• BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        4 hours ago

        Hate middlemen all you want, but that employment level is the driving economic force behind the middle class. Get rid of the middleman, without any serious wage reforms, and you’ll have a nation of 5% filthy rich, and 95% dirt poor.

        • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 hours ago

          I really don’t think it’s that hard.

          Other countries have figured it out and nationalized these various industries. The fun part is that there’s still luxury, concierge medical care and insurance too alongside nationalized health care.

    • ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Fully agree. I just don’t trust China any much more than the US to respect privacy and consumer choice. Color me prejudiced if you want, but I’ve dealt with enough Chinese suppliers to have a decent idea of how they operate.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        15 hours ago

        I mean I don’t either, but us unitedstatesians are now subjected to the tender mercies of Palantir, which is kind of fucking awful… so, potato, potato.

        • ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Fair. At least the stated mission of the Chinese isn’t to be evil for evil’s sake. Palantir just seems like an accelerationist’s tool and nothing more.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      12 hours ago

      I don’t drive, so I don’t buy cars. But I’m curious, how would that work to buy directly from the manufacturer as opposed to a dealership? Like I assume they would still have to have the equivalent of a dealership, where inventory is locally stored, can be test driven, can perform servicing. I assume that’s pretty much the same as a dealership right?

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Go to website, order car with exact color, accessory you want.

        Vs

        Company orders 55 blue, 55 red, 56 yellow, 55 black with 55 power seats, 55 power consol, 55 …

      • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Tesla does this. They have showrooms to test drive cars and then you order it online or at the showroom and wait for delivery.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        11 hours ago

        If you go to a us dealership, there’s pretty much always some sort of financing deal or somesuch. But there’s also very often a “dealer markup”. Never, ever pay that.

        That said, for some cars, they refuse to budge on that. For instance, when the new Nissan Z came out a few years ago, the dealers tacked on like 10-15k pretty much across the board, and then Nissan corporate was surprised when it didn’t sell too well… because the dealerships got too fucking greedy.

        If I needed to buy a new car, I’d vastly prefer to just spec it out online, click “order”, and then have a text come in when it arrives at my local Nissan or BMW or Hyundai maintenance facility (as appropriate for the car). I do not want to talk to a human and have to literally socially engineer them into giving me a fair fucking price. Jesus christ.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          All dealers gouged all car buyers during Covid shortages. Jeep was particularly agregious and the world would be better without any Stellantis products.