I Bought And Restored "Old" Technology To Prove The Economy Is Imploding

They don't make them like they used to.

Is actually quite true. See, engineers

used to be the big dogs in the corporate

[music] world, but now they're just as

beholden to the shareholders as the rest

of us. Quality and longevity have become

afterthoughts in the shadow of

profitability. Oh, thank you. Before I

was even born, there was a time when

products were built to last.

>> A KitchenAid will [music] last

>> through [singing] the years.

>> But that way of life is now dead.

Whether it be from planned obsolescence

or even [music] worse, a subscription.

See, all of this has to do with our

increasingly dysfunctional economy. And

I can prove it. [music]

This hunk of German engineering is twice

my age and 10 times the swagger. And

it's the physical manifestation of

quality. In fact, it was too good. So

much so that it made not just Mercedes,

but the entire economy rethink how

products should be made. And not in a

good way. This car shows how good things

could be today. because they were. Not

only is it practically [music] immune to

time, but it feels like it, too. With a

trunk that's spacious enough for your

mother, [music] an aerodynamic design

all over, including ribbed for my

pleasure tail lights that results in a

coefficient of drag that is less than

that of a Porsche 918 Spider. The first

ever implementation [music]

of rear multi-link suspension in a

production car gives this Mercedes silky

smooth [music] handling. The interior is

more durable than practically any modern

work truck, and the bank vault [music]

doors are straight out of the Federal

Reserve. Pair all of this with a

legendary bulletproof, silky smooth

[music] inline six-cylinder engine that

is more or less guaranteed for 500,000

m, and you don't just get a car, you get

a lifelong investment. Compare all of

this to a contemporary [music] vehicle

that has a dashboard made out of

recycled Nerf guns and enough zeros

[music] at the end of its price tag to

put your grandchildren into indentured

slavery. So then the question isn't just

how much shittier things are going to

get. It's what happens to the economy

[music] when things can't get any

shittier. Let's back up.

I meant back up in time to before I

bought the car.

You might have noticed that things are

getting worse.

>> No, no, not that. I mean, yes, that. But

I'm talking about the products and

services that you and I buy every day.

They're not horribly worse, and it isn't

happening that quickly. But it is

[music] happening, and it will continue

to get much worse unless something big

changes. But why? Before researching

this video, I thought this was all as

simple as the fact that making better

products [music] costs more. So,

companies don't do that as much as they

used to. But that begs the question, why

did things used to be nice?

>> It's not like technology is regressing

or engineers are getting dumber. If

anything, humanity as a species is both

more intelligent and more capable than

ever before. So then why does this drill

from the 1960s [music] absolutely mog

this drill from 2025?

It's not just cuz it's a Ryobi. You

already know about planned obsolescence.

The idea that a product should be

designed to fail to drive the consumer

to well consume more once the product

reaches its [music] preconceived demise,

which is quite good for the economy and

GDP and all that, but not so good for

your wallet or your soul. While this

concept is more prevalent now than ever,

planned obsolescence is actually only a

small part of the much bigger picture in

shitification. Initially, the term was

coined by a guy called Cory Dotoro to

describe how digital platforms like Uber

would start off with a strong value

proposition, but would subsequently

regress its features and increase its

price once the platform acquired enough

users to hold them hostage, which is a

very real problem that permeates

virtually all digital services.

But to build off Mr. Dotoro's ideas,

[music] I think in shitification as a

concept actually transcends internet

services. To me, it's defined as the

degradation of any product or service

for the explicit and sole sake of

profit. Or to put it bluntly, making

something worse without making it

cheaper. [music] There are plenty of

instances where a good or service has

its features or materials removed that

don't fall under the guise of

inchidification because they result in

either a price decrease or just a more

streamlined product overall. It becomes

in shitification when the user

experience suffers for the sake of

profit. Especially when said consumers

have nowhere else to go. Since the

industrial revolution 200 years ago,

which by the way was not that long ago,

people often live to 100. So this is

only two people ago. Anyways, technology

has played an exponentially more

important role in the economy ever

since. [music]

Without technology, there is no economy.

Period. But why is this relevant to

inshitification? To answer that, you

need to understand the relationship

between technology improving and the

economy growing. [music] The foundation

of any economy is labor. And the best

way to make labor more effective is to

aid [music] it with technology. Whether

it be a hammer to make building tables

easier or a complex assembly line making

it possible to create the same pair of

shoes a thousand times over. Something

that wasn't possible before the advent

of manufacturing. One big fat

misconception [music]

over the last few centuries is that

technology getting better means life

getting better. And [music] that's

because it is generally true in most

ways but not always. [music] For

example, planned obsolescence as a

concept could only ever exist with

highly advanced technologies since it

requires replicable precision. If you

want to make sure your consumers have to

come back every 5 years for a new pair

of shoes, that would be really hard to

do consistently if you were making them

by hand. What would likely happen in

that case is a high quantity of quality

control issues and a bunch of unhappy

customers who never come back. But what

if you were able to control the level of

quality of those shoes to make them

consistently mid enough to require

repeat purchases [music] through a

process of assembly line manufacturing?

For one, people in poverty can now

afford to [music] at least purchase some

kind of shoe, which was better than

nothing when it wasn't available for

such a low price. But that doesn't

always last. Not only does the factory

drive the local mom and pop stores out

of business, therefore reducing the

options available, but the factory

owners would subsequently raise prices

due to the lack of competition, all

while their products weren't always up

to the same standards as the handmade

goods that preceded [music] them. So,

advancements in technology have a

history of harming communities by

[music] concentrating power. Sound

familiar? Every big financial leap in

the economy has been the product of a

new technology that allowed people to be

more productive than before. And over

time, our economy became accustomed to

constant [music] technological growth,

allowing profit to grow alongside it.

But recently, technology hasn't

innovated the way we'd expected. [music]

Of course, it's not like the sciences

and innovations have stagnated entirely.

But most won't admit the sobering truth

that is innovation is not following the

trajectory that our grandparents thought

it would. There's a reason why we used

to expect flying cars by the year 2000.

Because of this, companies don't always

know how to make better products and

services at the same [music] rate as

before, but the economy requires growth.

Else everything falls apart. So instead

of innovating the most competitive

offerings, it's more financially prudent

to [music] extract additional profit out

of your existing goods and services with

many technological innovations acting

[music] as ways to extract value from

the products and consumers rather than

intrinsically improving [music] them.

