Used Car News 11/14/22

Used Car News

NIADA, Dealers Lobby in Washington

By Jeffrey Bellant

The National Independent Auto mobile Dealers Association drew members from across the country to Washington D.C. to lobby lawmak ers, regulators and other officials on behalf of the used-car industry.

The NIADA’s National Policy Conference returned to the nation’s capital in September after the pan demic hiatus.

Brett Scott, NIADA vice president of governmental affairs, recent ly spoke with Used Car News by phone to discuss the effects of the conference.

“It went extremely well,” Scott said.

There were still some pandemicera limitations depending on the official’s preference, so some meet ings were held virtually.

But since it was the first policy conference held since 2019, Scott was happy with the event.

“We had a lot of great feedback,” he said.

Over recent years, NIADA has made its mark in the capital, build ing relationships at all levels of the government.

This year’s event was filled with some heavy hitters, including top officials who were appointed since the 2019 conference.

“We had (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) Director Rohit Chopra engaging with our members for the first time,” Scott said.

“We had senior level staff from the Federal Trade Commission present ing and taking questions from our audience.”

Members of NIADA’s Board of Directors had fireside chats faceto-face with members of Congress about NIADA’s issues of concern.

Scott said there were a host of is sues NIADA discussed during the trip.

“From a regulatory standpoint,” he said. “For example, the FTC’s proposed rule from June about auto marketing and the voluntary prod uct add-ons was a big issue.”

The FTC proposed a rule to “ban junk fees and bait-and-switch ad vertising tactics that can plague consumers throughout the car-buy ing experience.”

On the CFPB side, NIADA sought clarification on the reasoning for certain regulations coming out of the agency, Scott said.

For general legislative issues, NIADA wanted to lobby against tax increases on S-Corps and LLCs, which are how many NIADA mem ber businesses are structured.

Catalytic converter theft is an other issue that NIADA members brought up (see related story on page 3).

There were discussions about the right-to-repair laws.

Scott said the NIADA also wanted to impress upon officials the impact that any safety recall restrictions or

expansions might have on the in dustry. The used car industry wants to have input on the recall issue and hopes that members of Con gress will keep NIADA’s concerns in mind.

NIADA members were able to en gage successfully with lawmakers on a host of these issues.

“We’ve had follow-up conversa tions with all of the staff,” Scott said. Concerns about regulatory over reach will be a continued discus sion, especially if there is a change in Congress on Nov. 8.

(This article went to press before the mid-term election.)

Scott said more than 150 dealers came to Washington D.C. for the event, many of whom were repeat attendees.

“I talked to a few first-timers and they were excited,” he said. “They loved interacting with Congress members. They loved being part of the conversation and seeing they’re having an impact.

Legislative Issues

Industry Moves Against Catalytic Converter Thieves

By Jeffrey Bellant

This summer, Gus Hitz, a special agent for the National Crime Insur ance Bureau, asked auction profes sionals in his training session who had experienced catalytic converter theft and where they experienced it.

Hands went up across the room.

“Denver,” said one person.

“Pennsylvania,” said another.

A third said, “Virginia.”

The answer: It’s everywhere.

Hitz said when it comes to catalyt ic converter thieves, auctions offer up a kid-in-a-candy-store opportu nity.

Auto dealerships are another prime target for catalytic converter theft.

The crime is so prevalent that law makers at all levels of government are working on solving it.

State legislatures, the U.S. Con gress and the National Independent

Automobile Dealers Association are working to end this wave of thefts.

At press time, federal, state, and lo cal law enforcement partners from across the United States had execut ed a nationwide, coordinated take down of leaders and associates of a national network of thieves, dealers, and processors for their roles in con spiracies involving stolen catalytic converters sold to a metal refinery for tens of millions of dollars.

Arrests, searches, and seizures took place in California, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia. In total, 21 individu als in five states have been arrested and/or charged for their roles.

