The first car in this picture is mine. I saved for it and paid cash. My previous car was 7 years old when I bought it and 20 years old when I decided to replace it! I look after my car as best I can and have it regularly serviced. I also had to be thrifty and frugal so I could save enough for another vehicle. The other way to buy a secondhand car is to pop along to the car showroom, choose your car and then buy on credit.
A lot of thought went into looking after my previous car to make it last 13 years and a lot of thought went into saving the cash to replace it. I had a totally different mindset to the person who just goes out and buys a car on the never-never. Being thrifty and frugal is quite innovative and efficient.
If we compare my mindset related to buying a car to that of the boards of Britain’s largest companies we see that some companies are thrifty, frugal, efficient and innovative and others have a different mindset and try to grow the company by borrowing. Some companies reinvest their profits and save to grow the company others borrow and often don’t grow. Their profits are simply to service their debt. When running the company gets too easy and raising capital becomes too easy we see companies descend into laziness and become zombie companies.
The UK Prime Minister said she wanted growth, growth and growth. She obviously had no idea how to stimulate growth. The problem is partly because our top companies are zombie companies and negative interest rates made shed loads of easy money available for companies to just vegetate and not grow or innovate.
This year there have been lots of share buybacks in the stock market. That demonstrates to me that companies are making easy excess profits and are not putting those excess profits into research or growth. Higher interest rates will help to mitigate the problem but we also need major companies to innovate and do research. Partnerships with our universities might help them to do that. I saw a video the other day about using methanol as fuel for vehicle engines. How do you make methanol? Could it be a new fuel for our cars? This is something that companies like BP and Shell might consider and research. If not methanol, there are other possibilities that could be considered and researched. It won’t be easy but neither is saving for a secondhand car over 13 years.
Photography
I haven’t taken any photos for a while. It’s sunny today so I might venture out despite it being a little bit chilly. Today’s photo is of Carter’s Green in West Bromwich and the Farley Tower (named after Reuben Farley). There is a lot going on in that picture, besides the tower, there are cars to give the image depth and proportion and a couple of people in the background. The picture is quite well-balanced. I have no idea what I’ll photograph today, I’ll just go and explore places and spaces.
A Zillion Ideas 
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