Observations For Hump Day

In a TV commercial for an online university the institution’s President says that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. In my opinion, that is sheer, unadulterated bullsh*t. Neither talent nor opportunity is equally distributed. I have written this before: people may have equal rights under the law, but not all people are created equally. Oh, work ethic isn’t equally distributed, either.

I know people who intuitively understand Einstein’s theory of relativity and others who wouldn’t understand it if they spent every day for five years in a classroom being taught about Einstein. I know people who are innately superb athletes and others who couldn’t make a layup more than once in every ten attempts no matter how much they practiced.

I think we all start out unequal and those who succeed figure out what they can do well. Some people have more options than others. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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Well, I wasn’t wrong after all. It was not a glitch that prevented me from accessing the classic editor in WordPress, but a permanent change in the path that I had previously used. The classic editor is still available, but not from the path I had used for almost three years. Oh, I still can’t stand the new block editor.

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According to 365 Days Of Motoring, it was on this day in 1899 that Literary Digest printed, “The ordinary horseless carriage is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.” Here are some more bad predictions from this:

 

“Lee DeForest has said in many newspapers and over his signature that it would be possible to transmit the human voice across the Atlantic before many years. Based on these absurd and deliberately misleading statements, the misguided public has been persuaded to purchase stock in his company.” – a U.S. District Attorney, prosecuting American inventor Lee DeForest for selling stock fraudulently through the mail for his Radio Telephone Company in 1913.

“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.” – T. Craven, FCC Commissioner, in 1961 (the first commercial communications satellite went into service in 1965).

“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” – Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883.

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” – Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” – Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superiure de Guerre

In the prologue to The Population Bomb Paul Ehrlich wrote, “In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate…” Yet, never has food been more abundant on a world-wide basis than today. Starvation that exists is largely due to political causes and wars, not overpopulation.

 

Repeat after me: history is replete with examples of the folly of human beings trying to predict the future.

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From Hagerty via Classic Cars comes this piece titled, “Millennials and Zs eager to enter collector car community.” Here is the most interesting passage in the article, in my opinion:

 

“Much of the ‘death of driving’ handwringing by the media in the wake of the Great Recession was based on data showing younger generations were getting their licenses later, buying their first vehicle later, and buying fewer vehicles compared to previous generations at the same age,” Ryan Tandler, survey lead [for Hagerty], is quoted.

“This conflated buying power with demand. The recession hit younger generations harder and delayed a host of major purchases and life milestones. As Millennials aged into greater buying power and started families, their purchase behavior looked more and more like other generations.”

“The lag was due to the disproportionate blow the generation took in the recession and the unique burden of student debt. It took them longer to recover their buying power, but not as long as it has taken the myth of car-hating young people to die.”

 

At a local Cars and Coffee event my wonderful wife and I used to attend before COVID-19, I would estimate that at least half of the participants were under 40. We saw a lot of Japanese cars and cars from the 1990s and first decade of the 2000s, but this event usually had at least 300 cars from all eras and countries.

As long as I have any degree of mental acuity [what mental acuity? 🙂 ], I will almost certainly have an interest in automobiles. I believe that attraction will exist for many people of subsequent generations, but I could be wrong, of course. I can’t predict the future with absolute certainty, either.

 

 

From Motoring Research a picture of a car with a timeless appeal, in my opinion: an Aston Martin DB11.

 

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#MythOfEquality

#IfItAin’tBrokeDon’tFixIt

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