The defendants are charged in two separate indictments that were unsealed in the Eastern District of California and the Northern District of Oklahoma following extensive law enforcement arrest and search

operations. In addition to the indict ments, over 32 search warrants were executed, and law enforcement seized millions of dollars in assets, including homes, bank accounts, cash, and luxury vehicles.

Business owners can also do things to prevent this crime.

Hitz heard from business owners during his session at the National Auto Auction Convention & Expo in Dallas this summer.

One auction owner installed sur veillance cameras on his site to dis courage theft.

Used Car News

Association Elects New President

Craig Amelung, general manager of Manheim’s Mid-Atlantic Market Center, was elected president of the Virginia Independent Automobile Dealers Association (VIADA) for 2022-23 at October’s annual con vention in Roanoke. He will direct the activities of the 1,100-member VIADA.

A 30-year veteran of the automo tive industry and leader in auto auction management, Amelung is responsible for leading the col laboration of shared resources and support functions among Manheim

Catalytic

Baltimore-Washington, Manheim Fredericksburg and Manheim Har risonburg.

Previous roles include senior di rector of operations support for all of Manheim’s North American op erating locations..

In addition to VIADA, Amelung is also serving as vice president of the National Auto Auction Association (NAAA) for its 2022-2023 term.

“Craig Amelung has been a valu able part of our association for near ly 20 years, serving at both the local and state level, and we are excited to

— Continued from page 3

“Cameras are great,” Hitz said. Another owner said local police make a point of cruising by her auc tion, which also acts as a deterrence.

“Perfect,” Hitz said. “Make great

relationships with your local law enforcement. Buy them a dozen do nuts every so often.”

He added that it also makes law enforcement’s job easier when they

welcome him as VIADA president for 2022-2023,” said Executive Di rector Alvin E. Melendez. “I know we will be stronger and even more united under his leadership.”

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Charles M. Thomas Founder (1947-2002)

don’t have to file reports and inves tigate thefts after the fact.

Light-duty trucks and SUVs are more likely to be targeted because it’s easier for criminals to access the catalytic converters.

For regular cars or sedans, all it takes is a floor jack, a reciprocating saw and a few minutes, Hitz said.

Hybrids like the Toyota Prius are believed to have more precious met als and also become bigger targets, as well as commercial fleet vehicles.

Hitz said the numbers of these thefts can be skewed because law enforcement or insurance compa nies in some states may list inci dents simply as “theft from motor vehicle” or “theft of auto accessory.”

California is the top state, by far, in catalytic converter thefts, followed by Texas, Minnesota, North Caro lina and Illinois, but the thefts are everywhere, Hitz said.

The price of precious metals that make up the converters are going up, as one of the major exporters of this material is Ukraine. At the end of 2020, the metals that are part of these units included platinum, val ued at more than $1,000 per ounce; palladium, valued at more than $2,3000 per ounce and rhodium, valued at more than $14,000 per ounce.

Facebook Marketplace and Craig slist are big resellers of illegal cata lytic converters. Hitz said.

Hitz recommends cameras, addi tional lighting and making sure that cars are locked and have alarms. Lights with motion detectors can discourage thieves, too.

“When you do a site security as sessment, don’t think like a busi ness owner, think like a bad guy,” he said.

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Compliance News

BHPH Dealers Face Huge Challenge in 2023 with CECL

By Jeffrey Bellant

A new standard accounting rule starting Jan. 1 could be one of the greatest challenges to buy-here, payhere dealers ever, according to Ken Shilson, president of Subprime Ana lytics.

Shilson has been sounding the alarm on the rule known as CECL (current expected credit loss), which is the new allowance for credit loss rule. This means BHPH dealers will have to reserve all the future losses in their portfolios in their financial statements.

“Historically, in generating fi nancial statements, you only had to provide losses on your portfolio for what was defined as a ‘loss confir mation period,’” Shilson said.

So, an outside accountant looking at a dealer’s financials would look at the prior year’s debt charge-offs and he’d put at least the same amount in the dealer’s reserve for the next year.

Steve Carstens, a Houston-based CPA who was on a Shilson panel at a conference this summer, explained it this way.