Just to give some examples of

technologically enabled in

shitification, it's why McDonald's went

from looking like a fun and playful

strip mall building [music] to a

dystopian gray obelisk to save cost and

to act as a throughway for food delivery

drivers, all while offering the worst

food of its history for an equally

egregious price. [music]

And it's why home appliances are being

stuffed with smart features that spy on

your behavior using your data as the

product rather than increasing the

quality of features. [music] And it's

why Carheart went from a working-class

utility brand to a single stitch fashion

statement, using social media to

broadcast a lifestyle of hard work

rather than best serving the workers

[music] themselves. But the examples

hardly stop there. You know, like

drills, construction, dishwashers, video

games, Microsoft Windows, social media,

vacuum cleaners, smart TVs, printers,

landlords, insurance, landlords,

airlines, hotels, and Airbnbs, utility

companies, retail stores, the entire

Adobe suite. And my favorite example, or

I should say my least favorite example,

is cars [music] have become overpriced,

oversized, and over complicated. all in

the name of the bottom line. And it's

why [music] for the next 3 months, I'm

dedicating my entire essence toward

buying and restoring the best built car

of all time because [music] I am sick of

everything in my life fading into slop.

Look, as an appliance, I generally

appreciate what my 2017 Altra does for

me. It is yet to break down, and its

crash safety, fuel economy, and spacious

cargo area are packaged collectively in

a way that simply was not available in

1991. But that doesn't mean the car

doesn't feel like a piece of [ __ ]

[music] because it does. And not only

that, but it will not last as long as

the cars of yesterday, at least when

they were [music] new, which surprise is

due to inshitification. While we're on

the subject of those advancements in

safety and efficiency technology, I want

to take a moment to touch on the fact

that they were made by dedicated

scientists and engineers and should not

be conflated with the competitive nature

of corporations. For my entire life, I

was told that our increased quality of

life over our parents and their parents'

lives was made possible only by the free

market, which is often true, but not

always. Without socialized

representation of the people's best

interests, we would not have many of the

features we take for granted today,

especially when it comes to safety. And

I'm not just talking about cars. But to

give an automotive example of what

modern corporations will do while

circumventing regulation via legal

loopholes, just look at the Tesla

Cybertruck. Its classification as a

truck allows it to have abhorrent

pedestrian safety. And on launch, the

Cybertruck had several defects and

design flaws, ranging from chopping

people's fingers off, [music] all the

way to the accelerator pedal having a

piece of metal attached so hastily that

it would slide forward, jamming the

pedal at maximum acceleration in a

vehicle that can reach 0 to 60 mph in 3

seconds. This is one of the most

anticipated vehicles of the decade,

which had access to some of the smartest

people alive and an R&D budget the size

of a small country. I bring up these

examples not just to [ __ ] on the Cybert

truck, but because that highlights my

argument here. The free market is not

the end all beall to innovation as

consumer demand only applies to what's

available on the market. Regulation

makes it possible for the people to be

represented in a way that the market

could never. Now, often regulations are

heavily influenced either by people who

don't truly represent the people or even

just [music] the corporations themselves

through lobbying. I'm not advocating for

more regulation, but I think we can all

agree that we can use smarter laws

because the moment a loophole appears or

a product slips through the cracks of

gross oversight, [music] you see exactly

what these companies would do if left to

their own devices.

What I don't like about my car is just

how cheap it feels because it is. Just

like any new car these [music] days,

it's not that permanent feeling. And

there's a reason for that. It's not that

permanent. [music] Every time I pull on

the door handle or press on the dash, I

can't help but be reminded of my car's

inevitable demise. By the way, most car

enthusiasts, myself included, would

consider this particular vehicle to be

above average quality. At least as far

as the interior [music] is concerned.

Surprise, the generation after my car

got shittier. Look at this abomination.

So, I think it's time to find an upgrade

from the past.

There is a very specific window in

history that produced the most

well-built [music] cars ever made. Not

so much in terms of horsepower or fuel

economy or any of those things that do

matter, but in terms of mechanical

longevity and user experience. You know,

like clicky buttons that have weight,

not plastic fantastic slop that caks and

moans every time you look at it the

wrong way. I want the best balance of a

door that feels like a tank, an engine

that lasts forever, seats that don't

tear, and a headliner that simply does

not sag. And that, ladies and gentlemen,

is going to be Mercedes in the early9s.

I could talk about these cars for hours,

and I probably will on my Patreon, but

instead of me trying to convince you of

anything, I will defer to a source of

much more credible automotive authority.

of the late 80s and early 90s produced

some of the highest quality

Mercedes-Benz models. That later went

away a bit, but for this [music]

particular car, it was one of the last

recipients of peerless build quality.

Speaking of Doug Demiro, my search for

the ultimate car actually began with

Cars and Bids, his auction website.

#notsponsored. Funnily enough, the only

thing I had ever auctioned on before was

a camera lens from the Soviet era. So,

needless to say, this was

anxietyinducing, but also pretty

exhilarating. I'm at the office

currently bidding on this 300E. Right

now it's at $4,000 [music] with an hour

and a half to go.

Wish me luck. All right, we've got 2

minutes left. We're at 6,550.

6750

6,950 7,150. All right, last bid. 7,350

with a fee of $367.

Yep, I got out bid.

Dang it.

[snorts]

>> Yeah, I mean, you knew I wasn't going to

get the car. You watched the intro.

Planned obsolescence is now older than

any living person on Earth, which makes

it easy to feel like your fridge

succumbing to father time before the end

of a decade is normal. You see,

throughout the decades, there have been

progressively larger waves of planned

obsolescence, each of which being

enabled by advancements in technology

from their respective era. In the 1920s,

actually, light bulbs lifespans were

artificially limited to die early. Uh,

this isn't a conspiracy theory. It's

actually a literal cartel that was

called Feebis. Phobus, Fubis, I don't

know. Uh, where Ozer, Phillips, and GE

secretly agreed in 1924 to cut light

bulb life from 2500 hours down to a,000.

And they actually find any member of

that organization whose light bulbs

lasted too long.

In the 1950s, household appliances

started dying early. And in the 1980s,

we had the invention and subsequent boom

of electronics like whatever this is,

which of course was designed to fail

eventually. And just before I was born,

the worldwide web was conceived, which

did a whole lot of good and a whole lot

of bad. And now we have this other new

thing called artificial intelligence.

Each era of technology has iterated a

one-way ratchet of changing our lives by

substituting old ways of doing things.

[music] Whether it's a washing machine

replacing a scrubboard, Google calendar

organizing your life, streaming

replacing ownership, smartphones

annihilating your frontal lobe, or a GPS

replacing your sense of direction, or

food delivery replacing the kitchen. All

of these negative consequences, besides

the washing machine one, are the results

of forward thinking. Uh, life changes

and that's okay, but our economy doesn't

know how to reflect and reorient. And

that's why we have shitification. During

my lifetime, the internet has changed

everything and often for the worse. I

grew up going to mom and pop electronic

stores, which no longer exist. And

that's just the tip of the iceberg. I

fear the worldwide web has boiled the

frog. If you haven't heard of it, it's

an interesting metaphor that portrays

the destruction of well, a frog. Not

simply by plopping it into a pot of

boiling water, as it would surely jump

out in pain. Don't do that, by the way.

