Political Discussion

[RenegadeMonster]

Apple is once again the target of an antitrust lawsuit and this one is the most frivolous one yet.

Facebook is taking on Apple in the EU over Apples latest policy policies that requires apps to disclose is they are tracking their users and the users have to allow tracking in the apps permissions.

Facebook is saying this will severely cripple their revenue from people on iOS devices.

 

[Chucktshoes]

Facebook is saying this will severely cripple their revenue from people on iOS devices.

Just one more reason I use an iPhone. This sounds like a feature, not a bug, to me.

 

[Chucktshoes]

The Supreme Court has finally decided to take another 2A case. This time it is regarding New York’s “may issue“ permitting system. I am hopeful that with the addition of ACB to the court, it will finally result in a decision that clarifies that when the Constitution says “bear arms“ it means the bearing of arms outside of the home.

Supreme Court to take up major Second Amendment concealed handgun case

 

[RenegadeMonster]

Oklahoma woman charged with felony for not returning VHS tape 21 years ago

A former Oklahoma resident is facing felony embezzlement charges for not returning a VHS tape rented in Norman more than two decades ago. Online documents show Caron McBride is a wanted woman for never returning 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' on VHS tape in 1999. "The first thing she told me was...

okcfox.com

Wow, one unreturned VHS tape rental is a felony? And can still be prosecuted more than 20 years later!?

In this story a women learned that she is a wanted felon when trying to change her last name when getting married over 1 unreturned VHS tape 20+ years ago. A tape she says she never rented.

She also goes on to explain that it all makes sense now why she was let go from several jobs over the years for no apparent reason. Not performance related or standard layoffs. Just that they don't feel she's a good fit for the company kind of firing.

 

[Chucktshoes]

Oklahoma woman charged with felony for not returning VHS tape 21 years ago

A former Oklahoma resident is facing felony embezzlement charges for not returning a VHS tape rented in Norman more than two decades ago. Online documents show Caron McBride is a wanted woman for never returning 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' on VHS tape in 1999. "The first thing she told me was...

okcfox.com

Wow, one unreturned VHS tape rental is a felony? And can still be prosecuted more than 20 years later!?

In this story a women learned that she is a wanted felon when trying to change her last name when getting married over 1 unreturned VHS tape 20+ years ago. A tape she says she never rented.

She also goes on to explain that it all makes sense now why she was let go from several jobs over the years for no apparent reason. Not performance related or standard layoffs. Just that they don't feel she's a good fit for the company kind of firing.

I saw that. It’s completely fucking ridiculous. With any luck, the district attorney in that area will do the right thing and drop those charges. Hopefully the publicity surrounding it will help effect a positive outcome.

 

[RenegadeMonster]

The percentage of teenagers having a brand new car as their first car is increasing while at the same time the overall average age of cars on the road continues to climb.

The number of new cars being purchased for first cars for new teenage drivers hasn't increased. What has decreased is the number of used cars being purchased. Many teenagers who don't have parents who will buy them their first car are. choosing not to buy one until a few years later in live due to the fact that they can't afford them.

This goes to show the ever growing wage equality we are facing here in the United States. Those in the lower middle class and living on poverty are not buying as many cars for new teenage drivers.

 

[Max Sterling]

The percentage of teenagers having a brand new car as their first car is increasing while at the same time the overall average age of cars on the road continues to climb.

The number of new cars being purchased for first cars for new teenage drivers hasn't increased. What has decreased is the number of used cars being purchased. Many teenagers who don't have parents who will buy them their first car are. choosing not to buy one until a few years later in live due to the fact that they can't afford them.

This goes to show the ever growing wage equality we are facing here in the United States. Those in the lower middle class and living on poverty are not buying as many cars for new teenage drivers.

I knew a girl who decided it was more economical to get an Uber Pass than buying her own vehicle. Gas prices, insurance, car payment, she couldn't handle all those monthly costs.

It's the same reason poor people buy cheap things that don't last instead of investing in expensive things that will last. I need it now, I can't save for a couple months and go without.

 

[TenderLovingKiller®]

The percentage of teenagers having a brand new car as their first car is increasing while at the same time the overall average age of cars on the road continues to climb.

The number of new cars being purchased for first cars for new teenage drivers hasn't increased. What has decreased is the number of used cars being purchased. Many teenagers who don't have parents who will buy them their first car are. choosing not to buy one until a few years later in live due to the fact that they can't afford them.

This goes to show the ever growing wage equality we are facing here in the United States. Those in the lower middle class and living on poverty are not buying as many cars for new teenage drivers.

I am 39 years old. I’ve owned and been driving a car since I turned 16. I have never owned a new car nor do I have any desire to.

 

[RenegadeMonster]

I am 39 years old. I’ve owned and been driving a car since I turned 16. I have never owned a new car nor do I have any desire to.

I think you would be the exception to the rule. Owning a new car was a big part of the "American Dream" since the 60's. For most people who grew up in the middle class buying or leasing your first new car by your 20's is not just the norm but an expectation.

