Visitors to the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show will see supercars, hoverboards, self-propelling luggage and all manner of new transportation options.
But they'll be hard pressed to find a clutch pedal or a stick shift. Available in nearly half of new models in the U.S. a decade ago, the manual transmission is going the way of the rumble seat, with stick availability falling to about a quarter this year.
Once standard equipment on all motor vehicles, preferred for its dependability, fuel efficiency and sporty characteristics, the four-on-the-floor is disappearing from major car manufacturers' lineups — and subsequently from the sprawling auto show's floors.
Consider, too, that electric vehicles don't even have a transmission.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @05:51AM
median US wages
The page says that it includes salaried positions.
When Satya Nadella walks in, the average income of the room goes up sharply.
The income of the 1 Percent may have been going up nicely but Joe Average keeps getting the short end of the stick.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @08:21AM
That's why he wrote "median", not "average".
Basically, line up all Americans from lowest to highest income, and pick the person in the middle. Their income is the median (of American income).
The claim is that that has been rising. Note that the median is not affected by the rich getting richer, nor by the poor getting poorer.
FakeBeldin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @06:53PM
A median makes it easier and quicker to see via a graph on the back of an envelope--without doing any complicated arithmetic:
You have a roomful of guys who make a Blue Collar wage of $50,000.
Their jobs get exported and the new jobs they find pay $30,000.
The graph shows that the median goes down to 60 percent of what it had been.
Now, ONE White Collar guy who is paid[1] $120,000 enters the room.
Inserting that ONE guy DOUBLES the median to $60,000.
Now, make the White Collar guy Satya Nadella whose compensation[1] was $1,692,031. [google.com]
The median now makes a giant jump to ~$846,000.
Suddenly, EVERYONE in the room is rich.
Even calculating a mean is a distortion of the current state of the typical working guy's downward spiral vs the 1 Percent since Dubya's economic crash (due in no small part to Slick Willie and exacerbated by Obama).
[1] Notice that I DIDN'T say that he -earns- that amount.
It appears that you have some schooling and learned a few words but you didn't actually acquire the knowledge.
You should have done the assigned homework.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @09:10PM
Hey --gweg_, you're babbling like an idiot, again.
YOU are the one who didn't actually acquire the knowledge, and should have done the assigned homework -- then you would know the difference between the median and the mean. I don't know what you think the median is, but you're saying "median" and then making statements that aren't true, and wouldn't be true if you had said "mean" either (for any number of blue-collar guys in the room). In both your examples, the median doesn't change at all, and won't change until you've doubled the number of guys in the room. (Unless your "roomful" is one blue-collar guy, then when you add one white-collar guy, the median is the same as the mean, $75k and $861k respectively.)
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @10:12AM
Did you just admit to not understanding the definition of median?
As in 50% of the population is below and 50% of the population is above.
Man, you keep showing yourself to be dumber and dumber with every post.
And to believe that I once that you were insightful.
Turns out you are just a loud-mouthed innumerate.
Pretty soon I'll be agreeing with frojack and the mighty buttclench.
ALL BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO INTEGRITY.