This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
You can buy a new pickup truck from an American dealership for under $40k, they're more expensive than sedans but not by that much. The base models just don't sell very well(there are luxury vehicle versions of all the main pickup truck models and they sell like hotcakes). Rising expectations are most of the affordability crisis.
Obviously, politicians can't say that out loud. But it is true. Groceries are higher, but not by as much as American's expectations of what they should be eating. My parents grew up eating pasta, hotdogs, and other cheap dishes multiple nights a week. My grandparents got most of their calories from rice growing up(no, this was not during the depression). Now Americans think eating chicken thighs is poverty. Base model(no bells and whistles) vehicles sell so poorly that dealers don't even bother to stock them(although they will special order- manufacturers make them). House sizes are gigantic even compared to the relatively recent past and most of the extra space is essentially wasted.
I could believe K-shaped economies are exacerbated by "just put literally everything on credit".
People who were leveraged to the hilt in 2020 are now in a wildly better position than everyone else simply because the debt has in large part inflated away- so really, why not budget like the government does? Indeed, if you don't (or don't have the credit because you're out of work, or in school), you're just getting wrecked by everyone else who does.
It's just like student loans: a loan with an interest rate under inflation means the effective interest you pay is negative, so if you don't do that, you're just leaving money on the table- just make sure your credit's good enough and don't lose your job (and even if you do, unemployment will still cover you for quite a while provided you were making the appropriate amount of money before), and you can take advantage of all that free money too.
And, if you do keep it for 15 years (or longer- both because it's a luxury vehicle, and now that manufacturers have figured out how to rust-proof that's realistic), it'll still sell for what a new base model at that time will cost.
Well, that and the 'this used to be a cheap staple, now it's just as expensive as avocado toast' thing. For instance, you want lunch meat for your sandwich? You can buy corned beef for 4 bucks per standard unit, or higher quality salami for 5 bucks per standard unit.
Used to be 1.50 and 4- so sure, you might not necessarily like it, but at least it'd be 40% the cost of the tastier alternative. So at that point, if you can afford the cheaper product, you can afford the upgraded version; if you can't afford that, you can't afford anything.
More options
Context Copy link
I was gonna press doubt but I went and searched inventory and yes the chevy dealer got trucks on the lot for 34k.
I guess these are more of work trucks for actual construction crews and would be wholly unsuitable as a mall crawler but that's probably the point.
If they're crew cab, then they are literally the exact same thing as a consumer pickup that you use to commute between your suburban home and the office- just with fewer bells and whistles. Commercial customers are more likely to order trucks as part of a planned replacement cycle rather than show up to the lot to buy day of, so the economics of keeping them in stock are different.
The things that make work pickup trucks radically different are usually aftermarket modifications to base model vehicles which have identical commercial and personal builds from the manufacturer. Commercial full sized work vans, on the other hand, are built differently, but very few people are shopping for a full sized van for personal use.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link