The Bicycle is the Slow Death of the Planet.

[Wendy]

The General Director of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said:

“A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: He does not buy cars and does not borrow money to buy. He does not pay for insurance policies. He does not buy fuel, does not pay for the necessary maintenance and repairs. He does not use paid parking. He does not cause serious accidents. He does not require multi lane highways. He does not get fat. Healthy people are neither needed nor useful for the economy. They don’t buy medicine. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. Nothing is added to the country’s GDP.

On the contrary, every new McDonald’s restaurant creates at least 30 jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietary experts and nutritionists, and obviously, people who work at the restaurant itself.

Choose carefully: Cyclist or McDonald’s? It is worth considering.

PS. Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don’t even buy bicycles.

 

[cantunamunch]

Hehe.

But he obviously hasn't seen the price of new bikes, let alone e-bikes.

 

[Wendy]

Hehe.

But he obviously hasn't seen the price of new bikes, let alone e-bikes.

Still cheaper than most inexpensive used cars. And I’d much rather deal with my local bike shop (a really cool place) to purchase it than the local car dealer.
I mean, if one is looking for a commuter e-bike, a very nice Giant with racks and lights can be had for $3500. Maintenance will be cheaper than auto maintenance.

I’ve done some thought experiments, reimagining my local community where the 2 lane (awful) state highway nearby was filled with bicycles instead of trucks. (It used to be a trolley line).

My wish is that we retire to a community where we get have just one car (a hybrid) and 2 commuter bikes for in town errands.

 

[scott43]

This is along the same lines as when I read about the impending disaster of no population growth... Or gasp, decline!!

 

[Uncle-A]

What does an Exim banker in Europe about Mc Donald's. Just another doomsday prediction. Europeans have been riding bikes for a long long time and their economy has survived.

 

[geepers]

Yeah - kind of 1st world insular perspective. (Although see last paragraph...)

There's an interesting way of dividing the world by daily income. The richest billion earn (on average and very roughly) $100 per day. The middle billion $10 per day and the poorest $1 or less per day. Very rough, round numbers but makes the main point.

Issue is that looking from the lofty perspective of $100 per day (and generally much, much more) it's hard to see the difference in the wealth levels down the other end of the wealth line. But there are differences. At some point as income creeps above $1 tp $2 per day people get a bit to spare from buying food and start thinking about buying a bike.

Bikes can make a huge difference to the lives of the world's poorest. They save hours every day - it's quicker than walking - and get so much more done - it can carry heavier loads to market or a child to school. So they earn more money or travel further to find/attend work. If they get sick they get to to help faster.

More money means they move up the income scale. From $1 per day to $10 per day is a huge jump in income and those folk know very well how that will affect the quality of their life. Next thing they start thinking about buying a motorbike.


Any case, seems the item on Euro Exim Bank is a fake. And again.

 

[jt10000]

The story is fake.

And the sentiment in it is absurd - the world is clearly on fire with climate change, due largely to overreliance on fossil fuels.

 

[scott43]

The fake news tell was a European banker saying something humorous...

 

[Wendy]

The story is fake.

And the sentiment in it is absurd - the world is clearly on fire with climate change, due largely to overreliance on fossil fuels.

@geepers @jt10000 @Uncle-A of course I knew it was fake!

It was meant as a tongue-in-cheek take on the absurdity of some economists’ perspectives.

Not meant to be taken as Word. Are you guys lost on humor or something this AM?
Perhaps I should have posted this in the ”Funnies” thread in Chez Ziggy to make myself perfectly clear. But I wanted to grab some attention with the thread title.

 

[Lauren]

Just doing my part to keep the economy afloat.

 

[scott43]

And it's Friday!!

 

[cantunamunch]

And the sentiment in it is absurd - the world is clearly on fire with climate change, due largely to overreliance on fossil fuels.

And not only for that reason. The sentiment is nothing but a rephrasing of the Parable of the Broken Window / Glazier's fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window - i.e. something any economist would have covered during basic schooling.

The fake news tell was a European banker saying something humorous...

Indeed. Or saying anything with content, except maybe in the hour before retirement.

 

[dovski]

Still cheaper than most inexpensive used cars. And I’d much rather deal with my local bike shop (a really cool place) to purchase it than the local car dealer.
I mean, if one is looking for a commuter e-bike, a very nice Giant with racks and lights can be had for $3500. Maintenance will be cheaper than auto maintenance.

I’ve done some thought experiments, reimagining my local community where the 2 lane (awful) state highway nearby was filled with bicycles instead of trucks. (It used to be a trolley line).

My wish is that we retire to a community where we get have just one car (a hybrid) and 2 commuter bikes for in town errands.

I think this makes some assumptions that do not apply to all bikers or take into account the N+1 formula that many of us apply to both skis and bikes For example a high end full suspension mountain bike can easily run you $5-10K. Now servicing these bikes if you ride them a lot can become quite expensive as servicing shocks, hydraulic breaks ... etc. can easily run you several hundred $$. And some of us are just not skilled enough to do this ourselves. In theory the shocks on my bike should be serviced after 50 hours of use and rebuilt after 200, so the frequency of servicing by distance is much more frequent than my car by distance traveled. Add to the fact that I have a 29er and I kind of miss my 27.5 so thinking of getting another bike. We also have a lot of gravel trails near us so at some point I need to get a gravel bike too. Would like to do the STP (Seattle to Portland) ride so also need to get a road bike at some point. Phil and Tricia keep on teasing me with eMTBs so add that to the list. So while I only have one car, thanks to the bad influence of folks on this forum creating bike envy, I may actually end up with 4 bikes over the next few years whereas I do not plan to buy another car anytime soon. So if you do the math as a biker I will be infusing more $$ into the economy than the average car buyer.