Uh, but by setting the frog down in cool

water and slowly turning up the heat,

the frog doesn't notice the rise in

temperature. In fact, it becomes sedated

by the warmth and too distracted by

life, taxes, work, family, [music] car

payments, and the culture war to notice

just how hot it's gotten. And by the

time things hurt enough to feel real,

like something really is happening here,

well, it's been boiled alive. And that's

what's happening right now, especially

with the economy. Almost everything

sucks now. It's not an entitled

statement and you're not being negative

or crazy by understanding it.

Good morning and welcome to Illinois.

I'm not entirely sure how this is going

to go, but I will say last night I was

really worked up about wanting this

purchase to go through and I realized

that that is how the buyer wins. Uh I'm

not going to panic buy this car.

Foreshadowing. The seller [music] has

offered me a purchasing price of $7,500

down from their original listing of

$11,000 almost a [music] year ago.

There it is.

>> Destination is on the left.

>> Put it in g. Fun fact, this was actually

the first time I ever drove a 190E, and

I loved it. It is dead quiet in here.

It's hard to show on video, but man,

these cars are wellbuilt. Now, that's

not to say this car was perfect, because

it most certainly wasn't.

>> Sure wish the AC [music] worked. seems

to idle low when you go slowly. So, the

engine needs to tune up.

>> I mean, it had a bunch of issues that

weren't disclosed in the listing

because, [music] well, that's just how

this goes.

>> It says the oil pressure is going down

to almost zero, which that can't be

right.

>> I like it though. Driving it's nice.

>> But despite its flaws, I I fell in love.

I did.

>> Yeah, the ABS works.

>> So, the outside of any car will tell you

quite a bit of its story, and this one

seems okay. There's a few dings and

dents which I'll show you. But, uh,

honestly, the paint [music] is quite

nice. And I bet if we did a little paint

correction, we could make this thing pop

quite a bit as well. The underside

[music] is quite clean and very free of

rust. All right. What do you say we uh

give him an offer for six grand and see

how upset he gets. I just put it in

drive and it's not going anywhere.

>> Oh, now we're going somewhere. Let's go

lowball that guy. So, overall, the car

is in pretty good shape, but I did find

some stuff that I wasn't expecting. I

like the car. I'd like to buy it, but

the only thing that I want is to make

sure that whatever I pay for it, I can

get back a month later if I wanted to

sell it. Given the work that it needs,

it's probably going to be 1,000 to,500

for all that stuff. So, right now, I'd

give you 6 grand cash.

He somehow convinced me to pay 7,100 for

the car.

Side note, filling it up with 93 cost

about $55.

Total cost includes $7,153.25.

>> And I'll tell you what, driving this

Mercedes home was some of the best 30

minutes of my entire life. Except, well,

the drive home is an hour and a half. So

something happened.

foreshadowing.

As I mentioned earlier, there's been an

increasingly popular new trend of

founding an internet-based company like

Amazon, Uber, or Teimu, and using

venture capital to operate at a loss for

however long it takes to establish a

monopoly in your market. Once you're the

only game in town, you can take whatever

your competitive angle was and throw it

right out the window just to raise

prices, decrease quality, and therefore

costs, and boom, you've got [music]

profit. If the need to compete with or

outperform your competitor vanishes,

well, it won't happen. And the internet

has allowed this trend to happen more

now than it ever has been. In my

opinion, the primary explanation is that

digital [music] services are intangible,

which makes it difficult for consumers

like you and I to properly understand

the value of what it is they're buying,

especially when they're not always

buying, they're renting it. The

subscription economy has ballooned

exponentially in the last few decades,

and for good reason. Shareholders want

their exponential growth and guaranteed

profit. So if a company sells something

to you and the transaction ends, then

they lose their consistent cash flow.

But worse than that is the fact that a

consumer is far far more likely to spend

more overall by buying three small

things over one big thing. Software is a

fantastic example of this. Uh Da Vinci

Resolve, which is the legendary video

editing software that I'm using to edit

this video, cost me about $300 4 years

ago. And even though the software has

actually only gotten better over time

via updates, I haven't had to spend a

single cent more. Adobe, on the other

hand, requires monthly subscriptions of

$35 a month for just Premiere. Meaning,

if I didn't switch to Da [music] Vinci,

I would have already spent $1,680

on that buggy, unintuitive mess they

call [music] video editing software. And

that's just barely scratching the

surface of inshitification through

subscription, [music] which, well, we're

seeing more and more and more over time.

and not just with software. Here's a

list of some physical products and

features mega corporations have tried to

restrict behind a recurrent pay wall in

the last 5 years.

I made it about 20 miles home when I

took a pit stop to grab some food when

all of a sudden the Mercedes was struck

by something called [music] spontaneous

windshield combustion syndrome.

What the [ __ ]

>> I get out to look at the car. I'm

admiring its beauty. And boy is it

beautiful when all of a sudden

literally just bought this car.

Like 30 minutes ago. I'm an hour and a

half away from home

and this is a complete [music] mess and

it just exploded. Who knows how much

it'll cost to replace.

>> To this day, I have no idea how it

happened. The only real explanation is

that I have cosmically bad luck. These

things happen. Not commonly, but they do

happen and it could happen to you at any

moment.

>> Ooh, I like that color.

>> There is one issue with it. All of a

sudden, I heard a RANDOM [laughter]

>> um How easy is it to get glass for

those?

I went through three different glass

repair shops to ask them if they could

fix my car and they all said no because

the glass isn't available [music] new.

See, Mercedes doesn't make it anymore. I

got very lucky that there actually

happened to be one available here in

Dayne County. Fun fact, my insurance

agent actually told [music] me that this

is the least amount of time she's ever

seen between starting a policy and

filing [music] a claim. 28 minutes. Now,

the only reason I didn't get screwed

over is because I took this photo as

soon as I started the policy.

>> Yeah. Yeah, if I didn't take that photo,

I would have been [ __ ]

>> When you sell a product to someone, you

transfer ownership of said product and

the transaction ends. So, for the last

century, corporations and small

businesses alike have been maximizing

the tactics of add-ons, uh, customer

retention, and downstream [music] sales.

All of which result in a transaction

that has ownership being part of the

deal. But everything changed once a

little startup came up with the idea of

not buying the right to watch a movie,

but renting it. Netflix. The selection

was more widely available, larger, and

convenient. Fun fact, Netflix actually

[music] started off by mailing you DVDs

instead of streaming it online. My

family was super into it at the time, so

I can remember coming home from

elementary school, like once a week, and

checking my mailbox for any new movies

we were going to watch. When it became

fully online, things got even better.

