It really is becoming time for Europe to step up and turn the screws on Russia by declaring a no-fly zone and start bombing the everliving shit out of any Russian troops in Ukraine.
What do you think the Russians would do if NATO countries start bombing their troops in Ukraine?
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Yes. But then their car will be towed, and they will have to go through the hassle of recovering it and pay a big fine. The point is to make owning a full size pickup truck extremely impractical to discourage people from making them popular here.
The weight limit in most of Europe is 44 tonnes. The weight limit for B class license holders is 3500 kg. A Ford F-150 weighs between 1800 kg for the smallest regular cab to 3127 kg for the heaviest electric one. This is no heavier than the larger European SUVs. (For example, the Mercedes G class weighs between 2485 and 3085 kg.) A regular cab F-150 is actually lighter than most European executive cars. And even if you spec it as a super crew with a V8, it’ll still be lighter than the heavier BMW 5 series cats.
I want to be clear that I think this is very unfortunate. And for ideological reasons, I wouldn’t buy an American car. But this is not a problem that is limited to American manufacturers.
They are not heavy enough for that. The B class license lets you drive cars that weigh up to 3500 kg. Normal American pickup trucks weigh 3000 kg at most. I think the EU is even planning to increase the weight allowance, so pensioners can drive around in RVs without getting a C1 license.
You could charge higher tolls for cars above 2000 or even 1500 kg, you could make parking spots that won’t fit almost six meter long pickup trucks, and you could implement higher registration costs for heavy vehicles. There’s a lot of things you can do. But the biggest issue is in my opinion cultural. Most people are size queens. They want everything to be as big as possible. Even their cars.
They aren’t illegal when they get type approval. Ford even sells the F-150 Lightning officially where I live.
France has a deal with Ukraine, no one knows if selling at a profit, don’t know why you are making shit up.
Ok. My bad. My point still stands: Most people, including the article you just linked to, are saying that they are probably reliant on seizing frozen Russian assets to finance the purchase of those planes. And that that is precisely what the Swedish foreign minister is arguing for in the article.
Denmark ain’t donating shit, they are lending, which is a big difference.
This is a lie. Most of the Danish aid to the Ukraine is donated. There is a lending scheme which mostly involves giving loans and guarantees to Danish businesses that want to invest in the Ukraine. And even some of the money allocated through this scheme is given as grants.
As a percentage of GDP, the Nordic and Baltic countries give more than anyone else. They are donating money and lots of equipment. (Like the article says, one third of military aid comes from the Nordic countries.) They assist with training Ukrainian troops. They take in refugees. There is also industrial cooperation, with Nordic companies starting joint ventures and investing in Ukraine. Denmark has even allocated resources to let the Ukrainians open factories in Denmark.
And it’s not just limited to monetary or material support, like you’re suggesting. They’ve lobbied hard to maintain support among the other European countries, as they are also doing in the article. This isn’t a call to feel sorry for the Nordic countries, or bitching about how much they are obligated to give. It’s a call for increasing support across the board, and specifically to seize frozen Russian assets.
France has agreed to sell the Ukrainians 100 Rafales at a profit. Not “get” them. And neither of them can realistically finance this purchase. They are reliant on seizing frozen Russian assets, just like the Swedish foreign minister is arguing for in the article!
As a side note, I don’t think most of the Nordic countries are particularly well off financially. Sweden and Finland are in multiyear recessions. And even though Norway isn’t in a recession, the economy has been stagnant for years and real wages have decreased due to a devalued currency.
Maybe English proficiency across the world isn’t as high as the internet would have you believe.
This reminds me of that South Park episode, where Randy creates a formula for adjusted penis length, that shows that his dick is actually big. This formula just shows that Europeans live longer than Americans. You can weigh the variables differently and suddenly living standards are better in the US.
I can’t afford a house or a car, so I’d appreciate the higher wages and lower prices of the US.
Volvo Group is a Swedish company. And as fas as I know, a plurality of voting shares are still owned by Swedish companies. Geely does have a sizable stake, though. (14.7% of voting shares.)
Volvo Cars is a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely, and is 100% a Chinese company.
I think her stances on all important political and economic issues were better than Trump’s. The American people want unpredictable tariffs, authoritarianism, and an end to the rules-based international order that the US established in the wake of the second world war. She offered a reasonable alternative, and it was rejected by the American people. I don’t think she should need to be ashamed about that.
The author claims that Norway is the only Nordic country that isn’t in the EU. This is false. Iceland might be small, but it’s still a country.
In the current economic climate an EU membership seems appealing, but I’m not sure it’s the right choice in the medium-term. Norway has a very different, natural-resource heavy economy than the rest of the EU, and monetary policy would not alway align. I also think it’s important to try to maintain control over fisheries to a larger degree than the EU allows, and I already think the country is making too many concessions in this area.
