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Posts
7
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3058
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • You said people should be allowed to cash out of their employer provided healthcare, but you can already opt out. My ex has a smallish employer with expensive plans, so even after the employer contribution, it wasn’t clearly better than marketplace plans. We already are at a place where you can choose the public option.

    Or do you mean specifically bringing the employer contribution with you? That would destroy the marketplace for people who can’t bring their employer contribution. It’s also likely to result in employers very quickly giving up those benefits

    There is also the HSA which arguably could be called a step in that direction. Employers providing much less of an insurance plan but in conjunction with savings that can be used for medical care. The problem with the current implementation is it doesn’t serve well the people who need it most. People with existing conditions can not afford them without savings and people with lower incomes can’t save.

    But yeah, thinking about that more, that may be a path. Allow/define a bare bones high deductible insurance plan which can eventually become universal, then encourage employer HSA contributions, including with fairness tests. Now basic and catastrophic care is covered for everyone universally and the employer benefit is on top of

  • It’s already illegal to modify the odometer and many states have annual safety inspections where they could record such things

    The strongest arguments against smreridinf the odometer are surveillance and safety react, but if you’re only recording it once a year or when sold, then you’re not losing privacy

  • Can you not? My ex has always opted out of health insurance because mine was much better. Now that she needs her own, she had to choose between getting it through her employer and getting it through the ACA marketplace

  • While I entirely agree with all the benefits posted under here, we’d also be subject to the tyranny of regressives. That face eating leopard would feast on those red state seniors focussed on cutting health insurance to “those” people.

    Take education as an analogy. That’s mostly run by individual states, and there is a huge range of outcomes. Massachusetts is typically rated as or near the best education system but we pay for it. We recognize it as something valuable and as a good investment. Meanwhile many states/locales seem to see education as only a cost to be minimized. This is one of the reasons I live where I do. But if it were national, we’d lose that choice. One downside of universal healthcare would be that we’d no longer have the choice of investing in something better

    I work in tech and have better health insurance than most. I want the same for everyone, not less for everyone, even when that comes with voting for higher taxes

  • I’D be fine with that. Even with all the offshored parts and supply chain, the auto industry is still a huge part of the American economy, with a lot of related jobs. I want it to continue doing that

    However excessive protectionism isn’t a viable strategy when there’s also a renewed commitment to obsolete technology and cancelling anything that would have encouraged change. I suppose this favors established industry in the short term but it really seems like forcing them to buy a shovel to dig their own graves.

    The problem is if this is a payoff to musk, helping Tesla succeed at everyone else’s expense. Favoritism toward one specific person or company is never the right choice

  • In a competitive market we’d have both. I really appreciate what Tesla has been able to do with regular software updates, and that has been a compelling part of that vehicle. But I’m also tempted by Slates simplicity approach: no gadgets, no surveillance

  • And I’d be fine with this, if it were temporary and if there were also measures to help legacy manufacturers turn it around. I wish legacy American manufacturers would be able to survive The Biden administration passed a comprehensive package to do that, and that’s basically what the legacy manufacturers wrote off as a loss

    But the current situation is just exploiting Americans for higher profits on old technologies in the hope that global competition will help legacy manufacturers turn things around. I’m not seeing that. I’m just seeing them even more stuck on dead end technology, with no incentive to change. The excessive protectionism is permanent until we’re ready to bail out failing car manufacturers

  • I’m happy they did try it, tried something very different even if it didn’t succeed.

    But as much as Lemmy wants pickups and that is the most frequently bought vehicle in the US, perhaps that was a bad vehicle type to try. Pickup owners are also stereotypically conservative and excessively brand loyal: there a lot going against you in that market.

    Look at Ford, also failing but with the opposite strategy. An EV truck trying to be identical to the existing ICE truck was also not the way to go. Their new strategy of an EV for smaller more affordable pickups seems like a winner to me, but we’ll see

    While GM continues to sell their EV pickups following the ford strategy of exactly what they’re selling for ICE trucks, they can’t be making any money with how few they sell, anfpd they’ll never sell more with those prices

  • No, that doesn’t work. You can charge anywhere.

    If you watch that “Technology Connections” video that keeps going around Lemmy, you should not waste your money on a home charging station

    • technically you can charge at a standard outlet. It works for some people
    • I also have adapters for tool outlets, dryer outlets, rv outlets (a dryer outlet could charge as quickly as the charging stations where I work)

    A home charging station is just a convenience. A really nice convenience that I highly recommend, but unnecessary

    Power consumed is directly proportional to the weight, distance, and rate of travel

    And if we’re trying to be fair, that’s really not true either. There’s a wide range of efficiencies for different vehicles. On the extreme end, if Aptera succeeds, those drivers would pay nothing. More importantly, this also gives them another opportunity to charge unfairly to defend ICE vehicles

    Simple weight and miles, regardless of technology and efficiency, and recorded at annual inspection or purchase/sale - ideally also keep the gas tax to help pay for its impact on the environment

  • I understand the logic of the tax on gas to pay for roads

    But even that doesn’t really hold up. Gas tax depending on state, generally covers less than half of road maintenance and is already unfair because of hybrids and other efficient vehicles.

    And the bulk of the damage is probably from big trucks anyway

  • Tesla model 3 starts at $38k now. Somehow teslas went from being expensive vehicles to one of the more affordable EVs and no one noticed.

  • Driving electric is really nice IMO, it feels absolutely super luxury compared to a similar ICE car.

    Even better for those of us who can charge at home or work. It’s so nice never having to go to a local gas station

  • I wasn’t even aware they were selling in the US. I used to pay attention since they seemed to have compelling vehicles, but never here and never affordable

  • Yeah, this is my scenario: stay for a week of hiking or going to the beach. I live in New England where everything is close and there are plenty of superchargers.

    For example Acadia National park is 280 miles, has dozens of superchargers enroute, and lots of hiking.

    Or there’s beach camping like 20 miles away

  • No, we’re good with Canada. We already have a lot more in common than with the flyover states

  • And make them pay reparations for what they don’t people’s lives

  • Before the current political chaos, you would have made a mint. A little ingenuity and affordable value, along with the worlds second biggest car market next door would have been huge

  • My buildout went to $33,600 for fastback with roof rack and speakers

    While that’s a lot more than base, it’s exactly what I want and it’s still a great price compared to any other EV available to me. The only thing it would really not be good at is road trips but I still have my model Y

    But as a big and tall guy I would never buy a vehicle without trying it to see if it’s comfortable for me ….. and to see if I can remove the back seats and fit it out as a camper. (My brother is doing that with a sienna hybrid and he probably has the right idea: lack of range could be a problem if you want to camp for a week with no electric)

  • Yes, I saw data once. Everyone likes to parrot the concept that past industrial revolutions lead to all sorts of new jobs and the economy kicking it up a gear. But the jobs never pivot. The jobs are lost. A generation or two is disrupted, and worse off before their children and garandchildren see any benefit

    That’s ok, because their misery and poverty lets us sit back from the distance of a century and claim it was all for the better