, 100%.
How much longer before Frod (intentionally misspelled here for comic relief) simply follows John Deere path, mandating that only company-certified mechanics are allowed to repair “your” vehicle? The one you paid for? I see this plausibly on the event horizon.
I would love to see anti-trust and consumer protection regulation happening in this sphere. Absolutely. I sense that Big Data had punked us on this, and its tentacles are inextricably embedded in the U.S. military-industrial complex.
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Of course not. It is part of the job description. These jobs are handed out by a board of investors whose job is to chose the CEO that will transfer the most money into their pockets. Therefore, you get the CEO that is only interested in taking money out of the customers’ pockets. It is that simply, really.
Fortunately all the surveillance data from my Ford has to be transferred to my PC on USB sticks.
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