Speaking of Economic Classes

This year, a 30 second Super Bowl commercial cost $7m. How much airtime could you have bought? If you have saved $1m, you could’ve aired your own 4.3 second commercial. What would you have said and how would you have said it?

I would’ve projected the world’s most important url on the screen without any audio . . . pressingpause.com.

Alas, I suspect the network was only selling advertising spots in 30 second increments, so you and I would have had to partner with six other people willing to pitch in $1m. And I don’t know if my friends are rich enough. Because we don’t talk about money.

Two Classes of Electric Vehicle Owners

Dan, Dan The Transpo Man and the non-rich majority.

From The Atlantic:

“It’s not just battery size. In an electrified America, charging access may become a status symbol. Because the first wave of new EVs have been so expensive, America’s affluent tax brackets made up the bulk of early adopters. The same people are also those most likely to be able to afford their own homes and install a charger that can power up their car overnight. As EV adoption reaches mainstream levels—which is happening at rates outpacing even rosy expert predictions—lots of new electric drivers will be the same urban dwellers that have been priced out of their local housing market, creating two classes of EV owners.

‘You’re talking about renters who may not have the option to install charging infrastructure,’ Jeremy Michalek, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the director of its Vehicle Electrification Group, told me. ‘And even if they have charging infrastructure this year, renters tend to move, and they don’t know whether they’ll have that access next year. Even a lot of homeowners don’t have off-street parking, and relying entirely on public charging infrastructure is a whole different ball game.'”

There’s A Lot of Bullshit To Go Around

There I was, spinning furiously down Lemon Rd NE in brilliant, balmy (low 50’s) sunshine. Listening to this author talk about her book on a podcast.

I like the way Dunlap talked about the patriarchy as not anti-men as much as anti-gender conforming. I liked her related insight too—that the patriarchy harms men as much as it does women.

But she really lost me when she said that unlike women, men are always talking about money, “at the golf course, at the whiskey bar”. Here’s a direct quote, “They’re (men) talking openly and honestly about money in ways that women are not.” Hahaha. LOL. Stop, you’re killing me!

Makes me wonder how many men Dunlap knows. My friends and I NEVER talk about money. I don’t know how much they make, how much they’ve saved, how they invest, what they worry about financially. Nothing, nada, zilch.

Note to Dunlap—money may be the last great taboo.

Then Dunlap said girls are criticized for spending too much money on frivolous things. Another direct zinger, “And for girls the very things that are deemed frivolous are always lattes, manicures, and purses, but not NFL season tickets or golf clubs.”

I’m wondering if she had a bad experience on a golf course.

Dunlap started out so well, subtle, nuanced, insightful, but then dove head first into, borrowing from her title, bullshit stereotypes.

It was enough to make me stop mid-Lemon Road and switch to Spotify. It takes A LOT to get me to stop mid-workout. And Dunlap is A LOT (at times).

“A Staggering Loser”

Like lots of news organizations today, the Los Angeles Times is digging into the Former Guy’s tax returns:

“The picture that emerged showed that for all Trump’s claims to be a great businessman, his core businesses — a sprawling network of hotels, golf courses and other properties — have lost millions of dollars year after year.

‘He’s a staggering loser,’ said Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.”

If he lied about his business acumen, what else might he have embellished?

Market Returns To Ponder

“The S&P 500, the most widely followed proxy for the U.S. stock market, has returned a negative 22.7 percent, including dividends, this year through Thursday, according to FactSet. In the same period, the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index, the most widely used benchmark for the broad, diversified investment-grade U.S. bond market, has returned a negative 14.4 percent.”

From, “Bonds May Be Having Their Worst Year Yet“.

Apple Does It Again

Wednesday’s Apple event was just the most recent reminder that when it comes to marketing, everyone else is competing for the red ribbon or the silver medal or the consolation bracket title. They are the LA Dodgers. Best in class and it ain’t close.

They’re so good they are going to convince a huge cross-section of the population that they need something they’ve been fine without their whole lives–satellite coverage in case of a car crash or other emergency. Hell, when we crashed our cars and got lost in nature before we had cell phones we were almost always fine. There were pay phones, people assisting one another, smoke signals.

Now, Apple is amping up everyone’s anxiety with a bunch of WHAT IFs with infinitesimal odds. And I have no doubt it’s going to work. Sometime soon, people will question your sanity if you venture into your car or the woods without satellite coverage.

And because Apple is going to leverage your anxiety so expertly, my AAPL stock is going to keep increasing in value. Thank you in advance.

Monday Required Reading

School starts tomorrow, so time to buckle down. Plus, Scottie loves assigned reading.

  1. I want one.
  2. Turns out, it’s really hard to scare a seal. Bonus trivia, the Byrnes clan is celebrating the fact that eldest daught lives 5 miles from the Ballard Locks as of today.
  3. Effective altruism has gone mainstream.
  4. The six forces that fuel friendship.
  5. How does it feel to be a teacher right now?
  6. Guilty as charged.