“In the past, if you historically lost 20% in your portfolio, you could re serve 20% (for losses) no problem,” he said.

Shilson added that typically a deal er might have one year of net losses in reserve.

“Now, starting Jan. 1, the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) is requiring a life of loan loss reserve,” he said. “So, if your original term is 36 months or 48 months, now – instead of putting one year’s reserve in – you’ve got to put the equivalent of what’s going to happen in the life of the loan, wheth er it’s 36 months or 48 months, etc.”

Shilson said only the dealers who are already providing a life of the loan loss reserve won’t be dramati cally affected by CECL.

Carstens pointed out one chal lenge for BHPH dealers.

“If the economy starts to decline – and it looks like it’s going to –and your losses start to ramp up, it doesn’t matter that your historic losses were at 20%. If it’s suddenly trending toward 30%, you’ll be re serving at what the trend is, not (the historic amount).”

Shilson said the challenge will be much bigger than just having a larg er reserve.

“The diabolical thing is that the offset is a reduction in your share holder’s equity,” he said. “So that

means it’s going to blow out all of the existing covenants with your banker and you’re going to have to renegoti ate the whole thing at a very difficult time.”

For example, a lot of loan agree ments in the BHPH industry have what’s called a net worth covenant.

“It requires that you have so much equity in your business based on the old loss reserve,” Shilson said.

So, if a dealer has a shareholder’s equity of $4 million, that’s based on the old one-year loss formula.

“Now, let’s say under CECL, the

adjustment is $5 million (for loss es),” Shilson said. “That $5 million increment reduces your equity from $4 million previously to -$1 million.

“Now you have negative equity.”

He said financial institutional reps have told him that if they wanted to get rid of a dealer, this will give them a clear reason to do it.

If they want to keep the dealer, they will likely ask the dealer to add $5 million in equity, something the average dealer may be unable to do.

The bank will likely say it has to change up some of the covenants

and terms, maybe increase the inter est rate or lower the advance rate.

“The banks are going to use it to their advantage,” Shilson said.

This new rule was actually passed in 2016, but after it was announced, the banks and credit unions pan icked, because they would be affect ed in the same way.

“It’s not just the dealers, it’s the banks and financial institutions that will have to do it,” Shilson said.

Small banks that were sampled saw that their loss reserves would have to increase by 60%.

The AICPA gave banks a few years to prepare and they are expected to be ready by end of 2022.

Dealers will also have to be ready.

“But it gets worse,” Shilson said. “With all new transactions they originate starting 1/1/23, BHPH dealers have to provide a life of loan reserve on that.

“So, when you book a $15,000 re ceivable, you’re going to have to put maybe 25% or 30% in the loss re serve. You haven’t received a penny of that. It’s all on paper.”

The other catch is, even if the dealer increases his reserve by $5 million, he doesn’t get the additional tax deduction.

Shilson said the adjustment for a dealer will depend on the dealer’s business model. If a dealer is sell ing high-cost vehicles with large contracts, the potential adjustment will be greater than someone with a more modest business model.

So, what does Shilson expect to happen next January for dealers who aren’t ready?

“I think there’s going to be a con solidation in the industry,” he said. “This is definitely going to be a game-changer.”

The other factor is a dealer’s loss experience. Where in the life of a typical loan does the loss occur? What’s the severity or frequency of the occurrence?

“If you’ve got a loan that originat ed 3 1/2 years ago, it’s almost amor tized, so the adjustment is going to be very small, if at all,” Shilson said.

But he said dealers who are grow ing rapidly are at a “huge disadvan tage” because all of that new paper is going to have the highest reserve on it because it doesn’t have any aging.

Even if a dealer’s bank doesn’t re quire a life of loan adjustment, the dealer needs to do it anyway to un derstand what his business is worth.

“You’re kidding yourself if you al ready don’t know the answer,” Shil son said.

Lobby

“It was all positive.”

Gordon Tormohlen, NIADA’s 2023 president-elect, has attended the event numerous times over the years.

“It was a different vibe this year,” he said.

