this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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Steve Jobs worked out a system with the local Mercedes dealer where he’d get a new car every three months.
Why every three months? Because that was how long you could drive without a license plate, and he liked to park in handicapped spots and they couldn’t ticket him without a plate.
I’ve never understood that about America. How can you leave the dealership without a license plate. In the UK if you don’t have a plate you’re not on the road.
I think now they give you those paper plates? Not ideal, but I see them a lot, flapping in the winds.
At least until a couple years ago, California you could drive without a plate for a couple months. I'm not sure how that really worked tbh, like what would happen if you were pulled over ECT.
Now you must get a temp paper plate right as you leave the lot.
You get the paperwork folded up and taped to your windshield. Thats what you would present if you got pulled over to prove you owned the car.
Vermont has (or had?) handwritten paper plates. Like if you imagine dealer plates, just messily written in sharpie and taped in the window.
As fake as they look to begin with, if you get close enough to read them, they're almost always expired.
I’ve never heard of this speaking as an American. I’ve always seen temporary plates used.
I hadn't heard that, so I looked it up. It's true, although it was every six months, not three, and California has closed that loophole now (dealers now issue and register temporary plates for new sales). I didn't see anything saying he'd parked in handicapped spots outside of the Apple car park.
Thanks for the fact check. In my defense I read this on a BBS in the 90s so the details are hazy
This makes it no less egregious.
The ultra rich don't matter in this equation. You could charge Elon Musk $10 or $10 million...it's practically the same to him.
They are anomalies. There are plenty of just-as-entitled, less-filthy-rich people.
But the $10 million would sure help the community that ticketed him
This this this.
If we are afraid the ultra rich person doesn't care, guess we are in for another 10 mil next week.
Could finance alot of things in a society.
I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm saying this to counter the Steve Jobs anecdote above me. He exploited a loophole to avoid some fines because of his exorbitant wealth. Obviously that's a bad thing and he should've paid, and exploiting the loophole to park in handicap spaces, even at Apple (where he could just reserve a spot for himself), is just a sign of his narcissistic psychosis. But to point it at him as an example of why it wouldn't work is missing the forest for the trees.
I feel the same way about UBI. Who gives a shit if Musk gets a check for $2000 every month or whatever. He doesn't, and that's a drop in the bucket of the whole thing, especially considering he (should/would) be paying way, way, way more in funding such a program. He's a distraction. I care way more about everybody else getting it.
I've loved Macs since the 80s and he's honestly the worst part about them. Everyone else who worked on the team was a brilliant, creative person. He was kind of a jerk.