I’d argue that’s a debt-based transaction. You get the land now, but the payment is deferred to a later time when you have the means to pay it.

Helped a friend replace the alternator on a 1990 Honda Prelude once. The official procedure was to disconnect one of the engine mounts and jack the engine up a few inches to create a path to get the alternator out. Crazy.

Ha ha, every country keeps the good stuff for themselves.

I’d say American car companies. Due to market consolidation and car brands being a symbol of national pride, they were able to enshitify in the 1970’s and 80’s, producing low-quality expensive cars. Competition from Japan in the late 80’s and 90’s forced them to improve. American cars still trail behind Japanese cars in quality, but they’ve gotten much better.

Free and fair competition is essential to any economy. The gutting of antitrust laws in the USA is partly to blame for whatever you call this system we have now (I can’t confidently say it’s capitalism anymore).

This is a close second place to the guillotine for best French protest invention.

I second Miami Vice. Also, Airwolf is probably my favorite theme music of all time.