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You just love being wrong like a dog loves a good rawhide.... and no amount of bolding will change your false statements into true ones. First, I'm not arguing in favor of socialism. I'm arguing in favor of capitalism with strong regulations, and direct oversight in situations where the company is providing a public good. Private companies should be running grids and health care, but the utilities should be heavily regulated and required to meet certain reliability and resiliency standards. What happened in Texas is exactly why your "ideal" does not work. It puts profits over people in emergencies, it fails to take appropriate measures to prepare for emergencies (Texas/ERCOT was warned of this exact scenario in 2011 in a comprehensive report, they did NOTHING because it would have cut into their profits) , and then it price gouges customers during the emergency. ZERO of the other grids that are heavily regulated (and in my opinion still not regulated enough) had the issues ERCOT had. FALSE - In areas where Amtrak offers high speed (Acela or North East Regional) Amtrak regularly serves more passengers than multiple airlines combined, plus they also serve many intra-trip stations. Not everyone in New Haven wants to drive to NYC to fly to Philly to get to Wilmington. As you point out, there is a whole country between the major metros and those are severely underserved by the airlines. Even here in Pittsburgh, going somewhere is always "Step 1. Fly to Charlotte, Chicago, Philly, or Atlanta. Step 2. Fly where I actually want to go. I can drive faster in under 500 miles than an airline can get me there because of the security waitlines, connections, baggage, etc. Unless I'm traveling directly to a hub, total travel time by car will beat nearly any flight under 500 miles. An Acela can do even better. But even Metro to Metro, the Acela will beat the airlines EVERY TIME. Going from Manhatten to Philly, the Acela will get you from New York Penn to 30th Street Philly before your taxi even pulls up at LaGuardia. Going out of NY, NO ONE, takes a flight if their destination is served by Acela or North East corridor. Amtrak makes a profit on these routes. Amtrak started offering higher speed service (110mph) out of Detroit to Chicago and before Covid, ridership was way up. You are correct that over 500 miles, Amtrak's usefulness starts to wain, but most Metros are within 500 miles of another Metro and those highway connections have a lot of traffic. A Dallas-Houston HSR would do very well because again, it's a 40-50 minute drive just to get from downtown Houston out to IAH to drop off the rental car. HSR could do the trip in 2 hours or less. People will use high speed rail if and when it is offered, and it wouldn't even need a subsidy to operate. (Airports are subsidized by the government, ours has a huge debt issue right now, so don't try to imply that airlines don't operate without a subsidy) False (kinda) - The insurance industry is the cause of the wacked out insurance rates. Further cause is the 30% of people who don't have insurance and defer treatment because of the lack of insurance. That means what starts as a small treatable lump turns into stage 3 cancer because the person is afraid to seek treatment due to costs. So when they get admitted for cancer care on Medicaid or whatever, they cost hundreds of thousands more to treat because they waited too long. An I would much rather pay for someone to go get treated early than pay for a full on cancer treatment. And don't be fooled, you're already paying for those people... that's why your insurance costs so much even if you're healthy. The F-35 program was a political action boondoggle. People in Canada pay around the same total tax that we do and they get healthcare for it while we have to pay extra to have insurance. And don't try to talk about rationed care, people in Canada with an emergency get treated promptly. We ration care also by letting 30% of the population die in the street. Companies are often-times actively your enemy. Texas power producers shut down power during the storm when they realized they weren't going to be able to make a profit. People died in that storm due to lack of power. The number of deplorable schemes companies come up with that actively harm you far exceeds what the government has done. I like the Defenders, but I have only ever gotten 40k out of them at best.... so that's why I keep buying them because I use that treadlife warranty.

You always run to extremes. Private companies have done horrible things in the name of profit and you should be every bit as wary about rampant capitalism as you are socialism. We had an excellent example last month of why letting for-profit companies run essential things like monopoly utilities with close to zero regulation and oversight is a bad idea. We can’t have decent passenger rail in the US, even just regionally, because of private companies. we can’t have decent, low cost healthcare in the US because of private companies. For profit companies aren’t your friends. You are merely something they can extract money from while paying their employees as little as possible. The energy company I worked for added ZERO value to the product they sold. The bought up capacity at low prices and sold it at high prices. It is literally traded like the stock market. All they did was extract money from their customers to pay exorbitant executive salaries and fancy marketing campaigns. They could have shut down over night and nothing of value would have been lost.

I will also point out that Amtrak’s annual subsidy is less than the cost of a single highway interchange in a major metro area. Amtrak’s profits on the North East corridor help fund the rest of the system, though that’s a rather large cross for it to bare and that’s why I’d does need subsidies. when Amtrak started offering multiple daily trips to DC from Richmond VA, it quickly reached capacity because suddenly people could do easy day trips to the Capital. It wasn’t even high speed. People will use trains if given good service.