Now if you combine the fact that many of us bikers (at least on this site) are also avid skiers with a quiver full of skis you then get a multiplier effect that we will call the Skitalk economic impact multiplier. When you crunch all these numbers the only logical conclusion is that the membership of this site through there pursuit of outdoor activities is actually fueling our economic recovery

 

[Wendy]

Yeah - kind of 1st world insular perspective. (Although see last paragraph...)

There's an interesting way of dividing the world by daily income. The richest billion earn (on average and very roughly) $100 per day. The middle billion $10 per day and the poorest $1 or less per day. Very rough, round numbers but makes the main point.

Issue is that looking from the lofty perspective of $100 per day (and generally much, much more) it's hard to see the difference in the wealth levels down the other end of the wealth line. But there are differences. At some point as income creeps above $1 tp $2 per day people get a bit to spare from buying food and start thinking about buying a bike.

Bikes can make a huge difference to the lives of the world's poorest. They save hours every day - it's quicker than walking - and get so much more done - it can carry heavier loads to market or a child to school. So they earn more money or travel further to find/attend work. If they get sick they get to to help faster.

More money means they move up the income scale. From $1 per day to $10 per day is a huge jump in income and those folk know very well how that will affect the quality of their life. Next thing they start thinking about buying a motorbike.


Any case, seems the item on Euro Exim Bank is a fake. And again.

I think this makes some assumptions that do not apply to all bikers or take into account the N+1 formula that many of us apply to both skis and bikes For example a high end full suspension mountain bike can easily run you $5-10K. Now servicing these bikes if you ride them a lot can become quite expensive as servicing shocks, hydraulic breaks ... etc. can easily run you several hundred $$. And some of us are just not skilled enough to do this ourselves. In theory the shocks on my bike should be serviced after 50 hours of use and rebuilt after 200, so the frequency of servicing by distance is much more frequent than my car by distance traveled. Add to the fact that I have a 29er and I kind of miss my 27.5 so thinking of getting another bike. We also have a lot of gravel trails near us so at some point I need to get a gravel bike too. Would like to do the STP (Seattle to Portland) ride so also need to get a road bike at some point. Phil and Tricia keep on teasing me with eMTBs so add that to the list. So while I only have one car, thanks to the bad influence of folks on this forum creating bike envy, I may actually end up with 4 bikes over the next few years whereas I do not plan to buy another car anytime soon. So if you do the math as a biker I will be infusing more $$ into the economy than the average car buyer.

Now if you combine the fact that many of us bikers (at least on this site) are also avid skiers with a quiver full of skis you then get a multiplier effect that we will call the SkiTalk economic impact multiplier. When you crunch all these numbers the only logical conclusion is that the membership of this site through there pursuit of outdoor activities is actually fueling our economic recovery

LOL, yup. We sure do our share on this site! When I was bike racing, I clearly had more $ invested in my bikes than in my car. I was proud of that, too!

 

[Wendy]

And not only for that reason. The sentiment is nothing but a rephrasing of the Parable of the Broken Window / Glazier's fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window - i.e. something any economist would have covered during basic schooling.





Indeed. Or saying anything with content, except maybe in the hour before retirement.

I just learned something new this morning. Thanks for that!
However, but don’t some economists still use a version of the reasoning in my first post? Like @scott43 pointed out, the “disaster” of reduced population growth. I can think of a few other examples posited by developers here in PA but I won’t go into that in a bicycle thread. Still, I maintain that in the absurd first post, there’s wisdom in that absurdity.

 

[Uncle-A]

@geepers @jt10000 @Uncle-A of course I knew it was fake!

It was meant as a tongue-in-cheek take on the absurdity of some economists’ perspectives.

Not meant to be taken as Word. Are you guys lost on humor or something this AM?
Perhaps I should have posted this in the ”Funnies” thread in Chez Ziggy to make myself perfectly clear. But I wanted to grab some attention with the thread title.

I guess I am too trusting of this group, and people in general. I try to see the best in people so I am fine with looking like someone that doesn't get the joke.

 

[Wendy]

I guess I am too trusting of this group, and people in general. I try to see the best in people so I am fine with looking like someone that doesn't get the joke.

Eh, it’s all good! I was writing this in teasing, in good spirits. There’s times here I don’t get the joke either, even in the “Funnies” thread! I did post this in the bicycle thread with no introduction, early in the AM, so yeah, I get it.

 

[cantunamunch]

However, but don’t some economists still use a version of the reasoning in my first post? Like @scott43 pointed out, the “disaster” of reduced population growth.

Maybe as a teaching parable to illustrate flaws in popular economic growth models and immigration policies, particularly in closed systems? Distributed effects in closed systems are super tricky to explain in popular writing. Which is why most popular explanations of why planes fly are also wrong.

I did post this in the bicycle thread with no introduction, early in the AM, so yeah, I get it.

No worries, clearly I'd already had my swim and my coffee

 

[Uncle-A]

What would this sound like it you substitute e-vehicles for bicycles there are few similarities. They don't buy fuel and don't pay road tax etc.

 

[dovski]

What would this sound like it you substitute e-vehicles for bicycles there are few similarities. They don't buy fuel and don't pay road tax etc.

Actually in Washington state there is an extra surcharge on you annual vehicle registration to make up the lost road tax revenue from fuel sales. I think paid an extra $300 for my car because of that. That said you certainly do not have the same service costs or needs on an EV.