You could just stream whatever you

wanted to watch without the hassle of

physical media. And it was much cheaper

than having to buy movies if you watch

more than a couple a month, which most

people do. But over time, a lot of time

now the water is starting to get hot and

this frog is feeling sweaty. Instead of

a monopoly causing inshitification, this

time the competition did in a way. Since

other conglomerates caught on to the

profitability of online streaming,

[music] everyone started bidding on the

rights for the content in Netflix's

library. And everyone started pumping

out original TV shows and movies to

compete with other companies IPs. The

problem is there's only so much content

to go around and [music] most content

ever made won't and shouldn't stick

around since only the good ones are

worth revisiting. So now we have far too

many streaming services with far too

high prices charging us to make shitty

TV that few people will ever watch, let

alone enjoy. Here's a fun fact about

movies getting worse. A media exec uh

actually admitted to the fact that

script writers are pressured and forced

to reword their dialogue to include a

summary of the plot in spoken [music]

words every few minutes so that people

doom scrolling on their phones will

still be able to tell what's going on.

So now everyone loses bad entertainment

at too high a price from [music] too

many providers. So it's just [ __ ]

cable again, but worse because our

system rewards profit over results. And

while streaming sucks now compared to

2018, the industry has ballooned from 40

billion to over 200 billion in value.

But let me ask you this. Does streaming

feel over 400% better?

All right, I think I've waited long

enough. Would you like the official

tour?

It's

>> cassette holders. Yeah.

>> Yeah. Oh, it's very clicky and tactile.

Oh, and feel the door latch from the

inside.

>> What is that hinge? That is a strange

looking. Yeah, I like this angle right

here. That is

There goes another 10 mm. [snorts]

[music]

There is a lot of engineering crammed

into this tiny [music] little car. For

example, this seat that I'm sitting on

is actually not leather, even though it

looks and feels like it. It's a

synthetic [music] leather that outlasts

the leather equivalent that was shipped

with this car. So, Mercedes was able to

make a seat material that was better

than leather and then didn't make it

again [music] after this car. Why? I

don't know. Now, this is a relatively

boxy looking car, but that is kind of

deceptive. If you look at it, there's

all these curves and body lines that add

up to a very aerodynamic vehicle. But

more interesting than that is the

[music] fact that the rear windshield,

while it doesn't have a wiper, it

doesn't need one. See, it's designed so

that above a certain speed, if it's

[music] raining, the wind will crash

down onto the rear glass, pushing the

rain off. Oh, and while I'm here, I got

to show you.

If you look in here, you'll notice that

there's no struts. It's actually just

balanced on a hinge with a spring. So,

you'll never [music] have to replace the

struts for your trunk.

cuz it doesn't have any. And you might

have noticed earlier, but the wiper

singular is one singular wiper. It's a

cool mechanism that actually ends up

covering more of the windshield than two

could because of the way it extends

[music] when in the corners. All right,

driving the Mercedes 190E. What is it

like? Well, it's two things. Very smooth

and very competent. [music] Something

that it isn't is sporty, but it's still

got spunk and it's still got spirit. And

it is admittedly kind of fun in a weird

way to drive this car spiritedly. And

man, these seats are so comfortable. I

don't know why someone decided all of a

sudden that headrests aren't supposed to

be headrests. Oh, and by the way, this

car has automatic climate control. How

Mercedes figured that out back then, I

don't know. How reliable is that

feature? I don't know. How hard is it to

repair when it breaks? I hope I never

know.

Back in the day, luxury wasn't defined

by how [music] many screens were

sloppily plastered onto the dash,

removing physical buttons for climate

control, among other things, or whether

your car could [music] dispense a

Mercedes-Benz specific scent through the

vents or vibrating seats or projected

logo of the car's brand onto the ground.

It was defined by quality, a physical

sensation of permanence. In fact,

Mercedes had a dedicated team working on

something called Gabbritlong [music]

or in English, use value engineering.

Yeah, that didn't help me either. It

basically means how does something feel

to use and how can it be improved to the

highest possible extent. It's an art

form of making a product's experience

better in a way that's really hard to

show in an advertisement. Hence why it

didn't stick around. There's countless

stories of engineers going through trial

and error of trying different materials

and [music] designs to make things as

small as the door latch feel as solid as

possible. And if you interact with one

of these old cars, you get the idea

rather quickly. They're called bank

vault doors for a reason. Now, take a

look at a modern Mercedes-Benz like the

$150,000 plus S-Class, which has a

dashboard that caks and rattles if you

look at it the wrong way. Sure, it does

tickle the part of your brain that

enjoys technology, novelty, and well,

rich people vibes, but it isn't here to

stay. Modern luxury vehicles are so

complicated that is completely

financially irresponsible to own them

past 10 years or 100,000 m due to the

required maintenance that would keep

them on the road. Uh, which is crazy to

me. You'd think that after spending a

generational amount of wealth on a car

that you'd want it to last, but well,

that is no longer the world we live in.

But it used to be that way. Mercedes

doesn't have a monopoly on cars. There's

plenty of other brands and even German

luxury brands to compete with. So, how

can this be a product of initification?

Well, you don't always need a monopoly

for [music] things to get worse. Much

like Netflix, you just need market

consolidation, short-term incentives,

and a race to the bottom disguises

innovation. See, even when there are

multiple companies competing, they're

all responding [music] to the same

pressures in an ever evolving economy.

quarterly earnings, shareholder

expectations, rising [music] production

costs, regulatory loopholes, and the

fact that the average consumer has

slowly been conditioned to accept less

for more. So instead of competing to

build the best product, they compete to

build one that's cheapest to manufacture

while still looking good enough on the

showroom floor to move units.

So I [music] have a bit of a problem,

which is that my steering linkage

A

little [music]

[music]

Don't look at that door.

>> [music]

>> Woo!

[music]

[music]

Doesn't budge.

So immediately you can feel just how

much lighter the steering is.

>> But the steering wheel tracks pretty

straight. Look at that. Yay. We did it.

It was so easy. Lane change.

Feels like this car when I turn is very

hard to put it off balance.

Oh god. [laughter]

Like every other car I've driven that

has a laggy throttle. You know, you'll

get nothing. Then boom, power. This is

just like easy roll on and off. Makes me

want to just drive nowhere. Engine is so

smooth, too. I mean, it's a straight

six. It's got to be smooth.

>> Okay, that was a really rough railroad

crossing. This It just like glides over.

>> [music]

>> You are covered in gender fluid.

>> Yes.

You did it.

