We Desperately Need To Get Off Oil, But Batteries Are A Bad Idea For Fueling Vehicles! by Rev. J.T. Smith

I am in no way supporting Big Oil with what I'm about to say as petrol as a fuel is an environmental disaster.  There is no denying that at all.

That said, batteries are not the right way to go either for several reasons.

One of which is that batteries all wear out eventually.  Just look to your mobile phone and you'll realize this.  Then again, far too many feel a desperate need to always have the latest and greatest product and update their mobile phone every year or so.  A fact that manufacturers don't only realize but actively count on and encourage this behaviour.  Consumerism at all costs.  Great for the bottom lines of corporations around the world but utter shit for the environment.

Car companies, including Tesla, are counting on this short-sighted behaviour too.  Though of course they won't admit it as that would be bad for sales.

One of the more subtle ways of encouraging this is to place in the instructions that come with the device, including electric cars, the notion that batteries supposedly no longer develop a memory the way nickle-cadmium [Ni-Cad] batteries used to so you should recharge them once they drop to 15% rather than run them flat first before recharging.  They tell you this, not because they really want you to get the most life out of your battery (FYI, there's zero profit in it for corporations for you to not have to replace the batteries sooner!), but because they want to sell you more batteries and/or a new device sooner.

These days, the only thing that's kept around longer than the rechargeable batteries that run them are vibrators.  Then again, a dead vibrator is still a dildo. 

Now, I grant that lithium ion [Li-Ion] batteries don't develop a memory the way that Ni-Cad ones did, they do still develop that memory only over a longer period of time.  Longer enough, the manufacturers figure, that you'll be throwing out your old device and replacing it with a new one before the battery will no longer hold a charge.  But if you really want your rechargeable batteries to actually last as long as they can before they're permanently dead, then you should always run them until they're flat before you recharge them and you should recharge them until they're fully recharged before using them again.

In the meantime there's still the matter of the fact that it still takes hours to fully recharge a battery from flat (the more powerful the batteries, the longer it takes to recharge them); and as noted earlier, if you don't run the battery to flat prior to fully recharging completely you will shorten the total overall life of the battery.  (This is the end result of the aforementioned memory.)  I know this for a fact by taking two identical modern mobile phones (I inadvertently got two identical handsets, one from each of two people, due to my previous mobile phone dying completely after 4 years of service, and I kept the second as a backup) and ran the first one battery to flat every time prior to fully recharging.  That handset started getting a bit worn so I started using the second handset fresh from the box.  Only with the second handset I decided to go against my better judgement and started recharging every day or so regardless of how low the battery was.  The end result was that the battery of the second handset ended up needing to be recharged as often after one year as the first one did after two hours.  Now, neither handset will last 24 hours before going flat. And unlike Top Gear, who would fake things to get their end result, I didn't fake any of it.  That's because batteries typically lose approximately 80% of their capacity after a couple of years.

Regardless, if you do decide to keep your electric vehicle for long enough, you'll have to deal with the battery.  While some companies like Nissan are trying to make it that you would only have to replace a bad cell rather than the entire battery replace the entire battery, it's currently more common and more likely that your dealer won't be the ones to deal with individual cells; so you'll still end up having to replace the battery outright to keep that car going the way petrol fueled vehicles can currently.  At which point you have a piece of trash that still contains components that still can't be recycled; and that, in turn, continues to have a toxic environmental impact.  Yes, more of the components can be recycled, but the cost of lithium is low right now because the relative demand is low currently, but that'll change over time.  And all of this presumes you'll still be able to get a matching replacement battery when the time comes, anyway.

I fully acknowledge the fact that petrol fuel is an environmental disaster, but one of the advantages of a liquid fuel is that as long as the engine/motor still uses that fuel then it doesn't matter what shape the fuel tank takes as long as it fits into the hull of the vehicle.  And replacing a liquid fuel tank is a lot cheaper than replacing the battery on an electric vehicle.  And one of the beautiful things about classic cars is that we can still drive them now, decades after they were manufactured.  If the trend of throwing away battery operated devices, either as soon as or before the batteries will no longer hold a charge, then things like classic car shows will be a thing of the past.  Classic car shows aren't  singing the praises of Big Oil; they're showcases of lasting and durable engineering and works of art created from metals.

Even more troubling than the technical issues, there's still the slave labour and environmental problems inherent in the manufacture of batteries.

We would do far better with a hybrid car consisting of a hydrogen fuel cell backed up with solar panels.  But thanks to irrational fears due to a misunderstanding of just what downed the Hindenburg, it'll be a long time before this is more widely accepted.  And thanks to current economics, it'll be cheaper to replace an entire vehicle than only the battery when the battery can no longer hold a charge.  Batteries are a stopgap measure at best.

by  Rev. J.T. Smith

"Earning" A Rebate? by Rev. J.T. Smith

 These days you'll see adverts like this from Rakuten 

 with taglines like: "Stores pay us. We pay you." (FYI, this is actually a rebate) or articles like this one titled "How I earned more than $2,500 using credit cards in 2020.  These cards helped me earn a 4.1% rate of return on spending last year" found on creditcards.com.  It has always bothered me when I see articles and adverts claiming people are getting paid and/or that they're "earning money" when in reality they're only getting a rebate.  

Please understand that I am not opposed to getting a rebate from a company or cash back from a credit card company per se, but claiming that I am being paid or have somehow earned that discount (especially in terms of a rebate) is very misleading.  Rebates are best recognized as large companies acknowledging that they are vastly over charging for their goods and/or services, and that cash back or points from credit card companies are simply another form of rebate that is simply processed from another source.

What's even worse is when companies tell you that the cost for something is $X without informing you that you get that price after a mail-in rebate.  Pep Boys pulled that one on me once when I was in need of an an oil change.  I was quoted $19.99 for the oil change when I called ahead to find out the price so that I could be certain I had enough money available to pay for it (I did not have any credit cards at all at the time and being a non-pizza food delivery driver my personal available cash on hand was typically tight).  It wasn't until my car was on the rack and the oil change was in progress that I spotted a sign informing me that the up front price for the oil change was $49.99, the $19.99 was after a $20 mail-in rebate.  I was lucky that I had just enough money to pay the bill but no ability to make change for my next delivery.  To add insult to injury, I never did receive the rebate.  Pep Boys will never again be allowed to work on any vehicle I own.

No one actually earns a rebate or the cash back that credit card customers can receive.  It is that belief that people are "being paid for shopping" that has allowed pyramid schemes like Amway to stay in business and that leads so many people to get into financial trouble with their credit cards!

Yes, you can get good discounts from credit cards and rebates, and you're better off if you can simultaneously stack those discounts for the same purchase.  I am not denying that fact.  But, let's call it what it really is: Cash back from credit cards are rebates, and any rebate is nothing more than a delayed discount that's saving you some money, but not a paycheque.

 - Rev. J.T. Smith