Manufacturing

There is a niche for an affordable car that is made at a large scale in the U.S. Manufacturers stopped selling low-end options such as the Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Nissan Versa in the U.S. or globally. The most common options now are often crossovers or small SVUs paired with complicated transmissions.

With Japan, Germany and South Korea looking to phase out gas/diesel-only cars or cars with emissions at all, an economy car coming here from these places probably won't happen again for a while. The cheapest electric car available here right now is close to 30K. Considering most places aren't really designed around public transit and the fact that most households still need a car, people need a practical vehicular option. 

A better option for many buyers could still be built here. It could even be built in Detroit, where there's affordable land and all kinds of talent familiar with the industry. The major universities educate students looking to work in this field. Also, there's the potential for affordable housing to be put into surrounding areas. 

Image generated with ChatGPT

A good design would include rear wheel drive with limited slip differential; relatively simple manual and automatic transmission options; one 4 cylinder engine option; minimal color and vehicle options; 2 doors, 4 seats and a hatchback. Serviceability, design precision and quality control would be priorities. For instance, it's easier to change out a clutch or transmission on rear-wheel-drive cars.

This would be one mass-produced car, with a design that doesn't change for many years. Interchangeable parts would be built into the concept, because there aren't all of the parts associated with a changing product line, and down the road used parts would accumulate. So this would be a good used car option in the future.

The company could have one factory here for final assembly, one for the engine and one for the transmission. Other components could be sourced internally or externally. With today's manufacturing, this wouldn't create a lot of assembly jobs, but it's still a lot of jobs, and it's domestic. Someone still needs to make the robots and all of the parts. This could even be viewed as a jobs program, with all kinds of jobs for people building something all kinds of people need.

The key here would be finding people who really want to do this kind of work and keeping greed out of the way of smart, efficient business practices. A Saturn-like sales network could be set up, or the traditional dealer model could be used. A simple design and minimal service requirements would make existing dealer networks more accessible. This would be initially intended for domestic sales. 

Image generated with ChatGPT 

Unaffordable Housing Dynamics and Zoning Reform

 

In these larger metro areas and smaller cities that are very desirable places to live, land prices have increased more to much more than the prices of homes. The most pronounced effects of this are very few small homes being built and larger new homes being the norm. It isn't as profitable to put a small, affordable house on an expensive lot. 

Back in 1950 the average size of a new house was about 1000 sq. ft. Now the average size is around 2,400 sq. ft. So, along with inflated home prices, this isn't affordable for someone with a median income. People need access to small (900-1,200 sq. ft.) homes.

In rural inland areas and smaller cities in the South and Midwest this is still viable. There are places that just need development and zoning reform. Looking at zoning regulations for Shawnee County, KS, where Topeka is, they could use some areas zoned for smaller single-family residential lots. There are correlations between lot sizes and the sizes of the homes built on them. For instance, a 1,000 sq. ft. house shouldn't require a 4,000 sq. ft. to 6,500 sq. ft. lot. Bigger lots result in lower urban density and bigger houses, and this adds to housing costs. 

Some of these places should try working with their zoning and seeing if this opens up the areas to prosperity and development. First of all, this is new construction. Affordable homes in areas such as Topeka mean someone not only saves on the price of the house, but they also save on the interest. Moreover, someone who might take out a 30-year loan for a starter home in Portland, OR, could benefit from a 15 or 20-year loan on a starter home in Topeka. 

Corporate Executive Pay and Tax Structure

CEO pay is out of hand. C-suite executive (CFO, COO, CMO, CLO, CIO, etc.) pay is also quite excessive, with Fortune 500 officers often making between 3,000,000 and 7,000,000+ in total compensation. These pay packages often include huge sign-on bonuses. The rise in executive pay correlates with changes to income tax policies enacted during the Reagan administration, so poor policy choices way back then are still affecting us today.

Not to focus on the domestic auto industry, but top executives' pay across industries in Japan, South Korea and Germany is much less than ours. This may be due in part to different corporate governance structures and corporate cultures, but these countries also have more progressive income tax policies. 

If it were possible to rein in these costs through taxes, the savings could go toward lower costs for goods and services, other areas such as R+D and quality control, or they could go to better pay for workers. It depends on the industry, but in several areas it would make sense to pay workers more because they receive low pay and don't consume much relative to wealthier people. This is especially true when it comes to low paid service and retail workers who are struggling with inflation and an inefficient housing market. 

Looking at the top 150 domestic market caps, there are companies such as Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Walt Disney, McDonald's, Starbucks, Lowe's, and CVS, which all employ a very large number of relatively low paid workers who receive few or no benefits (or who can't afford the benefits). There are also gig industry workers under a couple of brands. In other industries, such as insurance, it might be better to put savings toward lower rates for policyholders. A number of the top 150 are banks. Here, savings could go toward better pay for tellers.

Revolving Door Politics, Think Tanks and the Media

 

People should take a closer look at think tanks, the media and how government employees are using their positions to profit from private sector career moves. Proponents for loose regulation over revolving door policies argue experience outweighs the costs of leaving widespread loopholes. There should be strong regulations here, and none of this activity should be permitted when there are conflicts of interest. People know how to game the system, and this is causing all sorts of problems, especially when it comes to the national debt.

Sources: U.S. Office of Management and Budget and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product [GFDEGDQ188S], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S, August 24, 2026.

Right now there are some regulations such as cooling-off periods. Current regulations are thin, and policy goes back and forth between shorter and longer cooling-off periods. This doesn't work here. Some of the regulations prohibit taking a position where there is a really direct conflict of interest. Often times former government officials get board seats at large companies or think tanks. Anyone can sit on a board.

