Top 10% household here too, but came to a different conclusion. Decided to get rid of my 20 year old car for an EV. I pay 1/4 to 1/6 the price of fuel of an ICE car to go a given distance. I don't care about charge time because each morning I wake up with a "full tank" giving me 230 miles of range which is enough except for maybe 10 days a year. Maintenance is near zero as there are no oil changes, no spark plugs, no engine coolant, and brake pads last forever.

Look again at your costs. I noticed my insurance started going up on my 20 year old car because it didn't have all the safety features of newer vehicles. My mechanic was always pointing out things that should be addressed (like replacing the timing belt). The car was becoming less reliable, hoses were failing, radiator would get leaks, etc.

As you get into the top 10%, it is OK to spend that money that you've worked so hard to earn. I was never big into sports cars, but it is fun to hit the accelerator and have your body pushed back into the seat.

Electricity will cost less as the grid transitions to green generation because there is no cost of fuel. We have a permitting problem right now that needs to be resolved to get the new generation online.

Here in the Pacific NW (lots of hydro power), my home electric rate is $0.087/kWh. Effectively, this means I pay $2.50 per 100 miles of range. ICE cars getting 25 miles/gal at $4.00 per gallon cost $16.00 for 100 miles. (Note, that although I pay taxes on my electricity, the Washington state legislature has mandated a licensing surcharge of $300 annually for electric and overweight cars to cover the lost road taxes from not using gasoline, so this adds an effective $3 per 100 miles for my EV.)

When I bought a new 3rd generation (2010) Prius, the same FUD was going around. Articles I read said the battery would only last 10 years and then cost me $10,000 or $15,000 to replace. It was a lie.

I bought a used and abused 2nd generation (2005) Prius during the pandemic. Before 2019, I would not have offered more than $800 for the junker but in the middle of COVID I had to fork out $4,000 and it did need the battery replaced. Battery replacement cost me $1,400 in 2020 dollars, not $10,000, not $15,000 and this was for a car with even older battery tech than my 2010 Gen 3.

For me, electric cars make a lot of sense. I live in the Pacific NW where electricity is cheap. ICE cars pay $4.00 per gallon at 25 miles/gal, so $16.00 to go 100 miles. At home I pay $0.087 per kWh at 3.5 miles/kWh, so $2.50 to go 100 miles. There is minimal maintenance, basically adding windshield wiper fluid. ICE cars have oil changes, coolant, spark plugs, transmission fluid, timing belts, etc. EVs weighs a lot but only 200 pounds or so more than a mid-size SUV so tire wear is about the same. Sandy Monroe pointed out that the motors in the Tesla Model 3 is military grade and will probably last a million miles. Time will tell about the batteries, but based upon how things played out with the Prius and with laptop battery replacements, I'm feeling OK.

If people arenâ(TM)t listening to AM (or FM), those emergency warnings wonâ(TM)t be heard. Move away from yesterdayâ(TM)s tech. We all have these cellular phone thingies that broadcast Amber alerts (for kids lost 500 miles away usually :-)). Using the same technique for national or local emergencies is a better option today if you want to reach the most people quickly.

Why do companies tolerate CEOs that don't understand the business? It seems so obvious that a social platform needs to respect its customers but more important is to respect those people helping make your platform great such as the moderators and third party players. Reddit absolutely needs to make a profit, but you don't do that by destroying what your customers like.

Apple is a good example. They tried to open up a third party ecosystem when they licensed clones. Upon Jobs return, he killed this. The reasoning was very close to Huffman's thought process - the third party wasn't helping the brand. The thing is, Jobs was right, but Huffman is wrong to think that third party apps aren't helping. Having a reasonable fee for API access would benefit everyone.

Jobs was still a pain in the a** after returning, but he was a much better CEO. I think Huffman would benefit with some time in the wilderness. He seems so sure of himself, like Nero as Rome burns. This is like Digg all over. Maybe he has IPO fever. If I was on the leadership team, I'd slap the guy silly telling him he needs to be conciliatory at this point.

Unfortunately, some companies and governments don't understand how to respond to failure analysis. Rather than dismissing a once in 1000 year flood or a 9.8 rated earthquake, they must design the system to fail safe in that event. For example, there are nuclear reactor designs that continue to cool the fuel even when all power is lost. Or, if the pressure vessel is breached, there should be an intentional weak spot which will direct radioactive steam and fuel through a known path to minimize radiation release and mix the fuel with materials to slow/stop the nuclear reaction.

Look around and you'll see a mix of responses to failure analysis. The Space Shuttle was poorly designed in that it didn't provide a method for the crew to escape easily and quickly. The Apollo system had an emergency tower rocket that would pull the whole capsule and crew off and away from the giant bomb beneath it.

Commercial airliners can continue to fly when all engines have failed or have run out of fuel.

Our huge dams will fail catastrophically because it is hard to cost effectively build something that can withstand a 10.0 rated earthquake while holding back all that water. Smaller dams would be one response.

Can you build something like the Dubai tower that will fail safe? The fact is that safety is a choice. We choose to build skyscrapers because land in specific cities is very expensive. Are they as safe as a sine story building? No.

People need to balance cost and safety. But too often a relatively small cost which would improve safety is dismissed. What would it have cost to move the diesel generators at the nuclear plant? What did it cost to put airbags and seatbelts in cars? What about having seats face backwards in a plane? Little things can increase survivabity, yet we still don't do them.