 

[Chucktshoes]

I am 39 years old. I’ve owned and been driving a car since I turned 16. I have never owned a new car nor do I have any desire to.

42 and same. Buying a brand new car is not a smart financial move.

 

[jaycee]

I am 39 years old. I’ve owned and been driving a car since I turned 16. I have never owned a new car nor do I have any desire to.

Same. I'm a few years older. I've owned 4 cars. I've never owned a new car. I've never owned a car w/less than 60,000 miles on it. I never owned a car newer than an '88 until my most recent which is an '06. I went to high-school in the 90's.

I like cars. I like auto-sports. I like driving fast and I like the smell of gasoline, but I have never-ever dreamed of owning a new middle of the road 4 door or SUV to commute to and fro with.

I think you would be the exception to the rule. Owning a new car was a big part of the "American Dream" since the 60's. For most people who grew up in the middle class buying or leasing your first new car by your 20's is not just the norm but an expectation.

Buying a new car is almost always a dumb investment and it certainly isn't a birthright or basic expectation of the middle class. If it ever was it was an expectation of some majority of people that was well before I was born.

 

[RenegadeMonster]

Same. I'm a few years older. I've owned 4 cars. I've never owned a new car. I've never owned a car w/less than 60,000 miles on it. I never owned a car newer than an '88 until my most recent which is an '06. I went to high-school in the 90's.

I like cars. I like auto-sports. I like driving fast and I like the smell of gasoline, but I have never-ever dreamed of owning a new middle of the road 4 door or SUV to commute to and fro with.



Buying a new car is almost always a dumb investment and it certainly isn't a birthright or basic expectation of the middle class. If it ever was it was an expectation of some majority of people that was well before I was born.

I, I totally agree that it is a dumb investment today and that the expectation comes from prior generations.

I grew up in an affluent rural neighborhood. My parents were divorced so I wouldn't consider us affluent. But back in the early 2000's many of my high school classmates did get brand new cars when they turned 16. Often paid for by their parents in full or part.
Houses with 3 car garages. Every family having 2 cars (more when they have teens).

Maybe it was just the area I grew up in. And I'm not saying that it was an expectation for all of the middle class. But at least for parts of it it was.

Most people I went to college with had a brand new car (might have been a couple years by then) and I know a few who while in college purchased their first new car on their own.

 

[Chucktshoes]

I, I totally agree that it is a dumb investment today and that the expectation comes from prior generations.

I grew up in an affluent rural neighborhood. My parents were divorced so I wouldn't consider us affluent. But back in the early 2000's many of my high school classmates did get brand new cars when they turned 16. Often paid for by their parents in full or part.
Houses with 3 car garages. Every family having 2 cars (more when they have teens).

Maybe it was just the area I grew up in. And I'm not saying that it was an expectation for all of the middle class. But at least for parts of it it was.

Most people I went to college with had a brand new car (might have been a couple years by then) and I know a few who while in college purchased their first new car on their own.

It was the area you grew up in.

Maybe I’m the outlier here, and I very well could be considering the prevailing demographics of this board. That said, whenever you describe your upbringing or the worldviews it informs, it’s an utterly foreign existence to my southern, lower middle/working class self. (That’s not a dig at all. Just my perspective.)

Like the new car thing. Two types of folks in my world buy brand new cars. The truly affluent or at least fully financially comfortable, and the terminally financially stupid (like junior enlisted). Otherwise most folks I know but a car that’s a few years old because it’s a much better buy. What you described growing up doesn’t sound like middle class to me. That was the kids from the rich end of town. If those were your peers, that was apparently your end of town.

 

[jaycee]

I, I totally agree that it is a dumb investment today and that the expectation comes from prior generations.

I grew up in an affluent rural neighborhood. My parents were divorced so I wouldn't consider us affluent. But back in the early 2000's many of my high school classmates did get brand new cars when they turned 16. Often paid for by their parents in full or part.
Houses with 3 car garages. Every family having 2 cars (more when they have teens).

Maybe it was just the area I grew up in. And I'm not saying that it was an expectation for all of the middle class. But at least for parts of it it was.

Most people I went to college with had a brand new car (might have been a couple years by then) and I know a few who while in college purchased their first new car on their own.

I'm sure other people have had your experience as well but I don't think that's as common of an experience as not having a new car as a teenager or college student.

I was the poor kid, even tho my parents were probably on the lower end of the middle class, in my high school and while a number of the affluent kids had cars, some of them newer, they were either hand-me-down vehicles or used purchases.

In reference to your original post, the lack of used purchase if accurate might have as much to do with inflation of the used market either do to lack of supply or because borrowing money is cheap right now.... although car loans I imagine are still not particularly cheap.

 

[jaycee]

It was the area you grew up in.

Maybe I’m the outlier here, and I very well could be considering the prevailing demographics of this board. That said, whenever you describe your upbringing or the worldviews it informs, it’s an utterly foreign existence to my southern, lower middle/working class self. (That’s not a dig at all. Just my perspective.)

