Decline of the western society #2

There was a documentary on RT a while back about American farmers trying to hack John Deer tractor systems.

The problem was that the vehicles were all computerised so when they stopped working it might be something serious that needed the vehicle to be returned to the factory or it might be trivial... the problem was that the Farmer never knew which was the case so when there was a problem he had to stop using the vehicle and get a John Deer representative to come and have a look, which cost a couple of grand and often took all day... they would arrive and connect a laptop and find the problem, which might be a faulty sensor or minor issue which they would fix there and then or it could be something they would have to ship the tractor to a factory to be fixed... they didn't travel with extensive tools and equipment so they could only fix a few things in situ.

If it was serious then it cost the farmer thousands of dollars to shift it and perhaps even more for the days or weeks till he got the damn thing back.

The company would not let farmers connect to their own tractors themselves to save time and money, so farmers got together and got some bootleg software they could load on laptops to connect for themselves and they were trying to change the US laws so they could do basic maintenance and repairs themselves like they used to when the vehicles were not computerised.

John Dere make a lot of money being total .

The Russian tractors are on the same tech level as the precious American ones. They can use GPS/GLONASS, have lots of computerization
and comfort features such as air conditioning. This has been true for many years already (but not decades). The video I posted
highlights the fraud of the so-called free market. When you have an oligopoly you have collusion and price extortion. The US is
even worse since it has monopoly control of parts of this equipment sector. Combine this with the "free market" Mammon worship
culture of the US where the politicians dare not hinder the profits of the oligarchy you get a nightmare for the consumer.

The funny thing is that these profiteers are undermining the economy that supports them. This catabolic economy can float for a
while on inertia and some level of fairness but eventually it will break down. The mighty western economies are husks propped up by
neo-colonial racketeering. The current energy shortage from sanctions on Russia is tipping the rotten western economies into severe decline.
Kanada and Amerikkka will go down just like U-rope.

Subsidies are not a bad thing. The US engages in subsidies but still screws over small farmers. The rotten US oligarchy operates
corporate welfare. So it is Big Agro that does not need subsidies that gets them.

BTW, Kanada subsidizes its oil and gas sector. Starving multi-billion corporations need your money!

It is the usury model of product design.  Apple deliberately designs its crap not to be fixable and makes sure that essential ICs are
impossible to source.   Recently Toyota or some other racket operator was trying to charge $100 per month for a trivial feature
to work.   The criminals running these racketeer companies are spooging themselves thinking of how they will extort rent from everything
including the car seat adjustment functions.

I think its a similar situation with cars.
Dealers actually make more money out of servicing than selling the cars in many cases.
And cars are becoming ever more complex (unnecessarily so) and I think... are being designed with shorter "service life".

Here in New Zealand BMWs are very rare, because they are expensive and not just any mechanic is allowed to work on them under warranty.

Sort of gives them a reputation though... I guess the few owners think that means they are in an exclusive club... but most people I know think BMW drivers are tossers to piss away their money like that on something that isn't even very good.

We have gone through phases here where this or that car is more affordable and therefore popular, but new rules on rust and safety features like airbags etc means classic old cars and even just cheap simple cars are no longer seen on the roads anymore which I think is sad.

Sure the big old Holdens were gas guzzlers (the only time most kiwis use the word gas to refer to petrol), but then modern SUVs... are they any better?

Can you believe their specs?

Most farmers need lots of equipment to get their work done and in the past the machinery they used was simple but not really cheap.

They could generally fix things for themselves and most farmers became mechanics just because of the money and time that saved being able to fix things for themselves.

These days you connect a laptop to a USB port on the vehicle and diagnose problems that way.

Bootleg software to help you do that is becoming more and more popular, mostly because these companies that make equipment are literally milking the farmers of money, which many can probably afford, but also wasting enormous amounts of their time when they can't work... which they really can't afford and which can cost them rather more.

Would like to see Russian companies who make tractors and trucks and other equipment make the software available to the customer so they can check what is wrong... they could create programmes that transmit some information to the company so they get to find out how often these problems occur for product improvement purposes... it would mean less time wasted by the tractor support people so they can be called out for serious issues only that require company support.

Russia should write into law that when a customer buys a product that the company that makes that product can't use support to earn an income... it is like printer companies charging way too much for ink cartridges... I remember it came to a head in the 1990s where it was often cheaper to just buy a new printer than to buy full replacement ink tanks. The printer I am currently using cost me $80 but the toner drum was $160. Of course I don't print a lot so I went for a cheap laser printer and I have been using it for 20 years without problem... No ink wasted cleaning the tubes for inkjet printers every time you use it after a while of inactivity...

Apple deliberately designs its crap not to be fixable and makes sure that essential ICs are
impossible to source.

Not just not fixable, but also not compatible... try using a USB memory stick on an Apple... they want you to rent space on the cloud...

Happy to see the new Apples use USB C but only because the EU forced them....

Potemkin Joe!

Western propagandists and their fanboi parrots love to yap about "Potemkin villages". We see this shit with supposedly democratic government today
in the precious NATzO west.

BTW, "Potemkin villages" were a routine practice in western monarchies and basically any monarchy around the planet. The king or emperor needed
the landscape prettied up to grace with his presence.

I remember in the 1980s Billy Connelly told a joke that the Queen mother thought the world smelt of fresh paint because everywhere she went about 20m in front of her was a painter putting the finishing touches on the paintwork to tidy everything up.

He also mentioned that priests thought the world was full of broken televisions because everywhere they go the parents tell the kids to turn that TV off and go to your room...

Sad that their is more interest in perpetuating the myths and stereotypes than to actually making things better for everyone...

BRICS is about not competing but working together to help each other to raise living standards for everyone... the west obviously opposes that right down to their very core despite that seeming to be the good and right thing to do for everyone.

The west is interested in the selfish thing to do which is to keep themselves on top and try to keep convincing the rest of the world the only way forward is to become like the west while holding them down and not letting them join the west unless they are useful...

The coming collapse from its current position of power means America needs such laws so they can take hostages in the near future.

One UN meeting with lots of heads of state will be inundated with US FBI and other law enforcement officials and the leaders or top officials of several influential countries will be marched off into custody to be used as bargaining chips the way the US tried to use that Chinese chick from Huawei...

This will be interesting.

In 2017, for instance, we demonstrated that Exxon’s internal documents, as well as peer-reviewed studies published by Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp scientists, overwhelmingly acknowledged that climate change is real and human-caused. By contrast, the majority of Mobil and ExxonMobil Corp’s public communications promoted doubt on the matter.

What really surprises me is that the oil companies around the world have not gone on the defensive and stated that the geographic record of world temperatures show we should be approaching a cold period... an ice age, but human related emissions of CO and CO2 means it will be warmer rather than colder... which you could argue is more survivable for the human race and food production.