Well, the initial investment would be 100% loss, sure. But my point is that if they can’t sell them for more than they cost to build, then producing them is additional loss, and the best financial outcome would be cutting your losses and moving on.
Once you started seeing ads for them everywhere, I knew it was over as USAA being anything special.
But they still give good service, you can get a human on the phone, and they have always validated the trust we place in them. You just don't get that at a bargain price anymore.
"Truss me" you want a real structural engineer to make the drawings and do the calculations. They'll know the codes and such too and that PE license prevents any future issues with insurance and such if something bad should happen.
My Academy roommate and his wife (a classmate of mine) are tanker drivers-- or were. She's flying for Alaska now and he's running the 225th ADS:
https://www.wads.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/4042452/gregory-p-huhmann-225th-air-defense-group-commander/
They have stories.
Spending is taxation because the government can only get money by taking it from you or by borrowing it in your name (backed by future takings) and inflating away the value of your money.
So I fully agree that spending is a better measure. Where it falls apart a bit is at the state level...
Unlike west TX, I’d move back to Cheyenne at the drop of a hat. Still have friends there and I loved the area. Coping with wind is something you have to manage, but it’s so worth it.
Caution: just because an area is growing in population doesn’t mean you want to live there.
Source: sister lives in Odessa. I used to live in Midland. I’d REALLY try hard to never move back.
As additional context for these photos:
1) this cam is lubed by crankcase oil and the oil level is about in the center of the cam (it sits in an oil bath)
2) The film load is the highest load on any part of the engine into which it is installed. Those lobes are about 35mm wide (I don’t recall...
Did a bit of research since I know very little of Mercedes engines.
Apparently these cams are made of cheap cast iron (as the photos suggest), perhaps not even ductile. LIkewise, the gears look like pretty cheap parts to me. I don't see any induction hardening witness marks, so they are were...