Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Be a player

In the capitalist economic system such as ours, it is very important to have capital (duh). That’s how it works. You literally cannot survive without it. We trade our labor, working a job for money in return, just so we don’t starve and sleep on the streets. Equally important then is to avoid squandering all of the capital we toiled so hard for. Having adequate savings is how we thrive.

It’s incredibly calming to know that you’ve got enough money in the bank to cover any surprises. I cannot imagine the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. A sudden, unplanned cash event can turn into a downward debt spiral. A Sisyphean hole that you keep shoveling stuff in, but never fills completely.

If anyone were to accuse me of being privileged to not have to live paycheck to paycheck: get the French out of here. My parents of a combined $2,000 income - for a household of four - managed to save enough to buy me a brand new car when I graduated from high school. I’ve read enough Reddit posts to know that lots of people out there - of all income levels - have a spending problem. No matter how much you make, you should spend less than that. It’s not a value judgement, it’s math.

Because our surplus money can then be used to participate in the capitalist system: by investing it. That money becomes capital for others to turn a profit - by serving the needs of the customer. The return on our investment gets continuously reinvested towards other ventures, thereby compounding the growth. That is how we thrive in this economic system.

Don’t hate the game; be a player.

I want to DIY

Speaking of routine maintenance on my BMW M2. For now, I still take the car to the dealership for servicing. The first three years of that was free - every new BMW sold in America has that perk. Then I prepaid for the following two years of maintenance for about $800.

That may read super expensive to you, the person who takes your car to the local Jiffy Lube for $35 oil changes (perhaps it is much higher these days, what with the rampant inflation going on). But that $800 is for more than just two oil changes. Plus, I get a free rental car from the dealership. It would be nice if they give me one of those sharp-looking BMW X1 SUVs for a test drive…

But I will be in a conundrum after year five of owning the M2. Do I continue to pay dealership prices? Once you start changing out spark plugs and the rear differential fluid (every three years), the invoice gets mighty high. If I remember correctly, it’s about $3,000 to change out a full set of four brake pads and rotors! Good thing I don’t put that many miles on the car…

The dream is to have a small warehouse space when I can do all the servicing myself. A space completely dedicated to the car. Obviously, that doesn’t solve the cost problem that I was just rambling about the paragraph before. In fact, paying rent for a warehouse would surely be more expensive than paying for servicing at the dealership. But at least I can be sure the job is done correctly. The old adage goes: “If you want something done right, you do it yourself.” I would like nothing more than to have the space and tools to maintain my cars properly, with my own hands.

Can you afford it though?

I reckon most people don’t think about the total cost of ownership when it comes to cars. So long as the monthly payment is reasonable, why the hell not! You can absolutely afford that $70,000 truck. I get it: those payments are the consistent, tangible thing on the monthly budget. And if you ever miss payments, the lending bank is coming to take that truck away.

Wouldn’t want that now, would we?

The other costly parts of car ownership shows up not nearly as often. We get to gripe about super high insurance costs only once every six months. State licensing is an annual thing. Maintenance? The typical new car has a few years of free maintenance at the dealership. Unless you drive an F ton of miles, wear items such as tires and brakes get replaced every few years. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of consideration.

Out of the budget, too. How many car owners actually save up money in preparation for that $1,500 tire bill, or $600 major service - after free maintenance expires? (I’m obviously excluding the rich folks who can more than afford to write a random $2,000 check like it’s nothing.) Anecdotally, I’ve seen many people who can’t come up with these sums so suddenly. So they either put it on a credit card, or cheap out on the needed service. “What’s the cheapest set of tires available for this car?”

What then counts as maintenance is taking the car to Walmart for oil changes. That’s it. I’m half convinced the reason certain car brands are unreliable is because of owners not following the specified maintenance procedure precisely. Simply changing the oil every year on a BMW is not going to cut it. On the other hand, a Toyota will still last forever on oil changes alone.

Which is why I have no worries about keeping my BMW M2 past its warranty period. I am going to maintain that car by the book - either with the dealership, or an independent BMW mechanic. And obviously, I’ve budgeted for this. New tires are due this year, and the cost is not going to be a surprise.

Book 'em, Danno

Today, in things you love to see: a notorious retail thief was convicted last week of stealing from our local Target store. This is a win for those us who follow the rules and pay for the stuff we buy. I sure hope San Francisco will continue enforcing laws and put some actual consequences to offenders. (Please do traffic violators next.) The citizenry deserves to live in a civilized society that is free of these nuisances.

I point any defeatist attitudes towards the island nation of Japan. There I can leave stuff in the backseat of our rental car, with the full expectation that the items will still be there upon returning. We - the United States - can and should also have such nice things. To say otherwise is simply tyranny of low expectations.

To the people who say Target’s insurance will make the company whole - therefore the few thievery should de-facto be tolerated: do you actively try to get into car accidents? Your auto insurance will repair your vehicle fully, am I right? That asshole in a truck not merging properly: I’m going to let him hit me. That will teach him! I am in the right!