This one guy went from a top government position, then years later received a board seat at a top contractor. Then, he gets a position with another contractor. He leaves the first contractor with millions in stock. While he sits as a board chair at a think tank, he has worked for Fox News as a regularly appearing strategic analyst for decades. 

This happens all the time across different industries. Some may argue for transparency, but this type of behavior really should not occur. Voters don't have time to conduct this type of in-depth research on all kinds of issues. That's what politicians are for. They're supposed to do the research and act in our best interests.

Identifying Astroturfing on Social Media

This is a topic that hasn't received enough attention. Astroturfing is probably a bigger issue than most people realize. When one side does this on a large scale, the other side will need to do the same thing in order to compete. The potential end result is people end up with someone elected to office because some PR strategist cooked up a bigger crock of slop than the other side.

Using a right example, this video will be analyzed:

The channel this video comes from has 200,000,000 views and pitches itself as comedy. There isn't any explicit advertising in the videos. The channel has about 2500 consistently right-based videos. The creator(s) appears to be a single person. One to two short (not shorts) videos are produced daily.

This video is about a party/pool party happening at a short-term rental. Just about all the people attending were Black. Anyone could organize something like this and target specific demographics as participants.

Looking at the comments section, just about all the comments have distinct, biased patterns. There's an abundance of racist comments. Regardless of the reasons for the video, this means votes. It boils down to votes, money and power.

There are a ton of channels like this, including CartierFamily, Modern Renaissance Man, JSeay Uncensored, Body Speaks, Marcus Lewis, EZetheboss, SC Reviews, Carmen Jaycee, Anthony Cumia, Internet Exposed, Tammy Reaction TV, Angry Unc, Chingster 11, and Michael C. Steel. These channels receive a lot of views and convey new, short videos at rates from once a week to one or two daily. They usually have about the same AI thumbnails. It's pretty clear they're politically motivated.

This could just be a normal video, but looking at it the other way reveals the potential dynamics. Someone could pay a few people to engage in this behavior. First of all, this situation in this area is very unusual. There are more views than the population on the island. Looking at the comments, there's an excessive level of racial content. This gets into "get tough on crime" things, and there are comments about gun rights. This affects tourism, so local business owners could be persuaded to vote a different way. Property owners might be influenced because of property values. 

Identity Politics vs. Working Class Politics

 

For quite a while now, we've had this identity politics thing going on. We need a shift in focus to working-class politics. Right now, we have someone on one side standing there with a flag that represents conservative identity politics and someone on the other side with a flag that represents liberal identity politics. While all this goes on, inequality grows and we see the same outcomes.

Working-class voters account for about 60% of voters, by the traditional definition. The traditional definition usually means someone without a bachelor's degree. Currently, the definition of "working-class" should include teachers, nurses, flight attendants, and all sorts of people who may have four-year degrees. There's a growing number of people with degrees that are doing working-class work.

The "modern" definitions of working class are a bit dated. A two-year degree 50 years ago was probably as marketable as a bachelor's or master's degree is today. People didn't share the same concerns back then. Today, if a teacher can't afford rent, I'd say that qualifies as working class. It's the same thing with a medical professional that has their hands full with their job; then they have to deal with relatives that moved back in with them.

In this day and age, someone's niche interests aren't a priority. Given an expanded definition of working-class, something like 75% of voters share the same major concerns, like affordable housing, affordable healthcare, food security, transportation, education, and less global conflict. A person's biased views on race, gender, nationality, or religion don't have anything to do with these issues, and pushing these personal agendas won't fix the major problems.

Working-class people need to ask their politicians what they are doing to fix these things. To politicians, this is 75% of the vote, and voters need to use this to ensure proper representation. If these things aren't front and center in politicians' agendas, people should just vote them out. 

 

Modern City Planning

Here's a modern city plan. So, instead of spending all kinds of resources on working on areas that are old and overpopulated (often coastal), cities like this could evolve in places that are affordable and could use development.

This is kind of the opposite of traditional planning. In the past, cities were developed around waterways, railroads and highways. Highways were introduced to go right through the cities. This design emphasizes using buses for public transportation, and minimal traffic patterns and parking requirements. 8-foot-wide multi-use paths could be used where sidewalks would usually be. Bike lanes probably came from vehicular cycling ideas, which is a poor concept.

Clicking on the image will allow for better viewing. With this design there are minimal obstructions to travel. Someone could get anywhere in the city with one bus transfer or turn. All of the industrial facilities, warehouses, box stores, storage units, and strip malls are along the beltway/highway. Freight traffic within the city is minimized. Other highways, railroads, large parks, airports, large recreation facilities, rivers, and lakes would be outside the beltway. The parks could have fountains or ponds.

The school parking and property across from the schools could be accessed via pedestrian underpasses. This way, traffic isn't obstructed. 

Notable features include: no difficult-to-navigate subdivisions with features like cul-de-sacs, no gated communities, plenty of mixed-use areas outside of downtown where there can be houses, tiny homes, micro-apartments, apartments, stores, services, restaurants, etc. There would be about 25 bus lines running east-west and north-south.

With someplace like this, a household that would normally need two cars could get by with one car, or a car and a motorcycle/scooter. Fuel and maintenance costs for autos are reduced. If someone's car breaks down, they can leave it at a shop down the street and take a bus. This would be very walkable and bike friendly. Buses would be on the smaller size, with strong service times and reliability. Probably not hydrogen. A good, free on-demand bus service could be utilized for the handicapped.

Image generated with Chat GPT