Like the new car thing. Two types of folks in my world buy brand new cars. The truly affluent or at least fully financially comfortable, and the terminally financially stupid (like junior enlisted). Otherwise most folks I know but a car that’s a few years old because it’s a much better buy. What you described growing up doesn’t sound like middle class to me. That was the kids from the rich end of town. If those were your peers, that was apparently your end of town.

You're not an outlier. Northerners and liberals and liberal families can't afford new cars either unless they are wealthy or ok with massive debt... the latter may often be the case.

 

[Joe Mac]

Teenagers with cars that are not 25 year old superminis that their mothers drive the new one of? Wild! They were the lucky spoilt ones too! That said smaller countries and a basic degree of public transport, however decrepit.

 

[RenegadeMonster]

Teenagers with cars that are not 25 year old superminis that their mothers drive the new one of? Wild! They were the lucky spoilt ones too! That said smaller countries and a basic degree of public transport, however decrepit.

Wow, I can't imagine 25 years old. I didn't have the luxury of having parents buy me a brand new car when I started to drive. The first car I bought was almost 10 years old.

Other kids at my high school of course had used cars as well, Not everyone had new cars. But a pretty good number of them did. Of the other students that had used cars as their first, mine was among one of the oldest cars. A lot of them I would say were around 3 to 5 years old when they acquired them as their first car. Often buying out the lease their parents had when their parents got a new car every 3 years or so. Which was the normal in the area I grew up in.

In MA there are a lot of very wealthy people. There are other communities in MA that are not at all either.

But I can't imaging a 25 year old hand me down car as a first car. Sure there must be some cases of that, but most cars in the United States are off the road by then. Right now the average age of a car on the road in the United States is 12.5 years which is a new high.

 

[Joe Mac]

Wow, I can't imagine 25 years old. I didn't have the luxury of having parents buy me a brand new car when I started to drive. The first car I bought was almost 10 years old.

Other kids at my high school of course had used cars as well, Not everyone had new cars. But a pretty good number of them did. Of the other students that had used cars as their first, mine was among one of the oldest cars. A lot of them I would say were around 3 to 5 years old when they acquired them as their first car. Often buying out the lease their parents had when their parents got a new car every 3 years or so. Which was the normal in the area I grew up in.

In MA there are a lot of very wealthy people. There are other communities in MA that are not at all either.

But I can't imaging a 25 year old hand me down car as a first car. Sure there must be some cases of that, but most cars in the United States are off the road by then. Right now the average age of a car on the road in the United States is 12.5 years which is a new high.

Kids having a car was extraordinarily out of the norm. Still is. Distances aren’t that large and there were buses and trains. Or you could walk. The ones that did either funded it themselves through Saturday jobs or got heavily used hand me downs. Hence the budget was in the very low hundreds by the time that exorbitant teenage insurance/motor tax is added on. If you had anything around 10 or younger you were a spoilt little so and so.

 

[Chucktshoes]

I'm sure other people have had your experience as well but I don't think that's as common of an experience as not having a new car as a teenager or college student.

I was the poor kid, even tho my parents were probably on the lower end of the middle class, in my high school and while a number of the affluent kids had cars, some of them newer, they were either hand-me-down vehicles or used purchases.

In reference to your original post, the lack of used purchase if accurate might have as much to do with inflation of the used market either do to lack of supply or because borrowing money is cheap right now.... although car loans I imagine are still not particularly cheap.

Cash for clunkers permanently warped the used car market. It really squeezed the used car supply and that is still affecting supply to this day.

Wow, I can't imagine 20 years old. I didn't have the luxury of having parents buy me a brand new car when I started to drive. The first car I bought was almost 10 years old.

Other kids at my high school of course had used cars as well, Not everyone had new cars. But a pretty good number of them did. Of the other students that had used cars as their first, mine was among one of the oldest cars. A lot of them I would say were around 3 to 5 years old when they acquired them as their first car. Often buying out the lease their parents had when their parents got a new car every 3 years or so. Which was the normal in the area I grew up in.

In MA there are a lot of very wealthy people. There are other communities in MA that are not at all either.

But I can't imaging a 25 year old hand me down car as a first car. Sure there must be some cases of that, but most cars in the United States are off the road by then. Right now the average age of a car on the road in the United States is 12.5 years which is a new high.

I graduated high school in 1996. Most kids in my school that had cars, had cars from the 70s to early/mid 80s. One of my friends had a wicked awesome 1970 Dodge Charger, but there were a lot of old pickups, Chevettes, Escorts and even a Pinto and a Gremlin

 

[Joe Mac]

Cash for clunkers permanently warped the used car market. It really squeezed the used car supply and that is still affecting supply to this day.

I graduated high school in 1996. Most kids in my school that had cars, had cars from the 70s to early/mid 80s. One of my friends had a wicked awesome 1970 Dodge Charger, but there were a lot of old pickups, Chevettes, Escorts and even a Pinto and a Gremlin

Yeah I was 01 and the few that did had cars from the early 80s. My mate had an 83 fiesta (so same age as us) in yellow with one red door and one blue door! Proper classy!