Not only that, but companies have used

social engineering through advertising

to manufacture consumer demand, not just

in quantity, but in quality. This might

sound a little bit crazy, but most folks

these days do in fact value longevity

and quality less than they used to. But

how? Well, I'll answer that with a very

simple question. When's the last time

you saw a car commercial that advertised

durability or longevity? These six

[music] Mercedes models built more than

a decade ago is actually worth more

money today than the day it [music] was

new. Value that endures.

Drive Pilot is [music] the first fully

approved, conditionally automated drive

technology that lets you take your eyes

and your mind off the road.

It's not that Mercedes wants to build

bad cars. It's that Mercedes wants to

build cars that maximize return on

investment in a market where everyone

else is doing the exact same thing

because it works. The competition isn't

about durability, repairability, or

craftsmanship anymore. It's about

software features. subscription add-ons

and whatever buzzword the marketing team

can vomit onto the brochure that

quarter. Also, they track your data now.

And that's all automakers, by the way.

But even Hyundai claims they reserve the

right to track when you have sex [music]

based on your contacts and your driving

habits.

Anyways, it's not just cars. And

shitification ripples through every

single industry that used to revolve

around quality and longevity. And now it

revolves around margin maximalization.

Construction companies are cutting

material quality. Appliance

manufacturers are switching from metal

gears to plastic ones because consumers

don't notice until it breaks. Nothing

breaks all at once. It's more like a

controlled demolition in slow motion.

One tiny cost cutting measure here and a

subscription service there and an

updated model that somehow gets worse

every year until one day you realize you

haven't interacted with something

genuinely well-made in [music] god knows

how long. You end up spending far more

on replacing products, subscribing to

essential services, and losing rights

and protections every step of the way.

And this is all because our economy

cannot survive unless it is constantly

growing. But that's not just a metaphor.

It's a structural requirement baked into

the foundation of our financial system.

Modern economies run on debt, and debt

requires interest. And interest requires

that tomorrow's economy be larger

[music] than today's. When a bank lends

money into existence, which is quite

literally how most money is created, it

expects that money back plus more. Now,

that plus more has to come from

somewhere. And for a very long time,

[music] it came from genuine

productivity gains, new technologies,

new markets, more efficient labor. But

as those gains slow down and the

lowhanging fruit of innovation [music]

gets harder to reach, that growth

imperative doesn't slow down with it. It

can't. So instead of creating new value,

the system starts extracting existing

value from workers, from consumers, and

from the products themselves. What you

experience [music] as a creaky dashboard

or a printer that stops working the day

your warranty expires isn't a

coincidence or even purely corporate

greed. It's the logical output of a

system that is structurally incapable of

standing still. It's either growth or

death. And when real growth is hard to

come by, the next best thing is the

illusion of it. Dressed up as

innovation, sold to you as an upgrade,

and designed to expire just in time for

the next one. This is the list of

everything wrong with Gunther. By the

way, Gunther is Gunther's name. You

already know the oil pressure gauge and

the coolant temperature gauge didn't

work. And I got really, really lucky

because it was in fact just the sensors

for both that weren't working.

The windshield grenaded itself. Did you

know that the AC didn't work? And the

drive shaft bushings are super duper

worn. Oh, and the reason why I thought

the engine was running poorly wasn't

because the engine was running poorly.

It was because the engine mounts that it

sits on top of were completely shot. So,

I just had to replace those, which was

really hard.

>> [music]

>> And of course, you can't buy a

35-year-old car without changing the

oil.

Get up. Get up.

Hey. See, one of the things that happens

to any car that sits for any prolonged

amount of time is all of the rubber bits

dry out. That's going to be any gaskets

that hold oil inside of the engine or

rubber bits in the transmission that

flexes in the disc and blah blah blah.

The point is, these things like to be

used, and when you don't use them, they

fail. Now, all of these things are

completely doable. In fact, they're

something that anyone can DIY

themselves. But, um, one of the funny

things about when cars sit for a while

is they don't actually manifest [music]

all of their problems immediately. It

took a little bit of driving to really

expose those gremlins in Gunther. And,

uh, let me tell you, there were

gremlins.

foreshadowing.

There's a good chance that you've been

yelling at me this whole time about

survivorship bias. And first of all,

this is a video. I can't hear you.

Secondly, you're right. Most things

throughout history, whether it's a car

from the 70s or a toaster from the 80s

or a jacket from World War II, simply

were not made to last, and therefore, we

don't see them today. If only all the

good stuff minus a few exceptions made

it to the modern day, then of course

it's going to look like everything that

was made in the past is better than what

we have now. Except that doesn't paint

the full picture and it doesn't

contradict my point. One thing you have

to understand is that while there will

always be exceptions to the rule, there

is a pattern here. The median of all

products are gradually being designed to

be as useless [music] as the consumer

can possibly tolerate and often more.

Things you used to own are being rented

to you. And even if you wanted to buy a

car like this Mercedes with this level

of quality and craftsmanship and staying

power, well, you can't. Let's say all

you want is a car that is as reliable as

this Mercedes was when it was new.

Forget the build quality for now, as

those are two different things. Toyota,

which has largely been regarded as the

[music] most dependable car brand for

many decades at this point, doesn't even

make cars with the same level of quality

in both their defect rate and the

longevity of the cars overall. They are

less reliable than they were 10 or 15

years ago. And not only do they require

[music] more repairs, but they are

significantly harder to work on,

especially if you're independent [music]

and therefore more expensive to repair

due to regulations, consumer demand, and

of course in shitification. It doesn't

mean it's hell on earth. It's just worse

and it's not going to get better unless

something really big changes. The 190E

isn't mechanically [music] perfect, but

it is solid. It doesn't tolerate

neglect, but it does tolerate time and a

lot of it given proper maintenance.

So, I am driving in my first snowstorm

in the Mercedes, and now would be a

really good opportunity to use the rear

defroster, as you can see. But I'm just

not feeling that yet.

This will do. All right, literally 3

minutes later, just wanted to give a

quick update. Uh, my wiper stopped

working. I'm not going to lie, this

sucks. I can't see [ __ ]

>> [music]

>> What ended [music] up breaking in the

wiper, unsurprisingly, was the only

plastic component in there.

Now, they still manufacture this part,

but it would take like 3 weeks to get

it. So, I know a guy named Joel who

creates things, who also happens to have

a 3D printer.

Take this.

>> What is it? The wrong thing.

>> Ah, mother.

>> Thank you.

>> No problem.

>> What a good friend.

>> Feel like that guy who's like, "Look at

all this food we got." Huh?

>> Who has the best girlfriend ever?

>> I do.

>> Who just bought you all this stuff?

>> She did.

[music]

>> [music]

>> Woohoo!