Like a lot of European countries, Norway is a member of NATO. Even though the US can’t be relied upon anymore, I would still consider it a more credible defensive alliance than the EU. That’s why Finland and Sweden joined last year.
The author says that “…the EU [is] the only organisation for collective European agency in world affairs, and there is safety in numbers.” But the EU does not agree on anything. A third of the European parliament consists of Eurosceptics, and because of internal disagreements between member states, any shared foreign policy ends up completely milquetoast.
No other Scandinavian country has a wealth tax. In the EU, Spain is the only country that officially has a wealth tax. In Spain it only kicks in if your assets are worth more than 3 million Euro (around 35 million NOK). In Norway, you start paying a yearly 1% wealth tax on all your assets, once your net worth reaches 140k Euro.
I am working class. I make basically an average wage here in Norway and I am strongly opposed to the wealth tax in its current form. The retirement age is raised constantly. (It’s been raised to 72 years starting next year for full benefits.) The publicly financed pension scheme is unsustainable, and already inadequate to live a decent life. If you’re lucky, your employer has a good pension scheme. If you don’t, you have to invest money yourself.
It is said that a sustainable withdrawal rate for retirement savings is around 3%. But if you live in Norway, capital gains are taxed at 40%. (The second highest rate in Europe.) Additionally you have to pay a wealth tax equivalent to 1% of all your assets every year. So you basically need to save twice as much as you would in most countries to achieve a sustainable withdrawal rate in retirement. This is not beneficial for the working class. It makes it more difficult to retire, and keeps the working class working.
They could increase the minimum deduction to 40 million NOK or something similar to what Spain does, and people could save for a decent retirement without incurring a wealth tax. Revenue wouldn’t even be affected that much, because most of the revenue from the wealth tax comes from the top anyway. Not to mention that our neighboring Scandinavian countries can deliver very similar public services without any wealth tax at all.
An “arms race” for who has the biggest vehicle
This is already the case everywhere. The average car is still quite a bit heavier in the US, but the average weight of a car in the EU has also increased by several hundred kg these past years. The people want big, heavy, inefficient SUVs. https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/global-car-economy
I did not use ChatGPT. I wrote and formatted all of that myself. I used Bjørn Nyland’s banana box test (google docs link) and ADAC’s measurements where they were available. The only number I could find on Tesla’s website was “2138 L”, which seemed unrealistic to me, and I assumed ADAC would have more objective data.
I stand corrected about the indicator stalk. I still don’t believe it has a shift stalk. The website only mentions the touch screen and overhead buttons, and Top Gear says that it doesn’t have one.
VW was founded by nazis, sure. But they are not actively supporting nazis currently. Tesla is supporting authoritarianism, immigration detention centres, and one-sided and unpredictable trade barriers that impose an unfair disadvantage on European manufacturers. And the company’s CEO actually performs nazi salutes at rallies. Surely you can see the difference? I wouldn’t suggest that you buy a German car in the thirties.
I think this should be a big part of your purchasing decision. By collectively not supporting Tesla, we can make them change their policies. You don’t make a lot of concessions when buying a Hyundai or Skoda instead. And if you like competition so much, maybe you shouldn’t buy from the company that supports massive tariffs on European, Japanese, and Korean cars?
Tesla Model Y AWD LR
KIA EV6 AWD LR
VW ID.4 GTX Businessline
Skoda Elroq RS
BMW i4 xDrive40
Software is subjective, I guess. But in my opinion always-on heavy regenerative braking, no indicator stalk, shift buttons in the ceiling, and a complete lack of other buttons, are pretty glaring issues. The Tesla is in no way leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.
By buying a Tesla, you are choosing to support a company that actively works against the rules-based international order, and against the interests of the country you live in. You are supporting them with hundreds of thousands of kroner. Our position as consumers is the only way we can effect change in today’s world, and by supporting Tesla you are wasting it.
Which model Mercedes did you drive? I’ve heard good things about the iX, but haven’t driven it. Unfortunately I don’t have money for a car. But if I did, I’d be tempted to get a new CLA.
I haven’t driven any EVs by BMW or Mercedes, but I assume that they’ve improved since they started making them. The new CLA does not look like it’s completely outclassed by the Hyundais: 800 Volt architecture, 320 kW DC charging, highly efficient, decently serviceable drivetrain, comes as an estate. The only advantage the Koreans have is price, and simulated gear shifts on the N models. But in return your car will be ethically produced in Europe, and not made by a company that refuses to withdraw from the Russian market.
I don’t consider the Russian leadership to be rational actors. The invasion of Ukraine was not rational. I think they will use nukes if NATO starts engaging their troops. The Russian state media constantly writes about how good it would be to drop nuclear bombs on other countries, and how they could easily “win” a nuclear exchange. And most Russians support the regime and are willing to give up their lives for it.