I think America is about to discover that they can't afford to have every person transported in a personal multi-ton vehicle anymore. That money fire will finish bankrupting the middle class and cities. What will happen then is up to the American people.
Viable alternatives to driving are the only answer at this point.
fragmede•4mo ago
...why? Car culture has been around for decades by this point. What's changed that it can't just continue? Personally I'd love for public transportation and city living to become more popular, but what cultural shift has happened that car culture couldn't just continue ad nauseam?
foxyv•4mo ago
Families are spending more than 20% of their budget on transportation. Even worse, the cost of rent has increased as well. Car prices have doubled in the past 5 years. In addition, road infrastructure is starting to collapse under the weight of vehicles that are twice as heavy on average. Add in wage suppression and we are seeing families with fewer and fewer options when it comes to transportation.
Especially dire is that many people cannot afford insurance. 15-30% of people are uninsured depending on the state. Fewer people are driving with licenses (9-10%) because they cannot afford the fines that come with being a poor driver and have no other options.
While an upper middle class family can afford to just keep shoveling money into the car fire, most families are being stretched thinner every year just to keep a car running.
fragmede•4mo ago
Everything getting more expensive is inflation. That's going to happen no matter which transportation device exists. The target is 2%. We're not there. It's fair to point out that wages haven't kept up with inflation though, especially minimum wage.
Inflation is nothing new, and car culture survived the 1970 oil crisis. Viable EVs exist these days, so if there was a problem with the oil supply, we'd fare better than we did in the 70's.
Families being stretched thin are going to drive less if they can't afford gasoline/electricity for their car. There aren't dense cities for families being stretched thin to move to. Cities are also expensive, and worse, most cities in America aren't dense enough to properly be called cities! Changing cultural attitudes, along with Uber/Lyft, E-bikes/other personal electric vehicles may help the US lean away from its car culture, but there just isn't the density for it in most of America.
Cars are convenient as all hell, to the point that ~92% of American households have a car.
Poor people have been driving without insurance and without a license since there's been insurance and licensing. It's unfortunate, but the destitute have to make very difficult decisions as to which necessity not to deal with. If the AI-job-pocalypse comes to pass, then there will be more people discovering that they can live without electricity and other essentials.
The upper middle class family can afford, and will continue to afford to be able to buy upper middle class family cars and everyone else will buy their used cars when they're done with them. Some people will buy new Kias and Hyundais. Cars are really reliable these days. You can still buy a money pit of a car, but an ugly used Honda Civic or similar can still be had for $3,000 and will last approximately forever for the cost of gasoline, oil changes, and tires.
Stupid people buy cars they can't afford. That happens at all income levels, but is particularly harmful to poor people.
foxyv•4mo ago
> the destitute have to make very difficult decisions
Because there are not viable alternatives to driving.
> most cities in America aren't dense enough to properly be called cities
Because we bulldozed through them to build a freeway and street system for cars.
fragmede•4mo ago
A destitute family living in the middle of a city with good public transportation still have to make the unenviable decision of paying for rent or electricity/gas or food,
but not all three. What they save in not having to drive is made up by rent being higher.
foxyv•4mo ago
It sounds like we need to tear up all the ultra-wide streets and freeways running through our cities and build mixed use housing so that our cities can be more affordable.
foxyv•4mo ago
Viable alternatives to driving are the only answer at this point.
fragmede•4mo ago
foxyv•4mo ago
Especially dire is that many people cannot afford insurance. 15-30% of people are uninsured depending on the state. Fewer people are driving with licenses (9-10%) because they cannot afford the fines that come with being a poor driver and have no other options.
While an upper middle class family can afford to just keep shoveling money into the car fire, most families are being stretched thinner every year just to keep a car running.
fragmede•4mo ago
Inflation is nothing new, and car culture survived the 1970 oil crisis. Viable EVs exist these days, so if there was a problem with the oil supply, we'd fare better than we did in the 70's.
Families being stretched thin are going to drive less if they can't afford gasoline/electricity for their car. There aren't dense cities for families being stretched thin to move to. Cities are also expensive, and worse, most cities in America aren't dense enough to properly be called cities! Changing cultural attitudes, along with Uber/Lyft, E-bikes/other personal electric vehicles may help the US lean away from its car culture, but there just isn't the density for it in most of America.
Cars are convenient as all hell, to the point that ~92% of American households have a car.
Poor people have been driving without insurance and without a license since there's been insurance and licensing. It's unfortunate, but the destitute have to make very difficult decisions as to which necessity not to deal with. If the AI-job-pocalypse comes to pass, then there will be more people discovering that they can live without electricity and other essentials.
The upper middle class family can afford, and will continue to afford to be able to buy upper middle class family cars and everyone else will buy their used cars when they're done with them. Some people will buy new Kias and Hyundais. Cars are really reliable these days. You can still buy a money pit of a car, but an ugly used Honda Civic or similar can still be had for $3,000 and will last approximately forever for the cost of gasoline, oil changes, and tires.
Stupid people buy cars they can't afford. That happens at all income levels, but is particularly harmful to poor people.
foxyv•4mo ago
Because there are not viable alternatives to driving.
> most cities in America aren't dense enough to properly be called cities
Because we bulldozed through them to build a freeway and street system for cars.
fragmede•4mo ago
foxyv•4mo ago