The actual reason is because the church was protecting its assets from the priests. Back then, priests were very powerful members of local government and controlled a large percentage of the wealth in an area. If they could get married and had kids, their kids would inherit the wealth they accumulated instead of that wealth going to the church.

It’s right there in the blurb, you don’t even need to read the article:

““We have no chance against this,” Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier’s floor.”

No, I don’t think they have no employees. But your five times the employees thing is misleading. BYD Corporation has 5 times the employees as Ford, but that is for the entire BYD corporation, including their batteries, cell phones, fork lifts, solar panels, semiconductors, and rail transit systems. BYD Automotive is closer to 2 times the size of Ford. BYD is also vertically integrated, meaning they build a lot of the parts/components that go into their cars. Ford outsources a lot of parts and components.

Again, you are quoting sales of a car that was discontinued 2 years before your sales numbers.

In 2023, the year the Bolt was discontinued, they sold 23,000 Bolts. Yes, that’s far fewer than F150 numbers, but it is more than all EVs sold in the US by Audi and BMW combined in 2023. It sold more than any other EV besides Tesla.

But yeah, keep using the Bolt as an example for why cheap EVs don’t sell.

The only reason these cars are so cheap is because they have no humans manufacturing them and have heavy subsidies from the government.

Are you really saying you would have been happy to hear that a CEO laid off all their blue collar workers and took government bailout money?

It kind of wasn’t. While you could buy a Bolt in 2025, they stopped making new ones in 2023. Anything on the lots was just leftover inventory, so not surprising nobody was buying a vehicle that wasn’t current.

The Bolt was discontinued in 2023 and won’t be made again until 2026. Not really surprising that a vehicle that is no longer being made isn’t selling a lot.

Did you not read the story? The reason why they can’t compete is because China has NO wages to pay. Their plants are fully automated.

Paying proper wages would make Toyota and Honda even LESS competitive.

Guess how old the children are from a policy that was ended 11 years ago.

Now, guess how old the people are who would be working in a car factory if it weren’t automated.

Finally, take 30 seconds to really understand why your post was idiotic.

Shit, betting against other people sounds even MORE ripe for rigging results than betting against the house. That’s bonkers. Thanks for the info.

I’ve never looked into them. You aren’t betting against the house, you are betting against other people?

I have no idea. The whole idea seems so open to manipulation/corruption that I’m shocked that the businesses are working as well as they are.

Honestly, that’s awesome and should be the norm. If these fucking assholes are going to let people bet on random shit, they deserve to have random shit bite them in the ass. If they are letting people bet on EASILY gamed events, then they need to expect things to be gamed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Zampolli

First two paragraphs have the Trump connection and the ICE deporting his wife thing. The last 3 paragraphs covers his Epstein connection and the trafficking of his teen wife.

The story is even wilder when you take a look at who the Trump envoy to Italy is.

He’s the one who introduced Melania to Trump. He’s heavily implicated in the Epstein files. He had Epstein traffic a 17 year old girl to be his wife…

HE CALLED ICE TO DEPORT HIS OWN WIFE (the same one who was trafficked by Epstein and the mother of his children).

You’re right, you do sound dumb saying that. Mostly because of how stupidly unrelated it is when you think you are sounding smart.

If you honestly can’t understand the difference between your personal choice causing lung cancer in kids nearby you and you not liking the smell of my cheese pizza, then there is no point even talking to you.

While negatively impacting everyone around you.

Were you addicted to cigarettes before you tried a cigarette? The point being made is that if a kid has to go to a drug dealer to get a drug, they aren’t going to buy cigarettes in the first place. They’ll get addicted to a different drug, which might not be any better.

Because it isn’t just your body in your home. It is the entire healthcare system that has to deal with the impacts of smokers. It is the neighbors who have to smell it from your house. It is the kids of parents who are smokers.

You are looking at it from the perspective of someone who is already addicted, not from the perspective of an entire population of people who have never had access to legal cigarettes. This isn’t for people who are already addicted. This is to achieve fewer people from becoming addicted.

Yes, statistics show most smokers start smoking before the age of 16, so obtaining cigarettes legally isn’t stopping them. But the sheer number of smokers dropped when it became harder to find places to smoke after bar/restaurant/public area bans. It’s interesting looking at the trends of smokers over time. Adult use in the US has held a VERY consistent downward trend since the 1970s, holding around the same slope for 50 years. However, youth use dropped significantly right around the time cities and states implemented smoking bans in bars/restaurants/public areas. That is correlation, not necessarily causation, so I am not claiming it as fact.

I will say it is absolutely jarring to travel to Europe from the US. I travel a lot, and going from a city where very few people smoke (well, they smoke, just not tobacco) to almost any city in Europe is a shock to my nose. It doesn’t stop me visiting Europe every year, but man it does make walking on the streets there less enjoyable.

This guy billionaires.