I'll join in on the number crunching, but mine will be simpler and even useful for some C&G folks. Ok, so you've got Costco tires. They credit you back what part of the treadwear you don't attain. It is based on the price of the current tires on your car that you bought at Costco, and not that of the prospective tires you plan to purchase. So I thought, "Cool, just time the replacement with when your preferred brand of Costco tires is couponed or on special with the $ 150 off for a set of 4." No can do! I learned you only get one or the other. For most people who don't need a hazard repair or replacement, that makes the treadwear guarantee worthless if you did fairly well with your tires' longevity. Michelin Defender unit price of current tires (ea.): $ 130 Attained treadwear down to 2 mm remaining (of previous 90,000 mile warranty): 65,000 miles Proportion used: .7222 Reciprocal owed to you as a credit: .2778 Total purchase allowance owed to you: $ 130 x .2778 x 4 (tires) = $ 144.46 You actually come out about $ 5 ahead by just taking their coupon / featured special rather than claiming the credit for your unattained tread life, given that you cannot "double dip." - - - - - What? And this is what I got a full-fledged undergraduate degree in business for? You can figure this out with a mere minor in it, and with marginal grades.

Did a small job for the father of a buddy's girlfriend. Buddy was there, asked if I was working on any new car projects. I told them both I started working on my '64 Grand Prix, and the guy said 'That was my first car; my father bought it new then handed it down to me when it was 10 yrs old. It was turquoise with a turquoise interior." I replied 'My '64 is my first car, too.' Came home this afternoon and saw on a FB group a story/link to a very original '64 GP on eBay, turqoise/turquoise.

Yes, it is the point of a forum and, even though this thread was probably designed to be less intense, I can't tell someone how to use it. I don't read your posts because they're just too much. That's because, when I once did a long time ago, it was a heated thread supporting your belief that replacing air filters on cars is unnecessary. We don't need to rehash that and I'm not interested in a regurgitation of the facts you presented. It went on and on and on. All I know is that, for $ 14.99 or less, I go to a chain auto parts store, come back home, take a screwdriver to loosen up the intake assembly, put it in, and I have peace of mind, which is worth a lot more than $14.99 to me. Then, more recently, when we've never really interacted before, you come on to tell me, out of the blue, that you think the QM2 (Queen Mary 2), as seen on my signature photo, is piss poor. And, you were right in that you are entitled to your opinion. However, in your volley, you inserted that you were assigned to either the Princess Grill or the Queen's Grill to dine. And the food was below par? That was a convenient way for you to drop the hint that you popped for among the most expensive cabins on the ship. The vast majority of QM2 travelers are eating in a massive restaurant with a name the likes of the Britannia or the Columbia (or similar names as the ones on the preceding QE2). And, here, I'm saving my pennies to travel on it someday in the shortest and least expensive way just to sample this grand ship. So, what I'm trying to say is that your posting style tries to show that you know it all and also features thinly veiled but noticeable amounts of conspicuous consumption, self-righteous conservatism, and elitism.

Isn't that the whole point of a forum? If you want to just post cat pictures there's Facebook, if you just want to parrot short messages there's Twitter.

Totally agree with that as one who went to college @ Kobe University in Japan. I had a motor bike there but found after the first year of exploring that taking trains was far more efficient for me to see the country over driving. If the US invested in proper rail service between all major cities, you could easily reduce auto's on the road. have cleaner air and reduce stress for many people on top of changing personal / family costs. ? Maybe cause his wife wins them all and he thinks he can win more here? ?‍♂️