The reason is the House Speaker has limited the people who come in and out of the building, Tormohlen said.

He was disappointed that NIADA members – apart from a Democratic Congressional Campaign Commit tee official – were only able to meet with Republicans.

“The Democrats are just not com municating with any of their con stituents,” Tormohlen said.

NIADA has always focused on bipartisan lobbying, meeting with Congressional members of both par ties over the years.

It helps to develop relationships to whomever is in power, he said.

Tormohlen was able to lead a fire side chat with Nebraska Sen. Deb Fisher, who has been a keynote speaker at a past National Policy Conference.

“She was a delight,” he said. “Very much a free market gal, which is right up my alley.

The pair chatted in front of the dealers for about 30 minutes.

“Her favorite car is the GTO,” Tor mohlen said. “That makes her a sol id citizen in my book.”

Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who also served as U.S. Am bassador to New Zealand and Sa moa, gave a closing keynote at the event.

Tormohlen said the meeting with Chopra was a big one, as well as the discussion of the Safeguards Rule with the FTC.

On the last day, NIADA Board members had a series of meetings with several Republicans, including Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.

“All of which were very informa tive,” Tormohlen said. “We were able to put forth the dealers’ causes and concerns. It was good communica tion, but these meetings always have involved good communication.”

The event also serves as the asso ciation’s key fundraiser for the NIA DA’s PAC.

The NIADA leadership is divided into four regions and the four re gions compete each year to raise the most money for the NIADA PAC.

The winning region receives the PAC Cup. The contest is always heated and the NIADA Policy Con ference added to the PAC fund.

“We raised about $200,000,” Scott said.

“We’re a group of entrepreneurs,” Tormohlen said. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t let (regulators or lawmakers) step on us.

“Most of the time, they are not pur posely trying to, but sometimes they just don’t realize the ramifications of the things they take action on.”

He said many officials in Wash ington D.C. don’t even drive, so they don’t even know what it’s like to buy a car.

Tormohlen said NIADA’s relation ship with the FTC has grown over the past decade. Despite NIADA’s concerns with the Safeguards Rule, it has maintained ongoing interac tions with the FTC.

“They still have an active interest (in NIADA) and we have a regular call going on between Brett and sev eral committees regarding junk fees and advertising,” Tormohlen said. “They’re very concerned about on line advertising.

“But that’s one of our dealers’ complaints, too. You’ve got a newcar store that gets to the top of a (car-shopping) search list because they have the cheapest car. But then in mouse type they charge a $2,999 reconditioning fee. That’s just as de ceptive as you can get.”

Tormohlen said NIADA has its own code of ethics and it urges its dealers to respect that code and treat customers well.

“I think the FTC respects that,” he said. “Nobody has any inter est in somebody who wants to take the code of ethics, ashcan it and do whatever they want to do.

“That’s just not how you build a business.”

NIADA was able to donate to cam paigns through its PAC. The dona tions aren’t huge, but it’s all part of the political process.

Retail Markets

ARKANSAS

Kent Stegall, owner, Kent Stegall Used Cars, El Dora do, Ark

“We’ve been in business since 1992. When we first went into business, we were about 200 feet from where we are now. And we were renting a place at that time. It was about ’94 that we bought the property.

“In normal times we keep about 35-40 in inventory. We’ve been luckier than most. We can benefit from buying some cars at auc tions, but we have sources we’ve cultivated over the years. The prices of used cars are going down. The way I look at it, I’d rather be sitting here with nothing than have $2 million worth of inventory and wake up the next day with $750,000 worth. There’s an end com ing and no one knows when it’s going to happen, but

when it does happen it will happen quick. Right now, we’re probably averaging 1215 units in stock.

“Before COVID we av eraged 25-28 retail sales a month. Now it’s 12-15 a month.

“We sell about 60 percent pickups and the rest is pret ty much evenly divided be tween cars and SUVs. This is truck country down here.

“We do very, very little buy-here pay-here anymore. It used to be about 20 per cent of our business and now it’s 2%. We have customers that we’ve had for years who we know will pay. I’m at the point in my life where I don’t want to chase anyone.

