Lamborghini Effect – Driving (Part 2)

19/06/19

The SGX listed (because vertical supply chain and economies of scale) Taxi Company that runs the (probably biggest) Driving School in Singapore probably has wholesale purchase rights of Toyota Vios cars. Both the Manual transmissions and the Automatic Transmission models. Grandpa says that they chose this car model because it is the cheapest sushi car in Singapore. Indeed, I think so too. And I also note that many private driving instructors have similarly priced cars. Even though COE in Singapore makes owning a car prohibitively expensive for the average person. But there’s expensive and then there’s expensive-r. And cheap cars are less valuable and less saddening when they get into accidents due to little kids and rash abnns not checking their blindspots. And also, the ever so frequent up-kerb.

So, the sequence the Toyota Vios undergoes: first it up-kerb. Then it enlarges to become a slope. And then finally the whole car up-lorry. But never mind right. Lol. And at the driving school there is this Fierce Tattooed Instructor whose name sounds Russian (such as like, Pierre or Ivan. It’s a Hetalia thing) and who threatened and scared me with gory pictures of mangled cars that had gotten into accidents because of improper blindspot checking, or not checking at all. And he also chased me out of the driver’s seat in the middle of the Paya Lebar-Lor Chuan-Ubi-Tai Seng-Bartley area (I’m bad with directions) because he thinks that I’m a crap driver and that I drive too slowly and keeps stalling the engine and that I can’t steer. Like wtf dude. Anyway, accidents like those in the pictures he showed me is the reason the Driving School choose to buy Toyota Vios. A side effect of using cars. Manual cars? Personalised sushis? Is that quality control is iffy. Or rather, each car has a Personal Touch and the clutch height is all different. So damn if I keep stalling. And also, certain cars you can’t even lift your left foot while in first gear because the car KEEPS SHAKING AND JERKING while I press steadily on the accelerator. I think it’s a problem with the clutch. And also, certain cars have less powerful engines. And like, I am going to roll back AHHHHHHHH. Like, rollback what rollback sia, are we MacArthur in the Korean War. (Can we say, Kimchi War?)

So, during my so-many lessons, I’ve driven past a variety of cars. Most learner cars are the cheaper non-Mercedes, non-BMW, non-Porsche type. Cos its Singapore and we have low purchasing power despite being a “first world country” because of the high cost of living and COE which is meant to tame and keep citizens under control and dependent on the White Cadres for Financial Aid so that we will listen and keep voting for the ensign that is the same as the French Tricolour Flag. (Not the Les Miserable sons, however much I wish.) (Speaking of that, I prefer the party in Singapore that has Soviet Union colours and hammer-sickle-ish design. Not the weird SS Runes Fascist-ish design. And yeah of course my favourite party is the one that my Uncle founded lah, but they didn’t even contest lol. And also, the now extinct party that shares a Bahasa Melayu name with the party my uncle founded. Major uwu vibes I have here.)

Most cars I see on the road are cheap. Cos I usually stick to the Heartlands. And Singaporeans are poor. But one day during my driving lesson me and the instructor (a nicer one, his looks reminds me of my history teacher, which is reassuring. Idk, is his name also Alex? I don’t think so, but cool.) sees a Maroon Lamborghini. And he thinks that Maroon is a crap tier colour for a Lamborghini. And then I get judged so heavily for saying that I would prefer the Lamborghini to be Pink. *facepalm*

And then I had a realisation. The instructors (I am assigned a different one almost every lesson) always seem to tell me to keep a further-than-required stopping distance when I am behind a car that looks expensive. And they don’t really seem to care that I don’t keep a half car length if it is a car that looks less pricy. And I find this attitude kinda stupid.

I term this the Lamborghini Effect. Which is that people treat expensive things with more care. Such as a new iPhone. They protect it dearly. Even outsiders are careful when dealing with the expensive things of other people. That’s why Valets of high-class hotels are careful. Because the cars are fking expensive. And they are scared of destroying it. whereas if something looks cheap people won’t be careful with it because, whatever, it can be replaced with little money even if the person sues you.

And I would like to extend this theory to people. How people treating other people. People will help someone up if they look pretty even if they had a mere slight trip. Whereas for an ugly person who has fallen and is bleeding and fainted people will be even likely to help them. And I have lost my faith in humanity.

And for an alternative to the fat-man version of the Trolley Problem in Philosophy, two people tied to two parallel train tracks connected by a Y junction. Let’s say that on one side there’s an orphaned skinny beautiful lady in branded clothes dying of highly metastasized cancer within a day and is already unconscious and feels no pain because she is on morphine. And on the other side there is a pudgy, hideous looking PhD student of Medicine who is in a research team about to discover a lifesaving cure, but who is wearing plain, stained clothes and has greasy hair from the late nights, and is completely lucid and screaming for his life. A high-speed train hurls towards the Y junction. A Many person in control of the switch to decide which way the train goes will choose to save the beautiful girl over the (uglier) Doctor. And I find this reality of society, this focus on looks, disgusting. No thought is given to the sensation of pain that lucid beings feel.

Also, related to driving, let’s say that there is someone speeding in a car approaching an intersection. He is distracted and does not notice that the light has turned red. Two people start to cross the road. One person is ugly and the other person is pretty. The driver cannot stop in time. Because it’s a wet road and stuff. The car’s original path will strike the pretty person. If the driver swerves the car, the car hits the ugly person instead. Many a driver will choose to swerve to save the pretty person and sacrifice the ugly person.  Also, I see myself as essentially ugly with shitty fashion sense. So placing me in that situation, I will be the one being knocked down because some fkboi driver likes pretty girls.