I am not making a claim about the truthiness of the "joke". I'm saying it's old, not funny, and frankly annoying. And, to be clear, I have no stake in defending large vehicle ownership; I'm just saying you will elicit more agreement and fewer eye-rolls if you drop the "compensating" joke.
A completely factual statement like “my daily observations support the theory that sales of large pick-up trucks in The Netherlands have grown, while I can not observe a matching growth in business development that could explain the increased need for such vehicles” would be read by exactly no one.
A joke based in truth catches people’s attention and draws them to read essentially the same thing I said above.
A rhetorical device, sure. But we are on a discussion forum here, not in an economics paper.