“When all the stimulus money was out there, the down payments were high er. I’d say our average down payment, year in, year out, is probably $1,200 to $1,500.

“We do a lot of recondi

tioning. You know the quick est way to have to discount cars is when you have to start apologizing for them. Our average cost per vehicle is $850 to $1,000.

“We do all our own detail and cleanup work, but the mechanical and body work we farm out.

“Nobody these days, that I can think of, builds a bad car. In the old days you had cars like the Yugo.

“We’ve got a website, Eldo art.com, and we can put all the cars we want on there.

As a matter of fact, Auto trader once used our website as an example because of the quality of our pictures.

“The site covers about four states. I’ve been contacted by guys working on oil rigs off the coast of North Africa.

“The last car we sold was a 2017 Honda CR-V EX-L with 59,000 miles on it. We sold it for $27,500.”

OHIO

Tony Caldwell, co-found er, VP operations, You Drive Auto, Elyria, Ohio “I have been in the car business for 12 years.

“During COVID, we scaled back for the first couple of months and then took ad vantage of the discounted inventory and then it took off from there. We catered to everyone’s wants/needs by offering hand sanitizer, masks and we were appoint ment-based.

“Across our six locations we’re currently stocking be tween 60-70 available units and have roughly 70-100 in the pipeline per location (the other locations are in Texas and Kentucky).

“We’re tracking 430 units across six locations so that’ll give us an average per store of 70 units sold per month.

“In the northern states we

Compiled by Ed Fitzgerald

are selling roughly 70% cars, 20% SUVs and 10% trucks. In Texas we sell roughly 60% trucks, 30% SUVs and 10% cars.

“We sell primarily domes tics over imports.

“We do all our recondi tioning work in-house and our average cost per recon is $1,200.

“We source our inventory from several auctions.

“We’ll carry anything from 2012-2022 and our average mileage is around 90k miles.

“Our average down pay ment varies based on region. In the North we average around $1,500/down and in Texas we average around $3k. Our average term is 4248 months.

“Buy-here, pay-here is our primary focus.

“My advice to new dealers is make sure you research a lot and join your local deal ers association.”

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Your clear choice for quality Put the power of Chase Auto to work for you 4 4 3

and the Maserati logo are owned by Maserati North America, Inc. (Maserati) or its affiliates and are licensed to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (Chase). Auto finance accounts are owned by Chase.

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Wholesale Markets

LOUISIANA

Nathan Simonson, gen eral manager, America’s Auto Auction – Baton Rouge, La.

“I’m general manager at both America’s Auto Auction – Baton Rouge and America’s Auto Auction – Pensacola. This auction in Baton Rouge has been around for 10 years.

“When I got here, there were some hit or miss sales. I’ve been here about three months.

“So, we’ve really worked on the consistency and now we’re running a steady three lanes, 300 units. We’re aver aging about 55% to 65% sales percentages.

“We run about 50% insti tutional accounts and those are pretty strong sellers. For example, at our Nov. 3 sale, Credit Acceptance Corp. ran 150 and we also had Ally Financial, which are two of our big ones.

“We also run Holman (offleases), ARI and Flexco Fleet Services.

I am seeing a little rise in repos from certain accounts. I’m sure repos are going to be on the rise.

“There are about 100 deal ers in the lane and 200 on line. We use Edge Pipeline for online sales. I’d say about 35% of our cars are bought online.

“We’ve got a lot of cars be ing bought and sent to Tex as, Missouri, etc.

“I feel on the retail side it’s slowing down a bit. But they keep buying in the lanes.

“There is product for ev eryone. But that 2-year-old, 3-year-old car that has under 100,000 miles is still bring ing blood in the lanes.

“The average price in the lanes ranges between $8,000 and $10,000. That’s definite ly higher than what it was (pre-pandemic).

“We have a specialty sale at the end of every month. That’s boats, RVs, motor cycles – anything that’s cool, we’ll run it through the sale. We’ve been running about 25 or 30 units.