Rabbits

Hamsters

Im not...Im comparing the MSRP NUMBERS to a 2021 Edge.... Im saying that a 2021 Mach E has 2007 Ford Edge specs. Im aslo saying that it does NOT matter to what we are comparing the Mach E to... And about interior numbers...yes...the MAch E is Escape-ish. Exterior numbers are Edge-ish. But..the ESCAPE is the second entry CUV for Ford. Starts at 26 000 dollars. Its not quite entry level stuff, that would be the Ecosport, BUT the Escape is not for the well off monetarily folk either... The Edge is for a tad more affluent people. The Mach E is DEFINETALY for the affluent folk. Like I said... a person who wants to buy a base model Escape is NOT looking at a Titanium 40 000 dollar Edge. Shyte...a base model Escape purchaser might not even buy the base model Escape but will but the top trim Ecosport instead... Catch my drift... OK... I mentioned that a 34 000 dollar HYBRID Escape might entice somebody to forgo that purchase and he might try to get himself into a 42 000 dollar Mach E.... But...to determine what savings EVs have over ICE and 'how many years it will take to' math exercises is USELESS BECAUSE a HYBRID Escape is ALREADY into the electrical world. AND...it does NOT take a genius to figure out what the better value is as a well equipped Escape Hybrid is ONLY 34 000 dollars... So...what we want to do here is to determine what a COMPARABLE FoMoCo ICE CUV is to a FoMoCo BEV and how that compares to "what savings EVs have over ICE" and 'how many years it will take to' math exercises... And THAT is where the Edge comes in... Keeping in mind...the Mach E is NOT really geared up to take FULL advantage of its EXTERIOR dimensions as its a LIFESTYLE CUV...HENCE the MUSTANG MACH E nameplate... The ESCAPE takes FULL advantage of its exterior dimensions as its more of a family CUV. THIS current Edge is also more of a family CUV...rather than the 1st gen Edge which had a sportier persona. But this gen Edge does not shy away from its sporty intentions either. Keep in mind that FoMoCo also has a larger CUV in the Explorer that is less sporty and more family... The Mach E is closer in spirit to the Edge than it is to the Escape no matter what you may think... So... At the end of the day...all that does NOT MATTER.... At THIS point in time...EVs are PRICIER than there ICE counterparts. No buts, ifs or ands. At THIS point in time...the question is NOT about what has more value, ICE or BEVs or what x amount of years it will take to arguments... Its whether a person WANTS to adopt the EV lifestyle or if that person does NOT want to... But...keeping it real... Lets be honest... |Its closer to the truth to take a 35 000-40 000 PURE ICE vehicle that is CLOSE in specs...ALL specs, than to take a 26 000 vehicle to make an argument. AND...not a HYBRID model either... Seeing the Edge has NO hybrid...seeing the Escape HYBRID is part of the EV family...than a 36 000 EDGE makes the MOST sense... That would be an additional 2 000 dolllars to the equation. I saw that his argument went from 17 years to now saying a decade to two decades. He kinda admitted (without wanting to) that the calculations might be down to 10 years... Well 17 years down to 10 is quite a lot. But Im sure using HIS California numbers its clsoer to being 9years as his price different was 16 thousand. (42 thousand minus 26 thousand). I halved it when I did 34 000. Well...using the more realistic scenario of an EDGE... the NEW math is 42 thousand for the Mach E minus 36 thousand for an Edge... the price diff plummets another 2000. Now from 9 years, we are saving another year at 8... 8 motherphoquing years is not 17... And then if we want to use Quebec as an example NOT California...that 8 years shrinks down even further... It dont matter... Whether its 10 years like he corrected himself reluctantly...or the closer real calculations which would make that 10 years be less than, and if wanna use Quebec or not...well...its definitely NOT the overdramatic, fully disingenuous 17 that he first tried to peddle... But Ill repeat...it dont matter... What vehicle we choose, what numbers we want to use.. The bottom line is right now...IF we CHOOSE to buy an EV or we just stick to ICE... If we choose to buy EV, then we have to learn to live with some of its drawbacks. We ALREADY KNOW that EVs are slightly more expensive...

Well if I agreed with you then we’d both be wrong. I stand by my well documented 13 years in the energy industry, specifically, this part of the industry. I’ve been through the audits of the company because of what Enron did. Many/Most for-profit energy companies have to go through those audits yearly. I’m not saying that for profit companies shouldn’t run the grid. I’m saying that they shouldn’t be able to set the grid rules and that there must be competition. Stand by your wrong statements all you like. The Forbes link disagrees with you.

You can believe the BS if you want. I stand by everything I said. The only thing worse than for profit oligopolies is a bureaucratic government monopoly. What makes you think public utilities will be working for YOU rather than public employee unions, appointed bureaucrats and their politician masters? When has public monopolies or single payer public schemes ever been efficient or affordable? Not convinced? Try the DMV for service, or try the F-35 or SLS for cost efficiency!

And THEN...there are MORE variables to consider. THIS lovely example we are currently at, is with folk who drive AVERAGE miles per year. And obviously, EV tech is still in the adoptive phase... Back to my point... there are folk who exceed that amount by quite a lot. And in Quebec, yes Quebec, California is NOT the center of the universe.... That price difference between gasoline and electricity just accelerates the savings... Its no surprise that EVs are more expensive still, than their ICE counterparts. At THIS point in time, its if you want to make the change or not. Its if you WANT to adopt EV tech, or not. It does not take a thesis to discover that fact.

Ford's 'modular' family was named as such because in theory components could be interchanged between V6 and V8 engines of different displacements. Long running family of engines, in SOHC and DOHC versions. The first reunion was fun...small turn out, maybe 20 people out of a class of 64. Flew in from Colorado Springs. The 2nd reunion had a bigger turnout, had an '08 Mustang convertible rental then. Flew in from Arizona. Was really hot and humid in Miami in July, but the breezes offset the humidity in Marathon. Not sure why, but we didn't have a 30th reunion in 2018.

Wanting something different to listen to, going to give this a try. I used to like them back in my high school days... Love the video, just who in the hell had those ladies ride around in that ugly old red MOPAR ragtop? (Sarcasm...)

@trinacriabob Smoooooth operator. I LOVE that song! The one you posted is slick, yes. I also like No Ordinary Love. Very sensual voice she has.