Adult Content Warning

This community may contain adult content that is not suitable for minors. By closing this dialog box or continuing to navigate this site, you certify that you are 18 years of age and consent to view adult content.

Elephants and Jackasses...

Discussion in 'Permanent Threads' started by Nettdata, Oct 14, 2016.

  1. AFHokie

    AFHokie
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    282
    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2010
    Messages:
    1,435
    Location:
    Manassas, VA
    Where cost of living numbers come from: Cost of Living Index. Consistently, five of the ten most expensive cities in the US to live in are in California.

    I live in Arlington County, Virginia which is consistently listed in the top 5 highest income counties in the US. It's expensive to live here, however it is still not as expensive as California. For comparison groceries and gas:
    Milk is $2.47
    whole chicken is $1.90/lb
    89 Octane Gas is $2.70

    In an area that has the highest median income in the country, prices are 5-20% lower. That tells me the prices in California are out of line with prices in other places. A friend took a work promotion that moved him from Boulder, CO to Huntington Beach, CA eight years ago. The promotion included a pay raise well over $10k. Thanks to the higher taxes, his his take home in CA is less than it was in CO and even less once he included the higher cost of living.
     
  2. Puffman

    Puffman
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    147
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,460
    Location:
    Central California
    I am sure all that is true, but remember, he is now living in Huntington Beach which may be one of the greatest places to live in Southern California and he is out of the hell hole that is Boulder, Colorado. Um yeah I am prejudiced in this situation.
     
  3. AFHokie

    AFHokie
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    282
    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2010
    Messages:
    1,435
    Location:
    Manassas, VA
    He loves it so much he's currently interviewing for jobs in Ohio, Michigan, and Nebraska
     
  4. trojanstf

    trojanstf
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    20
    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2010
    Messages:
    413
    So Trump is on a crusade against everything this morning. One of them being Amazon again.

    The thing about this is I agree with him on the surface. In the long run I see the growth of these large conglomerates as being extremely dangerous and will only continue the wealth disparity in this country. Where it goes from there, I really don’t know.

    His biggest complaints are they don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Which is comical because he went around during his campaign claiming he’s a genius for taking advantage of existing tax laws.
    They’re using USPS to deliver goods. So then change the rules of what companies can and can’t send through the postal service.
    the only way to prevent that is through the evil regulation that he spends his days raising against. “Market solutions” are all well and good in theory, but they only work under circumstances that don’t exist in reality (equal information for all, level playing fields that don’t exist because of the existing wealth disparities).

    And the other issue is that he’s only singling out Amazon because he doesn’t like Bezos because all the things he is raising against could be said about twenty other companies, but their owners don’t also own a newspaper that gives him negative press.
     
  5. zzr

    zzr
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    123
    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2009
    Messages:
    748
    That's not what's comical. It's actually Trump's misunderstanding of how sales taxes work. Amazon collects sales tax in every state which has a state-wide sales tax, but they don't pay any sales taxes at all. The end consumer pays sales tax, and it's clearly printed on the receipt. Amazon is simply the pass-through collector of the tax. Trump's beef stems from the fact that many third-party sellers who sell through Amazon don't collect sales tax. In those cases Amazon isn't making the sale, the same as sellers on eBay. You would think: 1) The president of the U.S. would understand this simple concept; 2) He would be able to think of some mechanism to correct the situation, say, like passing a law in the Congress of which his own party controls both houses. But our president would rather stage a Twitter war than implement a solution.
     
  6. Nettdata

    Nettdata
    Expand Collapse
    Mr. Toast

    Reputation:
    2,863
    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2006
    Messages:
    25,733
    He thinks he's actually doing something substantial when he's raging against something.

    Either that or something major that he doesn't like is about to drop soon...
     
  7. trojanstf

    trojanstf
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    20
    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2010
    Messages:
    413
    Well he’s not taking credit for the stock market today




    (Yes I fully understand one day means absolutely nothing)
     
  8. Frebis

    Frebis
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    339
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    2,503
    Doesn't everyone love Amazon? I feel like there are better targets for your anger. It is the one company that makes my life better in every way. It completely eliminates my need to go to wal-mart or the mall, almost ever.
     
  9. downndirty

    downndirty
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    480
    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2009
    Messages:
    4,378
    Post office is only losing money because of a 2006 law that states they must pre-fund their benefits to the tune of some 75 billion, other than that they do just fine.

    Amazon plays by the same rules as everyone else. There's a bit of a misconception that they are killing retail. Not entirely true. They are killing bad and mediocre retail. Places like payless shoes or kmart that sells things you don't give a fuck about the experience of buying anyway. The run of restructuring for land use in the late 90s and early 2000s killed places like Sears and toys r us. Amazon didn't help, but on the whole their hands are clean.

    Amazon CAN kill retail but they really have no interest in it. Brick and mortar is still growing 3-4% a year.

    Amazon is choking ecommerce for sure. But most ecom sites weren't going to scale to be major players anyway and I think since the late 90s boom the industry has just been accustomed to a ton of churn.

    I used to work for an ecom start up focusing on retail and amazon was an orca: dangerous huge and hunting something very specific.
     
  10. trojanstf

    trojanstf
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    20
    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2010
    Messages:
    413
  11. Nettdata

    Nettdata
    Expand Collapse
    Mr. Toast

    Reputation:
    2,863
    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2006
    Messages:
    25,733
    Totally agree with this.

    The dude (sorry, your President) just has no fucking clue and talks shit about shit that he makes up.
     
  12. Aetius

    Aetius
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    774
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    8,461
  13. Revengeofthenerds

    Revengeofthenerds
    Expand Collapse
    ER Frequent Flyer Platinum Member

    Reputation:
    1,046
    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2011
    Messages:
    12,989
  14. scotchcrotch

    scotchcrotch
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    80
    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2009
    Messages:
    2,446
    Location:
    ATL
    Tesla took a shit recently and Elon Musk was the corn-

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-shares-sink-as-musk-jokes-about-bankruptcy-1522682691


    I was a Musk fanboy, still am to some extent. But visionairies don’t always equate to successful entrepreneurs.

    He’s really a fan of revolutionlaizing infrastructure, which although is admirable, isn’t a good ROI in your lifetime. Then he also gives his technology away. Again, admirable but not necessarily the best for business.

    I have a feeling the big automakers are going to come in and dominate his market once he’s paved the way with good intentions.
     
  15. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
    Expand Collapse
    Just call me Topher

    Reputation:
    950
    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2009
    Messages:
    22,718
    Location:
    London, Ontario
    Maybe his thought is he’s already too rich to give a shit about money. He now wants to see what he can leave his footprint in.
     
  16. SouthernIdiot

    SouthernIdiot
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    116
    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2017
    Messages:
    2,114
  17. Nettdata

    Nettdata
    Expand Collapse
    Mr. Toast

    Reputation:
    2,863
    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2006
    Messages:
    25,733
    Except that Tesla has an insane brand following.
     
  18. SouthernIdiot

    SouthernIdiot
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    116
    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2017
    Messages:
    2,114
    Yes, but when you can't fill orders in a timely fashion, people tend to get pissed and look elsewhere. The big firms are going to eat Tesla's lunch.
     
  19. Nettdata

    Nettdata
    Expand Collapse
    Mr. Toast

    Reputation:
    2,863
    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2006
    Messages:
    25,733
    How many people on the wait list with a deposit have bailed?
     
  20. trojanstf

    trojanstf
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    20
    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2010
    Messages:
    413
    Also, I don’t think any other company can match the technology they have currently, nor do any others have anything near the supercharger network they are building out. So for all their flaws I think someone would have to buy them to overtake them.