Retail-theft is not a victimless crime. Regular, law-abiding shoppers are victims when we have to summon a staff person just to buy a tub of detergent. The workers are victims when they witness the thefts happening, and can do nothing about it (nor should they, from a safety perspective). The community can potentially be victims when the problem becomes so bad that entire stores shut down.

I don’t know about you, but I rather enjoying have a Target within walking distance.

It's still an iPad

My first reaction to the new iPads announced today is: my god these things are expensive. Not that the new iPad Air and iPad Pro has increased in price, mind you - one of the few things that hasn’t price inflated in recent years. It just never occurred to me how damn pricey those models are compared to the base poverty-spec iPad (9th generation) that I have ($309 with the education discount). I was and still am not the target audience to spend $999 (starting) for an iPad Pro.

And honestly, who is? A thousand dollars is main-computing-device kind of money. It is far too steep to pay for a secondary tablet. An iPad Pro (the old one and the new one) certainly has the computing horsepower to be a primary device, but I wonder deeply who is using it as such. Every single person I know, their tablet is a secondary (or tertiary, if we count the smartphone) thing for media-consumption.

I guess I can use an iPad as my primary machine, but it’s definitely far from ideal. I would be working around its limitations (such as poor windows/app management, not great multi-tasking, and cumbersome file management), rather than a MacBook Pro performing exactly what I need out of a computer. Apple sure wants people to use the iPad Pro as the main computer (being the control center for a four-iPhone multi-cam recording is freaking cool), though I remain skeptical there exist such users. I will continue to recommend to others that the best iPad is the very base model.

I plan to use my 9th-generation unit for many more years to come. This is not the year to be dumping money into nice-to-have gadgets. Not in this economy, not at these interest rates. Well actually, the interest rate would be zero because the Apple Card offers zero-percent financing. Hmmm…

Camping club

San Francisco State University is not immune to the pro-Palestine protests that’s been going around American college campuses. You expect nothing less in a bastion city of liberalism. (Except when it comes to building housing. On that we are conservative as heck!) Protesters have been camping on the SFSU campus lawns since last Wednesday. One question I do have: how do we know some of them aren’t actual homeless people looking to shack up for a time, undisturbed?

Whatever the endgame is, I hope it doesn’t turn violent like it has in Columbia University and UCLA. Protest in CSU Humboldt caused the remainder of the Spring semester to go virtual. What a freaking waste! Imagine surviving through the worst pandemic of ours lives (god willing), enduring years of online classes, only to have to do it all again. I’d be pissed if I paid full price tuition. All because some people thought camping on university grounds is an effective way to make a difference for two countries situated on the other side of the globe.

But more power to them - so long as things stay chill and peaceful. SFSU is a public university, so First Amendment rights are paramount. I am sure the same grace will be allotted to groups whose messages are not so majorly supported by the campus community. (Shoutout to the Bible-thumper guy who comes to SFSU from time to time, calling every passerby sinners and adulterers.) It was only a year ago when Riley Gaines was nearly chased away from making a speech.

Because universities should be a place for exchange of ideas. A coliseum for verbal jousting between those ideas. It’s a tremendous disservice if during a student’s four years of college that they never once hear something they strongly disagree with. That’s how you get people who got mental breakdowns when Trump was elected in 2016. The 2024 presidential election is rubbing its hands in anticipation.

You love to see it

Word on the street is that McDonald’s is finally feeling the heat from consumers for charging high menu prices. I am very happy to see that I am not the only one around here who is immensely price elastic when it comes to outside food. Ever since a simple meal at the local McDonald’s crossed over the rubicon of $10, I’ve been largely abstaining from the Golden Arches. The only time I go now is during free fries Fridays on the McDonald’s app - spend $1, get medium fries for free. I buy a soda.

I am also very happy to see the supply-demand economic see-saw is alive and well. Capitalism and the free market is not dead! Restaurants can’t keep hiking the prices forever. Though honestly I am a bit surprised at how quickly consumers have pulled back on spending vis-a-vis high menu prices. It’s way too easy to put things on a credit card, isn’t it? What’s $20 here and there when it’s the future you that have to pay for it. I’ve certainly been young, dumb, and friviolous with spending before.

If cost of goods sold remains high into the foreseeable future, I don’t see how much McDonald’s can reduce its prices. Especially here in California, where the government saw fit to implement a $20 per hour minimum wage for fast food workers. Forcing a salary floor is a hugely anti-free market move, an undue burden on the entrepreneur. California McDonald’s franchisees will be stuck between rock and a hard place: corporate rolls out new value menus, but their high labor cost leaves a very thin operating margin.

The way I see it, I don’t see outside food getting less expensive - back to pre-pandemic times - again. I’m going to be like my friend who lives in Switzerland. Eating out over there is tremendously expensive, so she mostly doesn’t. That’s going to me. We’ve got food at home, baby!