John Deere brags about sabotaging competitors & customers on hot mic - they’re PROUD of it!

      • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not necessarily. A bunch of us could band together and fund a bunch of folks who are good at building shit and just commission them to design and build new tractors that are easily repairable – preferably electric too – and then sell them. And this effort could be incorporated as a non-profit, which itself legally can own businesses and those businesses could sell them at a profit, and kill off John Deere’s shitty-ass company and any other shitbirds that want to take away consumers’ rights to own their own products.

        • tst123@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          arrow-down
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I love how you’re getting downvoted for stating something actionable rather than some catchy nonsense that doesn’t actually solve anything.

          • FringeTheory999@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            27
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            Because it’s idiotic and non-actionable. I didn’t down vote him though. I say go ahead and try it, see how far you get. John Deer has lots of money, it’s not like they wouldn’t act to stop you. They’ll sue you into oblivion and they won’t even need a case with merit to drive your little startup into the ground. They’ll just outspend you, not to mention they’ll have consolidated supply lines that you’ll need and that they will not share. The first rule of capitalism is that competition is not to be tolerated.

              • FringeTheory999@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                13
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                If someone challenges you to a fist fight, don’t fist fight them. They want you to fist fight them because it gives them advantage. They’ve trained and prepared for fist fights their entire life. You are doing them a favor by fighting them by their rules. You have to fight them on your terms, playing your own game. Whatever your game is, that’s the way you have to face them. harrass, sabotage and disrupt. Failing that, guillotines are a very fun game indeed.

                taking on a business, with business is like wresting a pig. You’ll both get dirty and the pig likes it.

                • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  arrow-down
                  7
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Your logic is: “Someone challenged me to a fist fight, so I declined, followed them home, and stabbed them and their family to death in their sleep, which makes me smart.”

                  No, my friend, it makes you a fucking psychopath.

                  • FringeTheory999@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    9
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    That is not the scenario I described, but it is imaginative. I’ll give you that. Here, let an old chinese guy explain it to you…

                    “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

                    Or as I like to paraphrase it “Don’t give anyone the fight they came looking for. Give them a different fight”.

                    Now go be dumb somewhere else.

          • Blimp7990@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            21
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            your definition of “something actionable” is:

            1. organize $0.5-1 bn in funding (<1 % of deere market cap, seemed reasonable given the cost per unit and r&d time to develop a whole new automotive platform)
            2. spend 5-10 years developing a new platform, and manufacturing to support anything remotely resembling the scope of american agriculture
            3. ???
            4. profit

            did i get that right?

            cause i think your definition of “something actionable” is a bit far-fetched.

            now its fair to say “well didn’t john deere do that?” and the answer is…no. not at all.

            • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              You’re incorrect with your item number one, as far as being able to take an invention from the drawing board to actual product ready to be sold.

              Under the right conditions it can be done for a lot less is what you’ve stated.

              • Blimp7990@reddthat.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                I am “incorrect” with an extreme hypothetical estimate?

                on the one hand, :o !!!

                on the other hand, where is your plan to replace john deere on, say, $150m (you said a lot less than 500m, so im picking 150 as ‘a lot less’)

            • Blimp7990@reddthat.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              That tells you all you need to know about how other people really are.

              whats the last manufacturing company you started?

                • Blimp7990@reddthat.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  lol, what a response

                  well crafted implication that you could back up what you’re saying, but why would you. I like it. You still suck, but, solid internet points collector.

      • grayman@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Look up Edison Motors. A literal logger in Canada is beating out every truck company with investors. People are excited and lining up to buy them (logging companies anyway).

        What he’s doing with logging trucks can be done with tractors.

          • grayman@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            What is it? 90% of companies fail in under 3 years?

            I get it. Still cool to see someone try and try well.

        • steltek@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Wow, that’s a cool little company. Also, “Stealing Tesla’s Ideas”, ha.

          Related to the sibling comment, good ideas are rarely the whole story to a company’s success. Execution (and luck) matter.

          I’m going to need to read up more on them. The jump from “regular truck drivers who do repairs” to “so we put a locomotive drivetrain in our truck” is too big and I think it’s really the key to them getting off the ground.