Slate has a really interesting story today about auto dealers
Some interesting tidbits:
Auto dealers are one of the five most common professions among the top 0.1 percent of American earners. Car dealers, gas station owners, and building contractors, it turns out, make up the majority of the country’s 140,000 millionaires. Crunching numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, data scientist and author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz found that over 20 percent of car dealerships in the U.S. have an owner banking more than $1.5 million per year.
And car dealers are not only one of the richest demographics in the United States. They’re also one of the most organized political factions—a conservative imperium giving millions of dollars to politicians at local, state, and national levels. They lobby through NADA, the organization staging the weekend’s festivities, and donate to Republicans at a rate of 6-to-1. Through those efforts, they’ve managed to write and rewrite laws to protect dealers and sponsor sympathetic politicians in all 50 states.
They spent a record $7 million on federal lobbying in 2022, far more than the National Rifle Association, and $25 million in 2020 just on federal elections, mostly to Republicans. The NADA PAC kicked in another $5 million.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 30, 2023 4:25 PM
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A 10,000 word article that comes to the conclusion the auto industry doesn’t like electronic cars?
What will you link next, OP, an essay in The Atlantic on why floral patterns are good for Spring?
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 30, 2023 1:27 PM
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There are no words to describe how much I love R1.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 30, 2023 1:29 PM
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r2 the main thing that interested me was how Republican and how influential it is. The part about EVs is just a small part of the article, as far as I'm concerned.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 30, 2023 1:32 PM
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I always get a republican vibe at dealerships. Macho men trying to outbro one another. And women staff with huge tits.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 30, 2023 2:08 PM
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[quote]and No One Wanted to Hear a Certain Name
Can you spoil it for those of us who can't read long articles? Is it Trump, DeSantis, or Biden?
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 30, 2023 2:10 PM
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[quote]Car dealers, gas station owners, and building contractors, it turns out, make up the majority of the country’s 140,000 millionaires
Are they saying there's only 140,000 millionaires in the US? That seems really low.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 30, 2023 2:15 PM
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Car dealers are responsible for the lack of direct-to-consumer car sales.
Major car manufacturers would love to set up a website, have a person custom order a vehicle for a set price and deliver it to them. It would cut car prices by a huge amount.
Car dealers are vampires, middlemen, they create no value.
So of course they're Republicans.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 30, 2023 2:24 PM
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[quote]Are they saying there's only 140,000 millionaires in the US? That seems really low.
Yeah, there are supposed to be 5.3 million millionaires and 770 billionaires living in the US, with millionaires making up about 2% of the adult population.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 30, 2023 3:13 PM
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For those interested, a historical view on the reactionary politics of car dealers. Plus ça change ...
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 30, 2023 3:21 PM
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Switching to EVs will remove a lot of revenue from dealerships by eliminating maintenance costs. Dealerships make tons from oil changes, faulty transmissions, etc. Electric vehicles have none of these problems.
One reason why Tesla is so popular is that there's no dealer markup. Once you reserve a car, the price quoted never changes.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 30, 2023 3:23 PM
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R11 Tesla ain’t so popular anymore after slashing prices and getting into bed with dump. They are tanking price wise on the used market.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 30, 2023 3:36 PM
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And Ford is also eliminating dealerships in Europe for their EVs in order to bring the price down, so Tesla doesn't have a monopoly on that market strategy.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 30, 2023 3:58 PM
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Cruise lines have really hit the travel agent business, along with airlines. I mention cruises first as the actual commission dollars on a single cruise was quite significant back in the day.
Car dealers obviously see this, and are probably shitting their pants as it’s just a matter of time for them.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 30, 2023 4:07 PM
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I think you're right r7. This seems to be the actual number they are using, from the linked DM article:
[quote] While doing research for his book, author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz said he was shocked to learn that more than 140,000 Americans who earn more than $1.58 million per year are owners of so-called 'unsexy' businesses.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 30, 2023 4:24 PM
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I dunno r12 they seem to be doing ok
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 30, 2023 4:25 PM
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