I find some things are just too unbelievable to wrap my head
around when reading about them. Other times I am just flabbergasted by how
people go about doing certain things. I don’t get ranty very often, or at least
not intentionally but today has just been a variety of things that I just can’t
help but shake my head at. From
political posturing to kijiji antics, I’m not quite sure what has been so
special about this Friday to have graced us with so much ridiculous, but here
it is.
‘Committing
Sociology’
I’m not a huge fan of Stephen Harper and the way that the
Conservative Party of Canada runs the Government of the day in the first place,
but yesterday they have just being ridiculous. When Harper was questions about
the arrested Via rail terror suspects he suggested now was not the time to
‘commit sociology’. This is with respect to Justin Trudeau’s comment that the
American populace shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the Boston Marathon
bombers before the ‘root causes’ could be investigated. What I don’t understand
is why the Conservative party is always so sensitive to shore up its image as
being tough on terrorism. I think everyone really wants to be tough on
terrorism, and the Conservative Party is already the law and orderiest of the
bunch.
What is especially insulting is the idea that there are
situations where the Social Sciences aren’t supposed to move in with their
research and objective methodology. Surely in cases of attempted terrorism we
should just swoop in, arrest all suspects, lock them away forever and forget it
ever happened. All thanks to the efforts of the Canadian Law Enforcement and
Justice agencies. While apprehending criminals and terrorists before they have
a chance to act is a noble concept, it shouldn’t come at the expense of
research which could help lead to better crafted policies which might be able
to prevent the crime/terrorism in the first place. The problem with the arrest
first, think about why they did it later mentality is that it doesn’t do
anything to prevent such issues from arising again in the future.
Sociology often gets a bad rap for not being exceptionally
applicable to the problems of every day society. People don’t often look to the
power of culture to prevent being mugged on the street. It is gaining new
prominence though, especially in Nova Scotia with all the cyber-bulling cases,
solutions for that are completely up Sociology’s alley, it just needs time to
research. The key issue at stake here though is when you belittle one segment
of the social sciences; really you’re hurting all of them. The same logic that
we shouldn’t commit sociology when terrorism is involved can be spread between
all of social science. Have a problem dealing with a dictator you don’t like?
Don’t get all Political Sciencey over it, just bomb them out! Notice a group is
having a mental health breakdown? Don’t break out all that fancy Psychology,
just throw them in a mental institution, and you better not coming running to
do Economics next time there is a major financial crisis, you better just throw
out some rescue money to whoever you think needs it.
Really, this line of thought can be applied to all of
academia, not just Social Sciences. Don’t know why fire is hot? Don’t worry
about it just don’t touch it. How do bridges stay up? I’m someone else can deal
with that. By attempting to trivialize Sociology as a response to an extreme
event, the Conservatives reveal at heart they are anti-academic. Stemming from
long complaints of federal scientist muzzling, and playing public policy by
whatever panders to their voter base, the Conservative party really doesn’t
care for evidence based, researched backed solutions to problems facing Canada
today.
Kijiji Klowns
I’ve been making the most of being 25 and not owning my own
car, or having reliable access to one. I have owned cars in the past, but it has
always been a fleeting period of time, generally over a summer. I make due
pretty well without one, I commute on my bicycle to work, I walk or bike to the
grocery store and I take public transit everywhere else. On the few chances I
take to go see family, there is a new inter-regional bus service that will take
me there. Certainly a car would be more convenience, but strictly it is not
necessary. Every so often though I get the itch that it would be so awesome to have a car again, I would
still commute to work by bicycle though, probably.
When I get this itch
I scratch it by going window car shopping. I really like several new models of
cars on the market but I can never justify the idea of spending $200-300 a
month in a payment, plus the presumably many hundreds of dollars of a month in
insurance. Obviously this will be outside the variable expenses such as car
supplies, fuel and maintenance, so in the end I’d probably be out an extra
$400-500 a month for the luxury of owning a new car, something that just isn’t
feasible right now. Usually this diminishes any desire I have for a car, but
sometimes I think ‘what about a used car…’ and that leads me down the festering
rabbit hole that is Kijiji.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kijiji, I enjoy buying and
selling things through the Canadian version of craigslist, but people just seem
to go a little crazy when selling cars. I understand that I’ll never find the trifecta
of a used car that has low mileage, good condition and low price, which is just
being unreasonable. What I find equally unreasonable though, is the tendency
for Kijiji car sellers to sneak in ridiculously large flaws with their cars at
the end of their ad, and then still put a big price tag on it. Once again, I
understand that they could be trying to sell a broken car to get rid of it,
which is fine as long as the price reflects the condition. What gets me is the
following style of ad:
Awesome car, runs
great, drove it to work up until last week when I got a new car. 2002 Nissan
Altima, 149,000 KM, Automatic transmission, fully loaded, just cleaned the
seats. Also needs new rocker panels, the key tends to stick in the ignition,
and if you turn the radio and the air condition on at the same time the car
stalls. Won’t last at $3500!
I understand that cars are expensive, and that owners are probably doing me a favour by
disclosing what is wrong with the car before I buy it, but I never understand
the price point. If a car has a black book value of $4000, but it needs $1500
worth of work you cannot get away with selling it for $500 off the black book
price. As well, if you are selling it privately with no overhead, you probably
shouldn’t be shooting for 90% of its black book value anyway.
Think of how ridiculous that would sound if I tried to sell
anything else like that.
‘Oh you know, this
computer is great, it has all the gigs and rams, and even some of that
operating system everyone is talking about. Also it as 12 viruses and won’t
turn on but I’m only asking $300 for it, if it all worked I could easily sell
it for $500.’
‘This house is great,
three floors, five bedrooms, also it has termites in the basement and sits on a
flood plain but for the low price of $299,999 you can figure it out yourself!
This project is perfect for the handyman.’
It could be that the high prices are just a defence against
Kijiji lowballers of which exist in multitude. I can only guess at how many
other people like myself that the high prices drive away. In either case, it
certainly puts a damper on any dreams of car ownership. Unless some family member
or friend happens to be falling out of love with a well maintained car with
reasonable kilometers for its age and is willing to part with it for less than
$1000, or work out some sort of payment plan…
Rant Over.
No comments:
Post a Comment