So, what happens exactly when there's no

more value to extract? [music] When the

product is already as cheap as it can

be, the subscription is already as

expensive as people will tolerate,

[music] and the quality has already

bottomed out. This isn't a hypothetical.

We're starting to find out in real time.

[music] And the answer is ugly in a few

distinct ways. The first and most

immediate response from corporations is

to [music] go after things that weren't

previously considered products. Your

attention, your data, your behavioral

patterns, your location history, your

sleep schedule. If there's no margin

[music] left in the physical thing

you're buying, they start monetizing the

person buying it instead. This is

already the primary business model of

most major tech companies, and it's

rapidly bleeding into industries that

have nothing to [music] do with tech at

all. Samsung smart TVs were caught

sending unencrypted screenshots of what

users were watching to third party

servers. John Deere tractors, which

farmers own outright, are locked behind

software that prohibits the farmer from

repairing their own equipment. Not

because it's technically necessary, but

because the repair ecosystem is now a

revenue stream. A 2023 Mosilla

Foundation report found that all 25

major [music] car brands they reviewed

failed the minimum privacy standards.

The second thing that happens is

consolidation and a lot of it. When

margins compress across an entire

industry, [music]

smaller players can't survive and get

absorbed by whoever has the deepest

pockets. This further reduces

competition, which [music] reduces the

incentive to improve anything, which

accelerates the very degradation that

caused margin compression in the first

place. It's a vicious feedback loop.

Between 1997 and 2012, the number of

American companies publicly listed on

the stock exchange dropped by roughly

50%. From about 7,000 to 3,700, largely

due to mergers and acquisitions. Three

companies control the majority of the

global beer market. And two companies,

Proctor and Gamble and Unilever,

manufacture the vast majority of

consumer goods you'll [music] find at

any grocery store under hundreds of

different brand names. The illusion of

choice persists, [music] but the

competitive pressure that would

theoretically drive quality upward does

not. The third consequence is the one

nobody in a boardroom will put in the

slide deck, demand destruction. When

people consistently get less than what

they paid [music] for, they eventually

stop paying. This is already showing up

in the data. US consumer confidence hit

multi-deade lows in 2020. Subscription

fatigue is now a documented and [music]

widely studied phenomenon with surveys

showing the average American household

underestimates their monthly

subscription [music] spending by over

$100. The secondhand market, which grew

15 times faster than traditional retail

between 2020 and 2023, is a direct

behavioral response to people no longer

trusting new products. Repair cafes,

which are community spaces where people

gather to fix broken appliances and

clothing rather than replace them, have

grown from a single location in

Amsterdam in 2009 to over 2,500 [music]

locations globally today. People are not

doing this because it's [music] fun.

They're doing it because the math on

buying new no longer works. And God

knows what happens when the quality

goods of yester year finally run out,

leaving us stuck with only what's

available new. And that's the part that

should be genuinely concerning [music]

for anyone paying attention. Not just

for consumers, but the corporations

doing the value extracting. An economy

that is structurally dependent [music]

on growth, but has largely run out of

real value to create can only sustain

itself through increasingly aggressive

[music] extraction from an increasingly

exhausted consumer base. At some point,

the consumer base pushes back, opts out,

or simply runs out of money. None of

those outcomes are good for an economy

built on the assumption that consumption

will always expand. [music]

The drive shaft bushings are super duper

worn, like [music] really bad. So, I

need to replace that.

You might be wondering like why I'm

doing all of this work for this car.

Like, is it worth it? What is the point?

Like, what what why why do this? [music]

And the answer is completely emotional.

This is not a logistical decision. I'm

not trying [music] to improve my life in

terms of my net worth uh let alone uh my

time. But that's not why I bought the

car. I mean, I already touched on this a

little bit, but I I am so sick and tired

of everything in this world and in my

life just crumbling to DUST AND BLOWING

AWAY. SORRY, THAT WAS AN INVINCIBLE

REFERENCE. I'm not even that old and I'm

seeing it happen in my lifetime. things

are getting worse and so [music] I'm

willing to invest into something that I

know will take care of me. Not just

because I think it'll be pretty reliable

long term, but it nourishes a part of my

soul that is sorely lacking in

nourishment. [music]

It's so important to me that the things

in my life feel solid, that they

represent engineering and design. And

that is not something that I get out of

a 2017 [music] Altra. It's not something

that I get out of any new car for sale

today. None of them. It makes me feel

optimistic about life, about humanity

and engineering. [music] And it it's an

ideal for me to strive towards. If one

aspect of my life can be this cool,

everything can too. It really makes me

feel good. It It's very much emotional.

There's also just something so beautiful

about not only maintaining the things

you own, but by restoring something

[music] that no one else wanted to give

a second chance, but it's also yours

now. Like there are many Mercedes like

this one. They sold probably like a

million of them, but this one is mine.

[music]

[music]

>> [music]

>> Oh, that is so much better. You hardly

even feel it.

>> Yeah.

>> And now we're stuck on the ice.

>> That's good. [laughter]

>> Ow. Oh,

>> little downshift here.

Yes. Seamless. And the upshift. Oh,

yeah. Oh, that is so much better. This

car feels like it's like 10 years newer

after that.

>> Oh, it's classic. Classic communication.

>> It's so much smoother.

>> Is it?

>> It's so nice. It's really nice.

>> Which brings us to the newest and most

powerful accelerant this whole process

has ever had, artificial intelligence.

And before you roll your eyes, this

isn't a speech about AI being inherently

evil or benevolent because it's just

technology and the technology itself is

genuinely remarkable. Now, a lot of the

people and companies pushing it are

actually pretty evil, but that doesn't

mean the only alternative is abstinence.

Large language models and automation

tools represent a legitimate leap in

human capability. In the hands of

someone trying to make something

genuinely better, it's about as close to

a superpower as we've ever had. It is at

its core a logistical tool and a pretty

good one at that. That's what it should

be. But the people with the most

resources to deploy it at scale are not

small business owners or independent

scientists. They're the same

corporations that already figured out

that extracting value is more profitable

than creating it. And rather than using

AI to do the work nobody wants to do,

they're pushing it on us to replace the

work people actually want to do and

pocketing the difference. The most

visible and insulting example is AI

generated art. There is no shortage of

creative people. Nobody was sitting

around wishing there were fewer humans

making things. But replacing a human

illustrator with a generator that

scraped their work without consent costs

less. And in a system that treats margin

as the only metric that matters, that's

all the justification needed. It doesn't

make a better product. It makes a

cheaper one. And I think that's what

makes this particular chapter of

initification so uniquely demoralizing.

Corporate greed is so deeply ingrained

at this [music] point that it took one

of the most genuinely astounding

technologies in human history and made

it feel lame as [ __ ] That's actually

impressive in the worst possible way.

