POLITICAL: Voting is the problem

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/02/05/what-if-epstein-is-about-something-worse/

What if Epstein is About Something Worse?

By
Eric Peters  –
February 5, 2026

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As has been observed, if voting constituted a meaningful threat to politicians it would not be allowed. Stalin allowed people to vote. It was meaningless then. It is meaningless now – because your vote to be left alone is meaningless. It will only have meaning when your right to be left alone cannot be voted away. And that will only happen when people – most people, at least – decide they do not want to be gangsters themselves. This will take some soul searching. They will have to come face-to-face with the ugliness many – most of them – wish to pretend they’re not part of. The ugliness of violence. Of taking what is not theirs – by voting to have someone else threaten other people with violence to get what isn’t theirs.

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“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” — Emma Goldman ― often incorrectly attributed to American humorist Mark Twain ― but very very true imho!

Walter Block’s Libertarian Voting Rule is that in close races you vote for the major party candidate that is less evil. In races that aren’t close, you cast a protest vote for the Libertarian Party candidate. https://buff.ly/2GFxxPl

I’m beginning to think that all those who refuse to vote have the correct strategy.

Not that, by ignoring it, the gang that calls itself Gooferment will just go away.

BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), they can never ever claim a “mandate” since half the population just stays home.

I think that the Walter Block strategy, that I’ve been following, isn’t getting me a better life.  If anything, it’s getting worse. 

Short of another Civil War, I don’t see how we are going to get back to the Dead Old White Guys’ vision of liberty.  Sound money, no taxes, and rugged individualism.  

No robbing Peter to bribe Paul to vote.

Argh!

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ECONOMICS: Changing CEO incentives to more align with the needs of society

Sunday, February 18, 2024

https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2024/02/14/why-they-dont-care/

Why They Don’t Care
By Eric – February 14, 2024

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People ask why the CEOs of major automakers go along with what’s going on; can’t they see it’s killing their business?

Of course. They are not stupid people. But they are extremely wealthy people. So wealthy they don’t have to care – about anything. Certainly not whether the company they head goes under at some point in the future.

It won’t affect them, you see.

Consider GM’s Mary Barra as a case in point. She is paid around $29-30 million every year. It is difficult for the average middle class person who earns a “good living” to appreciate just how much money Barra is paid (I am careful to not say earns) in just one year.

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I have long thought that “executive compensation” focused on high salaries and stock options.  This has lead to a conflict in “incentives”.  The short term focus of corporate management and investment firms has been disaster for the economy, all the “little people”, pension funds, and investors.  Corporate management has no incentive to manage for the long run. 

It’s time for the Gooferment and the tax code to change the incentives.

I’ve always thought that “corporate management” should be paid is a modest “salary” (i.e., the average paid to individuals in their company), and any “excess” or “performance bonuses” in  laddered tiers of non-transferable corporate bonds (with allowances for death and personal bankruptcy).  Should their corporation goes “tits up” before those bonds mature, well then that’s just tough luck.

That will realign the incentives quickly.

To “encourage” quick adoption, excessive salary could have a special FU tax associated with it.  I’d like it paid to  the share owners, but that is getting down the road.

Maybe this would make those i the C-suite care!

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ECONOMICS: Are EVs the modern day Edsel?

Thursday, December 21, 2023

https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2023/12/17/one-third-as-far/

One Third as Far
By Eric – December 17, 2023

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But the answer – after much study – probably has to do with people not wanting to buy used devices that don’t go very far and take very long to get going again. Particularly because the batteries that power these devices are used. And used batteries hold less charge – on their way to holding none. Rendering the device incapable of going at all. And the cost of replacing that battery with a new one to power the inert device is not “rather competitive.”

Scientific Americans says “The impact of the used EV market can’t be understated.” And that’s certainly true – as used and unwanted and so unsellable battery powered devices with wilting batteries accumulate and languish on used car lots all around the country – alongside the brand-new EVs that are accumulating and languishing on dealership lots all around the country.

Scientific American says nothing about the potential “impact” of this on the car industry. Or on the economy – that is to say, on all the people whose livelihoods depend in one way or another on the manufacture and sale of cars – after the car industry collapses as a result of being pushed, Soviet-style, to build as many battery-powered devices as can be shipped (but not sold) as the factories can churn out.

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Doesn’t make “economic” sense.  These “cars” are an ecological disaster when they are made, when they are used, and finally when they are junked.  I watch them on the road and they are “virtue signals” until they have to be plugged in.  Every once in a while, I see one with a dent and wonder when is it going to ignite.

Argh!

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