Awful

In this silly article (don’t bother, you’ll just get bored and it’s the WaPo), some aggrieved Black woman concludes:

“A queen might be dead, but the legacy of white Christian supremacy lives on.”

To which my response would be:

“And what, precisely, would you replace it with?”

If one considers the possible alternatives (Black tribalism, atheistic totalitarianism etc.), I’m not so sure that White Christian Supremacy — as a form of government — is the worst of all the options available.  Certainly, it was White Christians who first abolished slavery (of all people, not just Blacks) through the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Great Britain, to name but three.  It was also White Christians who developed the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, without which very little of today’s civilization would exist.  Heck, White Christian Supremacy even created equations like 2+2=4, according to this moron.

I realize that White Christianity is not without its faults and shortcomings — but once again, when one compares it to the other options, it becomes like Churchill’s description of capitalism:  “The worst form of government, except for all the others.”

Ask me too whether I’d rather (even as an atheist) live in a White sorta-Christian nation like the United States vs. a Black tribal one, a Chinese totalitarian state, a Muslim theocracy or even a soft socialist country like New Zealand or Australia… and it’s not even a close decision.

Stupid bitch.

Basic Stupidity

Several of you sent me this lovely little bit of governmental stupidity:

More than 140 people experiencing homelessness in Denver will each be provided up to $1,000 in cash a month for up to one year as part of a basic income program designed to help “lift individuals out of homelessness,” the city announced last week.

The $2 million contract with the Denver Basic Income Project was approved by the City Council and will provide direct cash assistance to more than 140 women, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, and families in shelters.

Civic altruism and wokism, all subsidized by taxpayer dollars.  And I hate to break it to these Colorado morons, but “up to” a grand is going to lift precisely nobody out of poverty.  It will, however, encourage more people in similar circumstances to come to Denver…

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of socialists.

Contemporaneous Pricing

From Younger Reader Daniel D:

As I have watched your frequent auto posts I notice that higher end cars, Farraris and the like, from your youth appear frequently. Many seem in immaculate condition, as I suppose anything of that value is, but it seems the same tier of cars are fairly often seen for those who travel in those circles. These are not mass-market cars like the classic Mustangs of the same era, so their continued existence despite I assume the same level of gleeful driving seems somewhat remarkable. I wonder if you have any perspective on the price at these times as it relates to spending power, as I have not seen anything other than which reflects their value as collectibles. I wonder if this tier of automobile was slightly more accessible as a doctor’s life goal type purchase as opposed to buying a house’s worth that someone else could T-bone. Were higher tier cars at a more accessible price point in the past for the merely well-to-do as opposed to only being a plaything of the rich?

It’s a really good question, with a couple of answers necessary.

Firstly, the issue of price vs. wage level, at various points in history.  I often use the comparison of my own situation in the mid- to late 1970s as an example (using the SA Rand as equal to the US$ in terms of its local buying power, which it was for almost everything except gasoline/petrol).  So:

  • Salary at the Great Big Research Company:  $400 per month
  • Rent for my 1BR 1BA apartment in the heart of the city:  $90 per month
  • Price of a new VW Golf:  $1,200
  • Rickenbacker bass guitar:  $1,100.

Now, the approximate sticker costs during the same time period (and in today’s dollars):

  • Rolls Royce Phantom: $26,000 ($159,700)
  • Dino 246 GT:  $13,900 ($85,375)
  • Porsche 911 S:   $8,675 ($53,280)
  • E-type Jag:  $5,725 ($35,165)
  • Chev Corvette:  $5,192 ($31, 890).

I should point out that the official increase (or decrease, if you will) of the dollar’s value from say 1976 till today is about 5.21, but for automobiles, it’s about a 6.14 – 6.15 multiple.

In actual fact, given that today a Corvette actually costs about $65,000 (double the “official”) and any Ferrari or Rolls is north of a million shows you how unaffordable the upper-end cars have become.

(I remember talking to a doctor friend back in the day, and he commented that buying a Rolls in 1965 and keeping it for 20 years would actually have saved him money, compared with buying a new Merc every five years, even with the maintenance costs included.)

But let’s just stay in the 1970s for a moment, and consider my annual salary as a humble assistant statistician back then was $4,800.  (It was NOT a bad clerical salary at the time.)  If we take that Porsche 911 S as an example, it would have cost me about 1.8x my annual salary.

That same position’s salary in today’s dollars is probably $55,000 per annum, and a “base” 2022 Porsche 911 with only a few options will set you back about $115,000 — or about 2x the annual salary.  Not too far off.

However:  my rent back then constituted about 22% of my monthly salary, whereas rent for the same type of apartment today would account for almost 90% (or more, depending on the city) of my monthly salary — and assuming I moved out to the ‘burbs, it would still account for close to 50% of my nut.

So the takeaway from all this is that a “reasonable” sports car was more within the average Joe’s reach back in the 1970s, whereas those same cars are completely out of reach today.

And yes:  even back then, the truly high-end cars were pretty much accessible only to the very well-to-do, as they are today.  My father was an established civil engineer in the early 1970s, and the Dino would have represented 1.3x of his annual salary — and there was NO WAY he would have considered it.  He chose instead a Mercedes 350SL, at 0.6x, and who would blame him?

By the way, an immaculately-restored Dino 246 GT — Ferrari’s attempt at an “entry-level” car — will now cost you from $350,000 to $stupid.