China is getting into the car game, but they won't be able to match our rate before the music stops. They have the growing middle class who have aspirations, and more and more people will want to get a car. It's unstoppable. My parents had only one car for a while, then my mother got a job to pay for her car. It's going to be like that, because cars are the ultimate thing to have.
We are all used to having them, and it will be hard to get anyone to give them up.
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What does your car really cost you?
Re: What does your car really cost you?
by Revi » Tue 07 Mar 2017, 09:27:43
Deep in the mud and slime of things, even there, something sings.
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Re: What does your car really cost you?
by Tanada » Tue 07 Mar 2017, 09:39:59
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'C')hina is getting into the car game, but they won't be able to match our rate before the music stops. They have the growing middle class who have aspirations, and more and more people will want to get a car. It's unstoppable. My parents had only one car for a while, then my mother got a job to pay for her car. It's going to be like that, because cars are the ultimate thing to have.
We are all used to having them, and it will be hard to get anyone to give them up.
We are all used to having them, and it will be hard to get anyone to give them up.
I started out very doubtful civilization would crash as you imply, and after what has come about in the last five years I am back to believing humans will indeed muddle through.
That means, the music doesn't stop, the tune just changes to a different melody.
As you stated, the desire to have a car, as a status symbol as much as for any other reason, will still be present even if you have to come up with some extremely expensive alternative fuel to get to drive it.
Here is the thing people forget IMO, if your car is a status symbol then you want to display it from time to time to ensure others recognize you have the status that goes along with ownership. You don't have to show off a status symbol constantly so the actual fuel needs are less than what an American would consider normal with our crazy exurban commutes of 45-60 minutes each way. A status symbol can be driven 60 minutes a week and ensure your status being made plain to everyone.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Alfred Tennyson', 'W')e are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Re: What does your car really cost you?
by Revi » Tue 07 Mar 2017, 10:04:50
True, maybe we will slowly get out of the car game as we move back to farms, etc. and drive less and less. I think gasoline is an amazing and useful thing, but it would be far better used to split wood, make tortillas, etc.
Maybe we'll just keep our status symbol cars and drive them around occasionally telling ourselves that everything is just as it's always been for the next 20 -30 years.
Maybe we'll just keep our status symbol cars and drive them around occasionally telling ourselves that everything is just as it's always been for the next 20 -30 years.
Deep in the mud and slime of things, even there, something sings.
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Revi - Light Sweet Crude
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Re: What does your car really cost you?
by AdamB » Tue 07 Mar 2017, 12:25:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'T')he average person spends about $9000 a year on their car in the US. That's the total cost. That means if mom and dad and 2 kids have cars they are spending around $36,000 to keep everyone motoring. Very little money for anything else...
I don't know anyone supporting four average cars on one income.
How about 5? Admittedly, the wife is requiring me to sell one, but still...
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
') Two teenage drivers had better have part time jobs or they are not driving 15K average a year and if they need to commute to work the job better pay well. Half time job 1000 hours a year at $12/ hr is $12,000 and some of that should be going towards college.
Yup. The one is in college. The other will be taking light rail to his schooling in the near future. College is the real expense, my cars have been pretty cheap compared to what a college education costs nowadays. But with the downfall of American public education, you can't be cheap on getting them some proper learnin.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
') My three all drove (well used) used cars while they were in school or could buy their own with Army money.
None of my kids want to support the military industrial complex in that way. Milk the parents! seems to be their battle cry. But used cars are cheap, insurance is cheap, why not 5? Or 8? At $3G/each, they would all cost less CapX then the single fancy EV the wife takes off to work.
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