I have no idea. I don’t think it can be. We discussed that today because we have a guy that has been coming in every day this week getting paid $2, $3, $4 dollars. He had 2 lbs of alum cans today. Why not save up all week and sell 10 lbs on Friday? It takes all kinds, I guess.
He was followed up by the weekly 6 lbs of copper guy. What not stuff it in a 5 gallon bucket, stomp it down, and sell it when it’s full?
I guess that’s the same mentality the payday loan joints exist on. I want it now! Never mind that you’d be ahead by making less trips and getting it later. Or just going without (when possible) regarding the payday loan advance check joints.
Usually when I haul a load to the scrap yard, I tell them I don’t want anything, just want to get rid of it. It’s mostly misc. small stuff and a water heater once. One time though I had a trailer full of aluminum from a bunch of educational displays. I did accept the $120 I got for that but I gotta tell ya I put in a few hours taking the dang things apart so they could be recycled. You know, lights and wiring, padded carrying cases, etc. Long story. Rest in peace.
Agree! Cadillac has become an old man’s car and on my street the younger and better off drive Audis, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, and even Jaguars.
The local GM dealership has lost Cadillac, which now has a “luxo” dealership next to Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. This me-to location is not doing anything to restore the image. It;s a bit of a joke like showing up at a car race in a tuxedo.
To tell you the truth, I could care less if a vehicle is seen as “hip” or “old man’s car”
If I like it, it’s comfortable, it’s fairly reliable, I can afford to buy and operate it, and it meets my criteria overall, I’ll gladly drive an “old man’s car”
I see some people squeeze themselves into little sports cars and they’re not even comfortable
On the other hand, I also see people drive monster trucks and suvs that they’re not comfortable driving, because they’re not comfortable with the size, and sometimes these guys also have lousy depth perception and poor judge of distance, which is another story altogether . . .
I personally could not care less what image Cadillac projects. But in corporate marketing terms image is very important. Cadillac’s quality image is gone long ago, and other makes surpass it in handling, and other driving dynamics.
Lincoln is going through the same “reset” program, with no association to Ford of any kind. Having a movie star drive their various models helps.
During Oldsmobile’s dying days they had Dick Van Patten as their"image builder". Bad choice having an overweight “family man” as their spokesman.
I saw Ford’s bonds were reduced to junk rating today. Too much debt, problems in Europe, etc. Of course they say they have a good plan for the future with electrics and self-drivers. I’m just starting to really wonder what the heck is going on with Ford and GM? Chrysler is lost, but gee whiz, what is with these people that don’t seem to be able to put out products that people want? So we have new little 4 cyl engines or eco tech and don’t do any better than the ole V6’s and have myriad problems. Can’t these people just get back to making cars that work and are fun to own?
Maybe it’s because of the weather or something but remember when GM made appliances, and buses, and trains, and and? They made a lot of money and employed a lot of people who bought houses and stuff. I’m starting to think we raised a whole generation of idiot managers more able to run companies in the ground than build businesses.
Comrade Bing out. Gotta get some work done before the snow flies.
Agreed about managers. I’ll add hedge funds to that although I admit I may be wrong. But so many once healthy companies, auto industry, airlines, retail, etc. have been run into the ground in recent decades with devastating effects on workers and retirees while the top managers who engineered the failures walk away with tens of millions of money only to move on to the next firm they run into oblivion.
This country cannot strategically afford, both in defense terms and economically, to lose all our heavy industry manufacturing capability.
I’ll add corporate raiders. Prime example, TWA was a relatively healthy airline with a busy hub here in St. Louis until Carl Ichan sucked it dry, leaving thousands out of work and their pensions gone poof, and St. Louis with such reduced air service that the some Fortune 500 headquarters left over lack of adequate national and international air service causing heavy loss of more jobs.
To get back to cars, in the forty years I’ve been in St. Louis the area has lost three auto plants – one Ford and two Chrysler – along with dozens of parts suppliers manufacturing. One GM plant remains. The reasons are multifaceted and complex but still an estimated ten to thirty thousand auto related jobs overall vanished.
I’ve also noted how much auto dealerships have become fewer in number with lots of consolidation into multi-line, multi-location mega-dealerships.
There is article in Popular Mechanics or one of those magazines I cancelled about bikes with electric assist. Yep for those of us not up to peddling all the time, the motor will help out. Then again the bike I have hanging in my garage that I commuted with in 1972 cost $90. These new ones what? $1500-2500? Then add the cost of the helmet and spandex pants . . . I don’t know what to make of it except gotta laugh a little. As soon as we could get a DL, the bikes were put away. And now it’s too much work (no kidding) so gotta add a motor. Maybe then at least they’ll need a license and pay road tax. A car was always nice on a date in the winter time. We didn’t date much with bikes back in the old days.
The ever growing miles of bicycle lanes here in Mayberry II seem to indicate that building them was based on federal subsidies and awards from tree hugger foundations and not the demand of cyclists. The lanes that have been make ‘bicycle friendly’ are anything but. The overwhelming public opinion of the lanes is hostile due to causing traffic congestion yet no bikes are ever ridden there. And the areas where bikes are ridden and could be convenient to ride are ignored due to their not being ‘in your face’ to the general public. There is a growing hostile view of cyclists due to the bike lanes despite the fact that none are ever peddling in the lanes.
It’s NOT federal…We’ve been trying for YEARS to get some kind of funding for bike lanes in my town. We have a lot of bicyclists that pass through to the rails to trails bike path the next town over.
The rails to trails projects here in NH are a huge success. They are used by THOUSANDS of bikers, runners, walkers. Great concept and not very expensive.
Maybe Mississippi’s politicians have some good friends in the Swamp @MikeInNH. The Federal government does offer funding under several programs to support bike and pedestrian lanes
and the single greatest talent for successful politicians in Mississippi is finding and qualifying for federal grants. 40%+ of this states budget is from other states.
Around here, we are getting a lot of indoor health centers with fitness equipment funded and maintained by property tax revenue. Bicycles are a better alternative.
In the St. Louis area there are some streets that have dedicated bike lanes but few cyclists using them for daily commute in the congested urban traffic. However, on weekends there many cyclists out on all the roads, with or without dedicated bike lanes. There also is a very extensive bike/pedestrian trail system along much of the rivers greenways and connecting up to rails-to-trails and park trails.
I get laughed at by the hard core distance cyclists when I occasionally dust off and ride my 1968 Schwinn coaster-brake one-gear (pedal and pedal harder) bicycle I’ve had since I was a young girl and go for a ride around the neighborhood or in the park.
