Only four things to do with the thing after spending money on the thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use it. Sell it. Gift it. Toss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most folks will use\/consume it \u2013 whatever it is \u2013 for a bit then either
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 give\/gift it to someone else,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 try to sell it in exchange for cash\/(rarely) trade,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or throw it away (welcome to the landfill\/Great Pacific Garbage Patch).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When that thing is a car, funnily enough \u2026 wasn\u2019t always that way, and was actually, really, better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OK so the US average car note in the dos20\u2019s is $700\/month \u2026 not including registration, insurance, maintenance (oil change, tires, etc.), wondrous little added expenses like tolls, moving violations, paying to park (wat?yeh)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good news (for Half\/other half) \u2026 ain\u2019t no (double neg but shaddup) car payments up in this piece. Seven vehicles total, three running, three projects, one in a state of repair, everything owned outright. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone else said that right there is the wealth gap, right there, in the form of monthly vehicle payments, either purchase or lease.\u00a0 And some of these contract terms are for 84, even 96 months.\u00a0
Pretty sure that\u2019ll get to 120 months, eventually, yup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umm \u2026 wat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That translates to seven and eight years, respectively, possibly\/predictably even 10 years.
For a car that likely will not last for the duration of the obligation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public transportation in modern America is an unfunny joke.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early in the 20th<\/sup> century, only 1 in 10 Americans owned an automobile, and the US had some of the best, most convenient public transportation systems in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Streetcars \/ trolley systems \u2026 with steel tracks and electric motors. Clean running, convenient, popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LA \u2013 that hotbed of traffic snarl and gridlock \u2013had a trolley system comprised of 1,000 miles, traversing the valley from the ocean to the mountains.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baltimore \u2026 NYC \u2026 Philadelphia \u2026 St. Louis \u2026 New Orleans \u2026 Salt Lake City \u2026 all those great cities were made even greater with a transit system that served the working, middle class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the 1940\u2019s, the system was a mere shadow of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why, you (Other Person You) ask? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why, money! Of course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Seriously \u2026 what else could it be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Turns out \u2026 in the 1920\u2019s, Rubber, Gas, and Auto \u2013 corporately personified as Standard Oil, Firestone Tires, and GM \u2013 conspired to eliminate public transportation in the US because they wanted more money, and efficient, convenient, and popular transportation for the public stood as a barrier to their corrupt objective.\u00a0 {Mark 12:41<\/em>}<\/p>\n\n\n\n GM, specifically, used propaganda to equate motoring with mobilization and modernization. Appeal to the aspirations of the plebes, and rich shall you be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The big corps lobbied (Horseman for \u201cbought\u201d) the government (local-state-federal) to eliminate the rail alternatives \u2026 reduce streetcar service, space out trolley arrival&departure times, make it less convenient, raise the fares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charging more for less \u2026 sound familiar?\u00a0 Why yes it does!\u00a0 So for about a decade, between 1926 through 1936, all over the country clean-running electric street cars were replaced with diesel bus fumes \u2026 Sounds about right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh and after WWII, returning servicemen were flush with cash, including gov\u2019t subsidies for new homes in previously undeveloped areas \u2026 aaaannnddd leaving the cities and heading to the suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Horsemen, now with wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GM also \u201clobbied\u201d \u2013 heavily<\/em> \u2013 for the massive expansion of the interstate national highway system under Eisenhower, for the largest public works program in history, justified on the basis of troop and materiel movements, forwhen in times of war.\u00a0 Riiiiiight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FDR could only dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aaannnndddd we get the Highway Trust Fund, paid for with a gasoline tax. Taxes are the lifeblood of gub\u2019mint \u2026 but if the plebes don\u2019t work\/spend, ain\u2019t none. So drive and drive and drive and drive \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Highways cut across neighborhoods, bifurcated communities, plowed asphalt right through small hometowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember the Bates Motel? Norman said business dried up because of the new highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonder if he donned the dress before or after the interstate was built?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interesting to think that, at one point, no one really needed a car. Maybe that was the whole point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commonwealth replaced with \u2026 common wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the push of a button | alert of a sensor! | people can now drive directly into their garages, shut the door behind them, and never interact with the folks living right next door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless, of course, there is a crisis \u2026 feral dogs death-maul a child, wildfires, flooding. Sigh<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology opens the world and shuts us off from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And maybe that is the point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Can\u2019t fight for better alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except that one guy with the shopping bags in Tiananmen Square. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Got a statute, but not a name. Probably sold for parts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of \u2026 an independent mechanic recently posted about how he was unable to repair a customer\u2019s vehicle due to lack of access to computer codes \u2026 could only be fixed at\/by the dealership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flagship for the oily, musky funk only allows Nikola\u2019s namesakes to be fixed in-house \u2026 which leads to years-long backup for basic repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welcome to our brave new world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I pity the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And selfishly, especially my own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Only four things to do with the thing after spending money on the thing. Use it. Sell it. Gift it. Toss it. Most folks will use\/consume it \u2013 whatever it is \u2013 for a bit then either\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 give\/gift it to someone else,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 try to sell it in exchange for cash\/(rarely) trade,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or throw it away … <\/p>\n
Actively promoted personal vehicle ownership a symbol of status, of \u201ccommon wealth.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Say hello to the advent corporatocracy of modern life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could get from home to work to church to school to store, no problem.
Everyone more connected to community, neighborhood, neighbors, family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n