Toyota just announced it would be “investing” $500 million in Uber, the ride-sharing service, to further development of “autonomous” – that is, automated – vehicles and “mobility as a service.” The reason Toyota and several other car manufacturers are making these “investments” is for one reason only: They know they cannot continue to sell cars for very much longer because people increasingly cannot afford to own them. For three reasons. First, the accretion of cost due to mandates that are becoming – and arguably already are – economically unsupportable. Adding a single catalytic converter to a car back in ’75 (the first year for them)  added a couple hundred … Continue reading Proletarianizing the Populace