“In terms of the future, like I said, for the last three months, we’ve been steady at three lanes, 300 cars.

“We’re going to grow be cause of the consistency we’re creating over here.”

MINNESOTA

Rob Thompson, owner, Mid-State Auto Auction, New York Mills, Minn.

“We had our 38th anniver sary sale in August. It went well. It was a good one, even if it wasn’t the biggest one we’ve ever had.

“Volumes are actually holding their own pretty good, but sales percentages aren’t what they were a year ago. We’re running in the

mid-50s, as far as percentag es. In 2019, 65% would have been our normal rate.

“Volumes have been really consistent – between 450 and 550.

“Right now, I’d say our vol umes are 75% dealer cars and 25% either lease, GSA or charitable cars.

“For the charitable cars, we don’t do a lot of hand selling of those. We have a buyer network and we’ll run an online sale to sell those.

“Everybody is seeing the prices dropping. That’s why sales percentages fell off.

“Most of our dealers are saying they’re still selling cars. But it’s nothing like it was a year ago.

“Our average price on the block is somewhere in the range of $8,000 to $9,000. I would say it’s fallen only about $500 to $700 from (it’s high point). All and all, I still think the car business has

been good.

“We’re starting to see a few more repos. It’s been just a slight uptick.

“We just had a recent GSA sale and prices held up well, with the exception of Dodge trucks. I don’t know why. Those were six-cylinder trucks and I thought the prices were pretty attractive on those.

“We’ll run cars, trucks and vans for GSA. It runs the gamut. We’ll draw GSA from all of Minnesota and we’ll do Wisconsin, and the eastern half of North and South Da kota. Area-wise, we cover a big portion for GSA.

“The volumes weren’t that great this summer, maybe 30 to 40 on average.

“Pre-COVID, that would be 80 to 125.

“I think once the manufac turers start providing them with cars again, we’ll start to see the volumes go back up.”

Compiled by Jeffrey Bellant

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ADESA Charlotte December 1, 15 704 587 7653

