Doesn't being legally non roadworthy only apply to NHTSA safety recalls while there are other types of recalls for non compliance or manufacturer voluntary recalls?

Having worked (on the vehicle registration system) for a state agency that is a combination "department of motor vehicles" plus "highway department", there could be a case made that since your vehicle does not meet NTSB/DOT standards, that it isn't roadworthy and the best you could get would be a SALVAGE title. Which would require expensive inspections if you try to sell it or register it.

In Europe, car manufacturers have to show that their cars meet safety standards. In the US, car manufacturers only have to say/certify that their cars meet safety standards. This is the huge sticking point for Trump's attempt to force EU countries to accept cars that have not been proved to meet safety standards (it is portrayed as "unfair/uneven trade barriers" in the US media).

This would be a violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act of 1975 which requires they show the work done directly caused the failure.

If this were a widespread policy I bet class action lawyers would be all over it without you having to pay for it.

Maybe they researched customers’ backgrounds and only screwed the ones they thought wouldn’t lawyer up

This doesn't require research. Just reject by default and concede if a lawyer shows up. It doesn't cost any money to have a default denial policy and saves millions.

Same case goes to the same court too many times and you are gonna raise eyebrows.

They broadly decline it for BS reasons betting that most people don't know it's illegal and/or won't try to force them to follow the law.

Say a tanker truck has a roughly 300 gallon fuel tank and a 10,000 gallon payload tank (per google). Thats roughly 3% loss to cross a lot of the US, which is by no means insignificant but assuming ships are not any worse and the pipeline to the ship is minimal, around a manageable 6% loss.

Trucks need a lot more infrastructure in a lot more places than ships, though. I guess that's not often factored in.

If you look at gas prices in Saudi Arabia, some of it is subsidised to be lower but clearly its much cheaper to be consuming your own energy vs purchasing it internationally for a variety of reasons. The size of the effect is a messy economics question, not a black and white thing.

This was my about reaction when I was renting a house and a guy was going door to door to get people to sign up for yard bug spraying. Wait the bugs are already outside and you want to kill them? That’s where they live.

I feel the same way. I really enjoyed bonsai when I lived in a small rental, and now that I can plant actual trees it just seems so much more exciting to watch something big and healthy that has a real presence compared to a small tree on life support in a tray.

Maybe its being older already but I don’t feel super changed having a baby like people told me I would. I don’t do work or hobbies or socializing any differently. Everything else in my life didnt suddenly seem unimportant.

The one big difference is up to now I though crying babies were annoying and subconsiously somehow blamed parents. Now I see how foolish that was as babies are born knowing nothing and are just adorable little people trying their best to get their needs met and handle emotions.

Agree with this. I'm a little more sensitive to the idea of horrible things happening to small children (e.g. sad news stories), but for the most part I didn't find kids to be a major shift in my beliefs.

One health-check I used to anchor that type of feeling is if both parents feel the same way?

But I really felt it because my kid was a lousy eater, slept little (I believe those are related), and you ended up with continuous lack of sleep and energy and adopt patterns to be very quiet when kid is finally asleep.

Still, we mostly kept our hobbies until the second kid came, albeit some we did together (like team sports) slowed down. And things like travelling cross continents have stopped too (hard to travel, risky food...).

With the second you don't even have the benefit of being two parents and one kid so you can alternate the rest and activities (though the older one is by now more reasonable, but still a kiddo). Perhaps it was just uncertainty and lockdowns of Covid during early pregnancy (3 months when lockdowns started) and first year that caused a shift, instead of kids, but without kids, we'd probably pick up the pace more easily after.

I have friends who had an easy first kid and didn't have to change much, and the second tore them apart (literally, now separated), so I doubt there is one approach that always works.

At the same time, I like to say that it is good to have two mindsets in two parents (when both are available): eg. I have friends where mom is more relaxed and dad is all stressed up, and they are still a healthy family (so neither unhinged kids when neither parent cares, not overly sensitive kids when both are too invested).

As a millennial my whole life has felt pretty Malthisuan. I haven’t personally really benefitted from productivity increase, I have seen any competitive edge I had by being smarter or early to things erode away rapidly again and again. The only real defense is accumulated wealth or connections possibly.

Baumol's cost disease, I wonder?

If elites do not provide a social safety net why would the masses respect their elite status and resource endowments anyway?

Unless you are suggesting billionaires build private armies in some sort of neo feudalism, there are no elites who are not dependant on the existing social structure.

Private companies literally are building drone armies right now. Are you sure their use will be limited to Ukraine and the Middle East?

Also if you have a low paying job its probably not a big loss to quit it and go on Medicaid if you have a six or seven figure illness. Though it seems like they are trying to change this path for 2027.