A bunch of smarty pants academics have for once given us some good news: things can get better.
The Guardian article I’ve put a link to is just a précis of the original document, which I haven’t read, but I can summarise the summary for you. Essentially, we can all live happily ever after if we tax the billionaires, eat less meat, and put more money into health and education. So far, so fabulous. There is some fine print, though. We have to cut back on our consumerist lifestyles, and realise that having “enough” is all we need, and incidentally way more than many people around the world currently have. I do agree with this in principle, but I have just ordered myself a new Tesla model Y.
Yes, I realise Elon is not the most likeable fellow, and will allegedly soon be in a position to laugh at the aforementioned mere billionaires, but he’s been relatively quiet of late. The memory of him cozying up to Trump, looking awkward in his black T shirt, wielding a literal chainsaw as the head of doge has almost faded from view, thankfully.
I’ve loved my model S ever since I bought it as a gift to myself for surviving COVID. However, I’ve had a few small niggles with it over recent years. There’s no camera at the front; the dashcam doesn’t record; the lighting in the back seat is poor; and a couple of times the screen has gone blank and the steering wheel has locked up while doing 100 kph on the motorway. It only lasted a few seconds, and by the time my lizard brain has realised what was happening and the adrenaline has started to flow, it’s resolved, so no harm done. It’s still rather unnerving, though. So, a few months ago, I started looking at what I might get if I sold it. The Trade Me estimate was quite gratifying, especially when Trump’s latest war pushed petroleum prices up. It looked at one stage like I could upgrade at minimal expense. I reckoned without the inertia of a giant company, however. I used my app to ask for a trade in valuation. At first a series of young keen men were very interested, but when they realised I wasn’t going to agree to buy a new car without knowing how much I’d get for the old one, they soon lost interest. Eventually, a few months later, I got his:
You can imagine my dismay. It took weeks of trying to contact anyone at the company who might deign to talk to me, to find out that it was apparently just a “placeholder”, awaiting formal assessment. Unfortunately, there was such demand for new cars that the trade in assessment team were flat out, and it was another month before I finally got a more realistic estimate. It was disappointingly low. By this time, petrol prices had been so high for so long that everyone who wanted to buy an electric car had already bought one, so demand for second hand EVs had fallen sharply. The estimate I got from Tina at Turners was equally dispiriting, so I’ve bitten the bullet, and accepted the miserable trade in. Mind you, it has saved me from fixing the mysterious scrape on the left front bumper, and the noxious black goo that destroyed the boot lining is no longer my problem, either. Paying the giant invoice will be a shock, but I promise that once I have my new car, I will never need to buy anything new ever again.