The only reason they are so expensive currently is because the demand is still quite new and the price you are quoting is ferrying the manufacturer who is incentivised to price it in such a way as to pay you towards buying a new car.
Go to an ICE manufacturer and ask for a new drivetrain and they will likely quote you parts and labour price that exceeds the value of the car.
Aftermarket support will continue to improve as the market continues to grow and mature. Give it another decade or so, and battery swaps/refurbishments will become as commonplace as ICE engine gasket replacements, while also being significantly cheaper.
Even as it stands now, ~10yo Teslas seem to have battery health at >80% (maybe due to over-provisioning?) and are sufficient to meet most commuter’s daily needs.
“Inflation is good” from the perspective of Government fiscal policy.
Paying out interest on a AAA-rated loan (e.g. US bonds) is quite cheap, often below the national inflation rate. It allows (in theory) Governments to make large investments - like infrastructure - that work to increase their national GDP, which in turn can lead to increases in their tax-base, making it easier/cheaper to service their loans in the future.
So if the US issues a $1b bond, payable at 10yrs - with inflation at ~3%, the “value” (purchasing power) of that money would have decreased by over 25%.
This is an over-simplification, but consider this:
A farm has to sell their produce/livestock below their cost-price, because demand has dropped and the resulting over-supply has caused a race to the bottom as producers try to recoup as must value as possible.
This leads to less funds available to produce the next round of crops (further negatively impacted by economies of scale), cover operating expenses and pay staff wages.
People lose their jobs and livelihoods, causing a negative feedback loop resulting in less demand overall.. repeating the cycle. The Great Depression of a century ago was an example of a similar scenario.
I think the original nickname was the Baby Bust Generation, as birth rates severely tanked following the Baby Boom period of ‘45 - ‘65.
As a result, they never out numbered the preceding generation, and were pretty quickly overtaken in population by Millennials/Gen Y (kids of Boomers).
Basically, the reason they’re ignored is because they never had sufficient power to make as drastic an impact on society as their surrounding generations.
I recently visited China, to meet my wife’s extended family.
Let me tell you, the sheer amount of single-use plastics that are consumed by any individual throughout a regular day in a metropolitan environment, is absolutely and mind-numbingly depressing.
Given that there are 1.3b people there, and that no matter how much we in the US/AU/EU reduce/reuse/recycle - we will never be able to truly offset that sheer amount of plastic pollution produced.
Now I’m not saying this to be a doomer, but more-so to say that individuals can’t enact sufficient change to save this planet, we need Government and corporate incentives to shift towards sustainable alternatives, and punitive policies to disincentivise plastic production globally.
While I have plenty of issues with modern American ‘conservatism’; a good chunk of the anti-vax movement was initially driven by some of the ‘crunchier’ members of the left (ie. alternate/natural medicine, crystal healing mom-type people)..
I’m running a rusty old QNAP NAS (10+ years old), and access it via Infuse on my iPhone / Apple TV.
It provides a very Kodi-like interface, and requires near 0 set-up. Just point it at the root network folders and it’ll pull all the relevant metadata (movie posters, cast lists, series info, optional subtitles etc.).
We’ve got a pair of LG C1 OLEDs in the house, and the best thing we did was remove any network access whatsoever. Everything is now handled through Apple TVs (for AirPlay, Handoff etc.), but literally any decent media device or console would be an upgrade on what manufacturers bundle in.
Disclaimers; I’m not American, and would be considered pretty left-leaning by their standards.. but:
A nation should get to decide who can enter and stay (either by visa, or by agreement - eg. Schengen); this entire ‘illegal immigration’ issue has been intentionally perpetrated by both sides for political gain, at the cost of the lives and well-beings of those affected.
Razor-wire fences, and sanctuary cities are both terrible policies, that show the total callousness of the American political system.
Ultimately, with strict border policy enforcement - those that currently profit the most from undocumented labour will be the ones to suffer, and would likely push for increased/streamlined legal migration of desired labour, with the added benefit of increased wages for local residents.
Australia experienced something similar in our agricultural sector during the COVID lockdowns, where the limited labour-force became a highly sought after commodity, given that the dodgier farms were no longer able to exploit backpackers for slave wages. Companies that had previously been paying award wages (basically minimum wage - equivalent to ~$15 USD/hr) or lower, not had to offer up to 50% more during peak harvest seasons in order to not have their fields go to rot.
At the end of the day, hard-working labour made significantly more money - at a relatively low cost to the end-user.
In most situations, ‘vision and concept’ just add bloat and additional clicks required to complete the same tasks as the previous, spartan/utilitarian design did.
A good example of what I’m referring to is the Metro UI of Windows 8; yes it arguably looked ‘prettier’ - but that’s largely subjective and made actually using the device worse, without 3rd party applications to restore the Windows 7 Start Menu functionality.
Sometimes, albeit not always - programmers do end up making pretty efficient UIs.
Granted there was no standardisation in the industry, but I’m pretty sure they used the same remote across most of my portable MiniDisc players growing up (ie. from MZ-R55 to MZ-R900.. the MZ-NH1 had a different remote altogether).. I didn’t even realise there were restrictions?
The issue with the inline controls that evolved since (and morphed into Bluetooth controls) is that they’re too basic, compared to what I’d like.
On the go, I long since ago switched to wireless audio - using AirPods Pro and a ‘vintage’ Apple
Watch 3, but I would gladly opt for a wireless/bluetooth lapel clip style object with the same controls those old Sony had.
I’ve had a quick look around - but haven’t managedd to find anything that would fit the bill. Honestly, not even sure if smartphones offer sufficient functionality over Bluetooth to make something like that work out of the box?
If you’ve never used an inline remote, it’s really hard to explain why they were so much better from a UX perspective than what’s available now.
If I want to control media on my smartwatch, I need to flick focus on my wrist - usually stopping me from being able to fully use that hand, identify the right controls on the touch screen (and that it’s even on the right screen, and not obstructed by notifications) and hope that they register correctly.
Those old inline remotes were basically a useful ‘Bop It!’; control inputs varied: twist a dial, tilt the end, button press, slide, scroll dial and provided full tactile control which could be truly used one-handed (when clipped to my shirt).
It is a true shame that they were left by the wayside, when multiple devices ended up amalgamating into the modern smartphone.