[music] Meanwhile, the actual logistical

applications that could genuinely

improve people's lives are either

underfunded, locked behind

subscriptions, or shaped to serve

corporate [music] interests over

consumer ones. CLA actually announced in

2024 that they would replace 700 of

their customer service agent with AI,

framing it as an efficiency win. IBM

froze hiring on 7,800 positions slated

for automation. And McKenzie estimates

that I think up to 30% of US working

hours could be completely automated by

the year 2030. None of that productivity

gain goes to the consumer or the

displaced worker. It gets reported as

profit while customer service gets worse

and the people who held those jobs

figure out what's next. On top of

displacement, AI is being used to

manufacture the illusion of abundance.

fake product listings flooding Amazon,

keyword stuffed articles polluting

search results and support lines

designed to sound just human enough to

keep you on hold without ever actually

solving your problem. It is the

industrialization of [ __ ] and it is

happening faster than any previous wave

of inshitification because the tool

enabling it is orders of magnitude more

[music] powerful than anything before.

The technology could genuinely serve

people and probably will for individuals

resourceful enough to use it on their

own terms. But without regulation that

forces these tools to work [music] in

the consumer's best interest rather than

against it, AI is not going to be the

great equalizer anyone hoped for. Which

is why I want to talk about today's

sponsor, Rule. Look, I I don't do ads

for things I can't get behind. In fact,

this is my first ever sponsorship. And

Rule is one of those rare cases where a

company is actually using AI the way it

should be used. I've been a longtime LLM

skeptic for all the reasons I listed in

this video. But rule is two [music]

things. Number one, it's actually

useful. And number two, it respects your

privacy. And as far as I'm aware,

there's no other LLM that can do both of

those things at [music] the same time.

It's built and hosted in Europe, which

matters more than it sounds. European

data law is genuinely [music] stricter

than what American companies operate

under, and rule takes it further than

legally required. There's no cookies, no

third party tracking [music] pixels, no

selling your data, and no ads. Your

workspace is yours. But the thing that

really makes rules [music] stand out is

what they call object memory. Every

other AI I've used, including the big

names, forget everything the second the

conversation gets complicated enough to

actually matter. I'd been stuck on a

fuel injection problem with Gunther for

2 weeks. And after about like 10 minutes

of back and forth, it helped me identify

a leaky fuel injector that had been

driving me absolutely [ __ ] crazy for

like 2 weeks. That is AI functioning

exactly the way it should, solving a

real problem for a real person. So, if

you've abstained from using AI till now,

well, Rule is a great place to [music]

get started, and it's only getting

better. I've used it quite a bit, and I

haven't had to pay a single scent. The

free tier is [music] very generous. Feel

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required. rule.dev link is in the

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genuinely [music] appreciate it.

The honeymoon period with Gunther was

back on. I fixed everything that needed

fixing. And man, I love driving this car

around. But like all honeymoon periods,

[music] it came to an end. In fact, the

first time I ever drove my friends

around in this car, well, we all got in,

we're sitting in the parking lot, I turn

the key, and the engine goes. Gunther

was engineered in a time before

mainstream electronic fuel injection was

a [music] thing. It's a mechanical style

of fuel injection that is dead reliable

and very smooth, but it's somewhat

antiquated. And most of the people who

understand the system, well, they

understood it because now they're dead.

That being said, I actually noticed a

smell of gasoline from the engine bay.

Not only is that kind of a bummer, but

it's also super [music] dangerous. I

don't know if you knew this, but

gasoline explodes, and I don't like

exploding. My windshield already did. I

tried replacing something called the

cold [music] start valve cuz I thought

the smell was coming from there, but the

smell was not coming from there. And so

I just ended up spending $200 I didn't

need to. I've replaced the coolant

[music] temperature sensor, the fuel

injector seals, and the cold start

valve, and it's done nothing. So, I'm

going to go ahead and take a look at the

spark plugs [music] to see if they can

show me any secrets.

So, the first culprit that anyone says

to check for a hot start issue on one of

these cars is something called the fuel

accumulator. I'll spare you the details,

but what it's responsible for doing is

making sure that when you turn the

engine off that all the fuel doesn't

just gush back into the fuel tank. It

stays in the system. So, I check the

fuel accumulator and get this, it was

leaking. You could tell because when you

turn the key, fuel just gushes out the

back of it, meaning something in the

diaphragm was ruptured. So, I think I

found my problem.

Except I didn't. All right, I've got

good news and I've got bad news. Uh, the

good news is is that the car didn't

explode. Other than that, actually

replacing the fuel accumulator didn't do

anything. Even though it was confirmed

broken, [music] there seems to be some

other underlying issue that trumps

whatever was wrong with the fuel

accumulator.

The engine still didn't run quite right.

So, I'm looking around trying to find

[music] things, and I found what no car

enthusiast wants to see from their

engine bay. I just smelled fuel around

the engine. Again, that doesn't sound

like good news, but if I can just find a

fuel leak, that makes things quite a bit

more simple. And where I found the fuel

link fuel leak is right here. The smell

of gasoline was actually coming from

something called the EHA or

electro-hydraulic actuator. It's

responsible for a lot to do with the

engine's fuel management. So, I did what

any normal enthusiast does, and I

replaced the seals. Except that wasn't

what the problem was, even though I had

to wait a week for the seals to show up.

No, it was the EHA itself. Not only does

this suck because I have to like spend

$400 on the new EHA, but it also sucks

because replacing it is kind of a

hassle. You see, there's this process

where you have to measure a certain kind

of fuel pressure, but it's not normal

fuel pressure. It's like specific German

fuel pressure. And then you have to like

measure the differential between them so

that you can accurately calibrate by

like a quarter turn on the little Allen

key. But you have to take the EHA on and

off and on and off and on and off and on

and off every single time you do it. And

it just takes a while. It's not exactly

fun. But I did it and it went well. Or

at least I thought it went well because

the engine still didn't run right. In

fact, it ran the same.

So, at this point, I'm starting to get a

little frustrated. So, I do what I

honestly should have started with, and I

replaced all the rubber bits [music] in

the engine bay. Engines require

something called a vacuum. If you have a

leak in your system, in your vacuum

system, everything gets thrown off. Your

[music] fuel economy is terrible, your

car is slower, it'll run like crap, and

given that all the rubber bits in the

engine bay are super old, something had

to be leaking. And it was because after

I replaced all of them, which took kind

of a while, the engine ran better, but

not perfect. There was there was still

just something not quite right. It would

hesitate and it would burp and I it's

just like it was better. Don't get me

wrong. It was better, but it wasn't

quite right. So, I was at my wit's end,

which is why I purchased something

called a smoke machine. This is a

beautiful tool that allows you to well

plug smoke directly into the vacuum

system of your engine. That way, if

there's a leak anywhere, well, smoke

will pop right out. And lo and behold,

there was smoke leaking in the engine

bay. Right on the part that I just

replaced. Except, wait, that's not what

I just replaced. That's the throttle

body. Gunther is an old car. New cars

aren't like this anymore. But the gas

pedal is actually directly connected to

well the throttle of the engine. And

that linkage that goes from the gas

pedal to the engine, well, it developed

a leak, which is incredibly frustrating

because I just had that part off.

