DOGE probably didn’t help matters but the problem started to rise in 2023. My gut reaction was “damn that DOGE!” too but they didn’t start with cuts until 2025. So it likely just exasperated an already growing concern. This is the same kind of stuff anti-vaxers don’t get. We left South America out of the equation so when the circumstances of migration and feeding changed so did the status quo of a “screwworm free” line in the sand. Other peoples problems can quickly become everyone’s problem if left unchecked.
The article is comparing 2 scenarios that have other explanations: a fire sale of a large fleet and Tesla which has an image problem because of its leadership.
I’m not saying the article is wrong I’d just like to see broader representation (Chevy bolt, lucid air, etc).
A vocal minority are freedom loving. A significant number are hooked on consumer debt. I feel like any sweeping generalization is going to be wrong… especially when referencing the USA which is basically 50 countries and has a population exceeding all of Western Europe.
I would even go so far as to say free users aren’t customers in a platform like this. There’s no revenue model and if it’s “run without constraint” you get some fun scaling problems but those types of issues can sometimes lead to optimizations that keep the system online in the face of many small apps but doesn’t necessarily cover the case of a large resource app.