Total topics: 9
New cars should be direct-to-consumer. And used cars, just use a private seller.
The two main flaws of dealerships:
- Significantly higher markup compared to private sellers. Expect to pay 30% more, which doesn't sound like a lot. But essentially, if you spend $15k on a car at a dealership, you get a car you could've gotten for $5k at a dealership.
- Dishonesty and ethical concerns. Pedophiles, murderers and rapists are the only thing preventing car salesmen from being on the lowest-rung of the moral totem pole.
Also, the benefits of car dealerships aren't actually benefits:
- "They provide customer service". They waste hours of your time: chatting with you, making you wait in the waiting room while they talk to their manager, negotiating prices that they set artificially high, knowing they'll waste your time. You're paying money to waste 3-5 hours of your time. They don't help you get a product; they're just a barrier in the way of getting a product
- "They can provide knowledge and help you compare cars". You can find this information online, and get more detailed information (stats, features, reviews, etc). And there's less potential conflict of interest when learning from an independent party compared to learning from people who are trying to sell you their product.
- "They inspect their cars, unlike private sellers". But there's a chance their inspection wasn't thorough enough. You always assume that risk. Either way, you get an independent mechanic to look at the car. Them inspecting it doesn't change your decision whatsoever.
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Economics
Seeking opinions from the experienced and skilled members here.
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DebateArt.com
1) It will make people more isolated. Work is where many people meet mutual friends, and in even some cases, their dating partners. We've already seen what this looks like during the 2020 lockdowns where social media has replaced real human interaction. But even now, I notice there are far less people in Meetup groups in 2022 than in 2019, despite covid being mitigated; people have just adapted to the new lifestyle. In short-term, people will find remote work more liberating, but in the long run, will it increase depression and social anxiety? Will this cause people to be more sedentary?
You could argue that people can just work at home, but then still go to the gym and go out to a social event at night, and with no commute time, they'd have more free time to do that. But realistically, will this actually pan out that way? Or will people just choose the path of least resistance?
^ This point is relatively subjective. And some people may prefer to be homebodies. But the 2nd point is more concrete.
2) Foreign competition. If work is all remote, why would IT, cybersecurity and data analysts pay an American or European $30 an hour, when they could pay someone in India $10-15 an hour? Granted, competition would help developing countries but would hurt developed countries.
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Economics
In the developed world, people's perceptions have changed. Most people are 30-40 lbs overweight. So if you put someone who is 30-40 lbs overweight that crowd, people wouldn't consider them overweight. They'd consider that average.
The goalpost has moved. A person with a 23-24 BMI, for example, would've been considered average a few decades ago, but now many people consider that "skinny". And someone who is 21 BMI, while still in a healthy weight range, would be called anorexic. People are generally not seen as overweight unless they're morbidly obese.
The % of Americans who consider themselves overweight is the same now as 20 years ago. Yet the % of Americans who are overweight or obese has gone up significantly. This means people consider their weight relative to the population rather than in absolute. Only 25% of Americans have a normal BMI. 3 in 4 Americans are overweight.
Some will argue that BMI overestimates how fat people are because it doesn't take muscle into account. This is true for a small portion of the population that actively bodybuild. But for most people, it may overestimate it. If you're a 180 lb athlete at age 25, but you become sedentary. When you're 35 or 45, you may still be the same 180 lbs, but with a higher bodyfat percentage.
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Science and Nature
With tuition costs increasing faster than wages, it's less of a value than it was decades also. Also, it's less effective at setting people apart. In the past, if you had a college degree, you were among a small percentage of people. Now, there are many people with them.
Imo, college is worth it if:
- You know what you want to do.
- You're majoring in something that's in demand (<10-20% of majors).
Rising tuition costs make high school performance more important. Someone with a high GPA in high school has access to scholarships. If I had an offer between taking a $200k loan to go to Harvard vs. going to a public university for free, I would easily take the latter.
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Education
I'll easily contend with progressives, conservatives and independents alike.
- Multiple presidents have intended to get out of the middle east and instead use resources to rebuild our own country's infrastructure. Biden is the only who actually did it.
- 100 accomplishments in the first 100 days.
- Biden passed significant pieces of legislation in a narrowly divided Congress. Most other presidents with significant legislative achievements have done so with a comfortable majority, but it takes political skill to negotiate with a 50-50 Senate.
- First president in history to pass significant legislation toward climate change.
- First president in history to actually pass legislation to negotiate drug prices with Medicare.
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Politics
Right now, people can get double vaccinated and then additional booster shots. They also have the choice to wear masks if they please. And over time, covid variants have gotten less deadly.
If Covid lockdowns was the reason you weren't going to the gym, wouldn't you be going to the gym currently?
If Covid lockdowns were the reason why you avoided meetup groups, travelling and other social activities, wouldn't you be doing them now?
I don't genuinely think people are afraid of covid. They're just accustomed to their 2020 lifestyle of staying home on social media and video games.
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Miscellaneous
Subjective of course. But I'll make my case:
- Eating at home saves money. If someone is looking to save up money for traveling, buying a car/house, emergency fund, or whatever it is, eating out less is often the easiest fix.
- Eating at a restaurant does not necessarily save time. You save time from prepping and cooking. But you lose time from the commute there, the commute back, waiting for the food, waiting for the check, and sometimes even waiting for a seat.
- Eating at home allows you to track macros and calories accurately. While popular chains have info posted, most restaurants in general don't. With how commonplace the use of butter and oil is in kitchens, it's very easy to underestimate calories when eyeballing. If your fitness and body composition are priority, dining at a restaurant should be limited.
- Lastly, it depends on what food you order. Many restaurants have foods that do use uncommon or "high-end" ingredients and/or require a lot of skill to prepare. But many entrees on menus are also things that are cheap to make, easy to make and use common ingredients. It doesn't make sense to go to a restaurant just to order things you could make yourself at home.
- At home, you can control the temperature, lighting, music that's playing, what's on television. And there are no screaming kids.
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Miscellaneous
Online debating has been a hobby of mine for 15 years. I come back to it and take a break from it. It seems like a major pain point is how long it takes me to write arguments.
I could easily spend a half hour reading and digesting my opponent's argument, and thinking of counterarguments. 45 minutes writing. And then another 45 minutes proofreading. And that's easily 2 hours spent. On a piece of writing, that looks like it should've been written in 20 minutes.
And probably could've been written in 20 minutes if that word count were applied to any other type of writing (essay, blog, poem, short story, etc). Am I the only one that has this issue? Tips for improving at this?
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DebateArt.com