Although, not just that, that part

doesn't exist. At least not as far as

Mercedes is concerned because they don't

make it anymore. So, I came up with a

clever solution. actually just took an

O-ring and stuffed it in between the

linkage and the throttle body. And

believe it or not, that was actually

enough to reduce the smoke, at least

more or less. And after that, well, the

car

the car ran beautifully.

I did it. I did it. I bought the car. I

restored it. I made it work. It drives

great. I actually use it as my daily

driver. Like in my neighborhood, I'm

known as the guy who drives the old

Mercedes. Every single little thing

about the car is just so profoundly

robust. It feels incredible.

[music]

The single most reliable filter for

whether a product is worth buying is

whether a company that makes it needs it

to last. Darn Tough, for example, makes

socks in Vermont and replaces worn pairs

for free unconditionally forever. That

guarantee only works as a business model

if the socks actually last, which means

they have a financial reason to make

sure they do. The second thing, if a

product has software in it, find out

what happens to that product when the

company decides your version is no

longer profitable or the company even

stops existing altogether. What time is

it? [ __ ] time. If you're wondering

why it has so many weird little details

and all that, well, that's actually

because this is actually an activity

tracker. See, this watch will track your

steps, which is kind of amazing for how

it looks. Plus, the battery lasts for

like a year, which is fantastic.

Except Timex discontinued the app for

this watch on iOS. Now, why should it

need an app? I don't know. But that's

how you make it work. Without the app,

it doesn't it doesn't track your steps.

I've worn this all day. I've walked like

10,000 steps and it's not tracking it.

Why? Because I don't have the app. it it

doesn't impact my life that much. But

not only is it about what it represents,

but it's not just this watch. If

companies can get away with just

bricking things that you bought, well,

what else do I have to say? They can get

away with bricking things you bought.

And this is now the default playbook for

any physical product with a connected

component. And it will keep spreading.

Before buying anything with an app, a

subscription, or a firmware dependency,

search the product name alongside right

to repair or brricked update online.

iFixit scores products on a

repairability scale and publishes free

repair guides for thousands of items. A

product that is easy to repair was also

almost always designed to last long

enough to be worth repairing. The

secondhand market is not a consolation

prize. For a lot of product categories,

it is the correct answer. On the money

side, the single highest leverage thing

most people can act on immediately is

subscriptions. The average American

spends like $220 a month on

subscriptions and underestimates that

number by two and a half times. I really

suggest pulling every recurring charge

from your bank statement and ask which

ones you would really consciously

repurchase right now if they required a

deliberate decision. Beyond that, the

math almost always rules in favor of

buying something good once rather than

buying something cheap repeatedly. Also

known as buy once, cry once. It's

something that you can only do in a

position of privilege. So, I'm not

looking down on anyone who doesn't have

the financial means to do so, but it is

an investment in your future. A cheap

product replaced three times costs more

than a good product bought once, and the

gap compounds more across every category

[music] in your life simultaneously.

Most of this video has been rather

politically charged, but it's about to

get even stronger. So, if that's not the

kind of content you're looking for,

[music] now is a good time to call it. A

recent video of mine was about how

modern e-commerce uses such advanced

algorithm technology to manufacture your

and my demand that previous notions of

consumer welfare no longer apply if they

ever did. Meaning, if you're

psychologically manipulated via

algorithms to want to buy something,

that probably actually isn't in your

best interest, even though you are

technically still buying it of your own

valition. And at the end of the video,

to provide a solution to you, the

viewer, I said, don't panic. Organize

change is the product of many people's

actions. So get out there and make this

right. Please vote. And that might have

felt oddly vague as I was afraid to

[music] really say what I think you

should do or vote for. Look, I'm not

trying to be anyone's role model or even

tell you who to vote for specifically.

What I am saying is if you want large

corporations to stop getting away

[music] with near total control of the

market, you cannot keep rewarding the

same incentive structures that produce

this outcome in the first place. [music]

When regulatory loopholes,

consolidation, and shareholder primacy

go unchecked, quality is going to

decline. competition is going to fade

and consumers lose leverage. This isn't

about left versus right. It's about

whether markets serve people or people

serve markets. History shows that

meaningful change has always come when

concentrated power, whether corporate or

political, is forced to answer to the

public. You and I can't fix the entire

system in a single YouTube video. But

there are things we can [music] do to

get us closer. Avoid voting for people

who have a lot of lobbying dollars spent

on them. In the US, lobbying has become

one of the primary ways concentrated

wealth buys political influence. It's a

bribe that happens to be legal. So

support the people fighting it. Right to

repair, strong consumer protections,

meaningful antirust enforcement, and

data ownership rights. Vote for power

moving back towards users and away from

the companies trying to lock you inside

their ecosystem. So not only is the

question whether or not this experiment

was worth it, but more importantly, how

much did it cost? Number one, yes. And

number two, about $10,000. If you're as

crazy as I am and you want to do

something like this, I have some advice

for you. Number one, it cannot be your

only car. No matter how well-made a

vehicle is, [music] if it was made over

30 years ago, it's going to break down

eventually. The other thing is don't

treat it as an [music] investment. Don't

spend every penny to your name on a

project car. It's never ever worth it

unless it's a Volkswagen Curado.

Whatever repairs you need to do, do them

slowly. Throwing parts at your problems

is never [music] going to end well. Just

like everything in life, costs can add

up extraordinarily quickly. And if

you're not careful, especially with

project cars, [music] you can end up

spending tens of thousands of dollars on

two old red German cars from 1991. How

did I do that? Okay, if you would be

gracious enough with your time, I would

love to pitch to you the idea of

subscribing to my Patreon. First of all,

you don't have to. Watching this video

[music] is plenty enough of support. But

if you want to go the extra mile, you're

also getting some benefits. For one,

this video was released 2 days early on

Patreon. So, if that's important to you,

now you have that. Plus, any tier

actually gets their names listed in my

videos, like these guys. As you can see,

there's not that many because I have a

very small channel. I do feel very proud

of this video, and [music] I'm really

excited to continue making these. I want

to be able to make them better, and

especially, I want to be able to make

them faster. And if you're interested in

either of those things happening, well,

you know what to do. Thank you.