Did I mention BMW? Did I mention no other manufacturers fall short? No. So you're disagreeing on a point you've made up in your head.
I can sympathise with O.P. but it's sometimes a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" area for me, and we need to know the whole story to possibly fully understand why.
As expected. No coherent argument. Just the bland and tepid response of someone with so little to draw from.
Your initial statement said by comparison. Admittedly you were comparing with Triumph, so I threw BMW under the bus, just because I can. I still disagree though, as I’ve had three Triumphs, all of them had inferior build quality to the Ducatis I’ve owned.
This is the business model 'Capitalist short termism' and we're screwed. The business is run primarily for shareholder dividends, for people who mostly don't give a shit about the company, maximizing quick returns; the bosses mostly care about massive salaries and bonuses and, given the now de facto golden parachute fast turnover reward-for-failure culture, don't expect to still be there long enough for long-term strategies and can probably no longer even imagine such; and our politicians don't look beyond the next election. Meanwhile chess-playing Russians and 'inscrutable' Orientals do plan long-term. I'd say that we in the West are constitutionally incapable of changing tack and the only barrier to the inevitability of Sino-Russian ascendance is that we'd start WWIII rather than allow it which, given we made it inevitable by modelling our societies on the headless chicken, implies we're actually suicidal, running around frantically seeking maximum pleasure while we still can. The headless chicken crossed with the dog that tries to fuck your leg.
are they morons? nah, i dont think so. they have built a bike with the tech you want which has relatively low production numbers, the biggest influence on cost? at a price that is affordable.
WTL is not saying adopt the Sino/Russian model, he is saying the "West" given its total adherence to short-termism is doomed to fail because all political and business decisions are taken with a less than 5 year time horizon. I think he has a valid point. I would add that short term optics seem more important than content where politicians/policy makers are concerned and there is a distinct lack of intellectual analysis/ rigour applied to anything that has an impact more than 5 years hence.
^^^ e.g headlong rush toward electric/battery vehicles when the world supply of lithium is only capable of meeting c 20% of the demand and most of the available in ground resources have been signed up/bought by the Chinese about 10 years ago.
Thats assuming Lithium is not superceded as the main material for batteries in the future. Clearly oil has a damaging affect. Is it not right to move towards cleaner technologies? We moved from coal fired steam, to oil and ICE. Now we move to electricity. Time will tell, and yes short termism is a problem politically. But it is us that drives that. No-one else. We continue to vote for a political class that has more interest in protecting its donor interests than ours. Just because they offer you the occassional tax cut and can saturate public opinion with deflective propoganda. The public buys it, because frankly theyre morons. We get what we deserve.
