As IF Times

link For Datsun revival, Nissan gambles on $3,000 model – Yahoo! Autos.

It’s only in hindsight that people can determine at what point in history that a trend change occurred.  It can be put forth that things such as the invention of the Gutenberg movable type printing press in 1450 ushered in a new era of enlightenment for mankind.  It can be argued that the invention of the steam engine by James Watt in about 1775 was responsible for the industrial revolution which gave rise to modern industry and commerce.  It can also be argued that the first law degree ever conferred on someone in about the 12th century will be responsible for the downfall of civilization.  Incidently, according to Wikipedia, that was created aptly by the European University of Bologna.  Of course that’s debatable.  Some blame rap music.

I would postulate that the invention of consumer credit, especially via credit cards is mainly responsible for much of the aggravation that many people in modern western society face today.  Combine that with the slickest advertising industry in history and it’s a devastating cocktail of unfettered consumerism.  Think about the consumer items that most everyone spends money on today; phones and automobiles.  As documented in  http://asiftimes.com/2009/12/30/can-you-hear-me-now/   phones have been around for about 140 years.  When they first appeared, they were useful appliances.  Now, they are essential lifestyle items no less important than clothing or food.   People find it necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on a phone as well as possibly hundreds of dollars on monthly usage charges… just to LOL other people.

In the case of automobiles, the siren song of faster, more luxurious, more prestigious, more comfortable, yada, yada, yada never fails to pull in that next generation of willing consumers who are convinced that they must have the new iteration.  Nissan looks to try to change the whole dynamic in the car arms race by apparently introducing a new stripped down vehicle which goes the other way.  No 12-way power electric leather seats with built in warming and cooling.  No 12 speaker surround sound stereo.  Navigation will mean looking out the window and a backup camera will mean turning your head.  Power steering will be by as much strength as you can muster and rolling down a window will mean an arm cardio workout rather than a finger press.  Assuming windows are available for the purchase price.   Three thousand bucks doesn’t even cover the cost of leather seats on most average sedans these days, so it wouldn’t be a surprise that the new Nissan may have only one window that rolls down.

While the car won’t be available for sale in the U.S., it’s probably going to be a hit in most other parts of the world where having a bicycle means you are middle class.  But that’s too bad.  If people in the western societies can afford to pay off their main form of transportation with just a couple of paycheques, imagine the resultant collapse in consumer debt.  Who really needs napa leather seats to pick up groceries anyway? Who needs 12 way power seats when it’s mostly the same person driving all the time?  How did people manage to get around years ago with only one or two horsepower (by real horses) and now we need 400 to get to work?  Maybe the new Datsun can be an inflection point in unchecked consumerism.  Now about those $500 phones for the kids….

link Romney energizes campaign with feisty debate performance | Fox News.

By now, the media is all a-twitter about the big collapse.  No, not the Ryder Cup, that’s another story.  We’re referring of course to last evening’s first Presidential debate.  As we skim through the expected comments by pundits in the aftermath of the great debate, the most striking tone that emerges is the surprise at how well Mitt did versus the relatively flat performance of Barack.

This is amusing because Romney did not do anything different than he has been over this entire campaign and really, since he started public life.  It has been the reporting of it and the perception that has been exposed.   There were no surprise policy positions offered at the debate, nothing that hadn’t been pooh-poohed by the media for months.  For anyone who has been paying attention to the content and not the editorials of his positions, what he offered has been there for everyone to consider for at least the past year.

What changed was the stark juxtaposition of Romney’s pragmatic positions versus the ideological ramblings of Obama’s, laid bare for everyone to see, stripped of spin or embellishment.  It’s akin to the old chestnut about how the young man at 25 years of age, is amazed at how smart his once clueless father became over the past 10 years of their lives.

What I find truly amusing, actually alarming, are the comments by the so-called independents who admitted to being swayed by last night’s debate.  It truly illustrates the shallowness of most of the voting public.  It also shows the residual power and influence of the general media which, though subtle can greatly influence opinions by steadily offering a concocted version of events.

Despite inarguably having the greatest access to education and information in the history of mankind, the ability of people to think independently is overwhelmed by an American Idol culture in which groupthink is rampant.  Many people think that popularity equals legitimacy.  It is a particularly unique trait of humans to do things that are actually detrimental to their own survival, something that you would never observe in the animal world, with the obvious exception of lemmings.

Conservatives shouldn’t take too much joy in last night’s debates as far as swaying the hard core liberals.  We know that even if the liberal candidate were found to have bodies stuffed in a freezer in his house, he’d still get the liberal vote. In the 2010 elections, Californians had the choice of candidate A, a person with renowned business skills who ran a multi-billion dollar enterprise employing thousands and who spent their own money on their campaign; versus candidate B.  This candidate was a relic from the past who essentially had no plan but was a darling of the entertainment community.  Californians were faced with crippling debt loads, massive flight from the state because of taxes and regulation and in dire need of proven fiscal management expertise.  Sure enough, the B team won.