ADESA Chicago December 9 847 551 2151

ADESA Cincinnati/Dayton December 13 937 746 4000

ADESA Golden Gate December 13 209 839 8000

ADESA Indianapolis December 13 317 838 8000

ADESA Kansas City December 13 816 525 1100

ADESA Lexington December 15 859 263 5163

ADESA New Jersey December 1, 15 908 725 2200

ADESA Salt Lake December 20 801 322 1234

ADESA Tulsa December 9 918 437 9044

ADESA Washington DC December 7 703 996 1100

Columbus Fair AA December 14, 21 614 497 2000

Manheim Atlanta December 1, 15 404 762 9211

Manheim Dallas December 6, 7 877 860 1651

Manheim Denver December 7 800 822 1177

Manheim Detroit December 1, 15 734 654 7100

Manheim Fredericksburg December 8, 22 540 368 3400

Manheim Milwaukee December 7, 21 262 835 4436

Manheim Minneapolis December 21 763 425 7653

Manheim Nashville December 20, 21 615 773 3800

Manheim Nevada December 16 702 730 1400

Manheim New Jersey December 7, 21 609 298 3400

Manheim New Orleans December 21 985 643 2061

Manheim Orlando December 6, 13, 20 800 822 2886

Manheim Palm Beach December 14, 15 561 790 1200

Manheim Pennsylvania December 1, 2, 9, 15, 16 800 822 2886

Manheim Phoenix December 8, 22 623 907 7000

Manheim Pittsburgh December 7 724 452 5555

Manheim Riverside December 6, 8, 20, 22 951 689 6000

Manheim Seattle December 14 206 762 1600

Manheim Southern California December 1, 15 909 822 2261

Manheim Tampa December 1, 15 800 622 7292

Manheim Texas Hobby December 1, 15 713 649 8233

Southern AA December 7 860 292 7500

ADESA Golden Gate December 13 209 839 8000

Manheim Atlanta December 1, 15 404 762 9211

Manheim Dallas December 6 877 860 1651

Manheim Milwaukee December 7 262 835 4436

Manheim Nashville December 21 615 773 3800

Manheim New Jersey December 7 609 298 3400

Manheim Orlando December 6 800 822 2886

Manheim Palm Beach December 14 561 790 1200

Manheim Pennsylvania December 1, 15 800 822 2886

Manheim Riverside December 8, 22 951 689 6000

ADESA Boston December 9 508 626 7000

ADESA Salt Lake December 20 801 322 1234

Columbus Fair AA December 14 614 497 2000

Manheim Denver December 7 800 822 1177

Manheim Fredericksburg December 8 540 368 3400

Manheim New Jersey December 21 609 298 3400

Manheim Orlando December 20 800 337 8491

Manheim Pennsylvania December 2, 16 800 833 2886

Manheim Pittsburgh December 7 724 452 5555

Manheim Seattle December 14 206 762 1600

Manheim Southern California December 1, 15 909 822 2261

Southern AA December 7 860 292 7500

Manheim Atlanta December 1, 15 404 762 9211

ADESA Golden Gate December 13 209 839 8000

Manheim Atlanta December 1, 15 404 762 9211

Manheim Dallas December 6 877 860 1651

Manheim Milwaukee December 7 262 835 4436

Manheim Nashville December 21 615 773 3800

Manheim Palm Beach December 14 561 790 1200

Manheim Pennsylvania December 1, 15 800 833 2886

Manheim Riverside December 8, 22 951 689 6000

The

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Perhaps it’s time for our fascination for outer space to come down to earth –hopefully without a bump.

I grant that most people have benefited from some events since the moon land ing. Satellites, for the most part, have enabled us to see and reflect upon new and better information. Navi gation is as precise as the nearest two feet, we can see differences of landscape over time, predict weather patterns way further into the future than ever before and take our own tempera ture like an ailing patient.

Inner space exploration has shown how incapable we’ve been at looking af ter this wet, blue ball in the middle of nowhere. What took billions of years to form could be changed by us in the blink of a spacetime eye.

The Hubble telescope

and latterly, the Webb, have served up the most aweinspiring vistas and visions of space. Size and time are meaningless in our own terms of measurement, in deed it’s hard to appreciate that the light we see from stars at night started out bil lions and trillions of years ago in their history.

I don’t understand the urgency or the obsession of space travel. Even more so, I can’t come to grips with the costs of its pursuit.

Must we find out what took trillions of years to form in the next fifty years? Does it matter? Will it change things?

We already know we’re screwing up our own envi ronment. And the likes of Elon Musk think we should explore other places to live as we try to outdo Mother Nature. Giving up on this planet in favor of a complete

unknown seems to be the ultimate exercise of futility, if not stupidity.

The costs, alone, should redirect our thinking; “Ar temis”, NASA’s latest moon orbit program is headed by a soon-to-be launched rocket, which cost $93 bil lion. That’s not the program – that’s the rocket! The pro gram so far contemplates a spend of over $650 billion.

Can you imagine how many inefficiencies are baked into those numbers? Oh, and the weather can still delay the launches!

With China and Russia be ing competitors in the space race, it’s hard to imagine what’s being spent on an activity with no clear end game in sight and a largely useless pursuit. Wouldn’t it seem more sensible to spend that money for the immediate good of the hu man race, reverse global

warming, replant the rain forests and engender global peace programs?

I know I’m starting to sound like a hippie but my advancing age allows me to observe that things are going to be tough on gen erations to come, unless we take initiatives that can start to make a difference.

We can’t control viruses easily, we haven’t cured cancer (perhaps there is so much money invested in the cancer and care business that there’s no incentive to cure it!).

Each of our bodies con tains more bacteria than there are stars in our galaxy and we don’t understand everything about those yet.

The infinity of space is of no interest or consequence when compared to the infi nite interests of our planet, the odds of its replication are infinitesimally tiny and

even if we found a twin, no one would live long enough to get there.

I believe we should wait at least another million years to reach for the stars, a mere twinkle of the light of our nearest galaxy and keep our feet firmly planted and grounded in reality.