But that also means that if the top 10% cut their consumption by half, we would have blown past the required targets to not have global warming pass 1.5° C, even if the other 90% didn’t change a thing. And they would have still been engaging in massive consumption by anyone else’s standards.
You should read Terry Pratchett’s Boots Theory. Many people don’t have the option to pay more up front to consume less, if there is even an option to buy a more expensive but longer-lasting item in a given market any more.
Yeah. If you’re paying for the car outright, your free cash every month will be higher, which can go back into savings. If you’re financing the car, your monthly expenses will quite possibly be the same or lower, because you pay for gas every month, too.
I’m not really sure Azure or AWS is much better. Not a defense of Oracle or Larry, just a dearth of free VPS servers out there, and I’m not sure I want to spin up a paid one with the other guys.
I’d say this is a significant factor. Some youtuber did a video where he basically showed that most Musk stocks were overinflated by a factor of 10 based on their traditional metrics. The difference was basically built on investors’ confidence that Musk could keep the companies growing. Between driving away customers, not focusing on building his businesses, and still not achieving the goals he promised, investors are rightly worried that desired growth is no longer something to bank on. He may have to stop relying on the wunderkind factor and actually start running his companies responsibly, and I don’t think he can do that anymore, if he ever could.
Capitalism moves manufacturing to a location with less regulation or the overhead from regulation, resulting in more profits for the capitalists. This is clearly not because of capitalism.
Spoiler
/s for those who need it.