Saturday, March 29, 2014
Exception proves the rule
Following on previous post about global namespaces vs stolons...
Here's a rare case of a cult leader who had been able to use Coolness and moral blackmail to have his way, to expand his infinite ego to engulf and digest all of his little particle-like followers. Generally such cult leaders keep expanding until they engulf the entire world or until they get killed by some normal human or nation who finally says ENOUGH.
This leader has decided, at least temporarily, to allow some stolon-type structures, some branches and leaves, some distributed levels of control, within his infinite ME-cell.
Tesla and the New York Automobile Dealers Association have reached a compromise in their battle over Tesla's existing five stores in New York City and surrounding suburbs. The dealers had been pushing to shut down the stores, charging that they violated dealership laws that prohibit selling directly to customers. All other automakers rely on independently-owned dealers to sell cars.Auto dealers are generally not nice people, therefore auto dealers have always been an important feedback point, an intermediate layer, between the maker and the customer. Through the history of autos, dealers have often forced manufacturers to clean up defects or get rid of stupid designs or create new models that were closer to what people wanted. Just picking a randomly chosen example out of the air, for no particular reason: Dealers would never put up with a car that turned into a brick when you let it run out of gas. Customers could never exert such bully power on their own. And that's why Infinite Ego Elon Musk refused to have dealers.
Tesla has argued that it needs direct sales to consumers so its own sales people can explain the advantages of electric cars. It says that if it had to use dealers who also sell cheaper, gas powered cars, the dealers would neglect the Tesla Model S, which has a starting price of $69,000.That's crazy nonsense. Why would the dealer pay huge franchise fees, pay for required local advertising, waste showroom space and salesman time, if he wasn't going to push the car as hard as possible? The real reason is simple and obvious. Musk is a tyrant. ¶ 3:49 PM
