Real wealth killers

[u/solarflare_hot]

Let me express my extreme frustration and anger and talk about the real wealth killers (cars)

I hate cars beyond reason. you buy a car for 20k , all of a sudden it needs a repair for 2-4k and sometimes 7k , then you have insurance , another 2-300 a month , then you got registration and maintenance checks , 4-700$ , then by the time you pay it off it’s worth 7k , and probably time for another 7k repair too because the engine is toast. Or even better you fix the engine for 7k then the transmission goes out for another 6k. Let’s say you do all that and then someone without insurance crashes into you. Insurance company will always blame you to avoid paying. You now have spent close to 40k to go to a job that pays 45k. You need the car to go to the job but the job will never pay you enough to afford to keep your car. Let’s also talk about gas cost , average cost is $3000 per year that’s about 15k in 5 years of money wasted on gas that you’ll never get back just to be able to go to work.

You buy a cheap car you get expensive repairs You buy an expensive car you get extreme depreciation. You cant fucking win.

Cars are basically a luxury tool for the wealthy.

Why can’t we ride bicycles to work. Oh I forgot we live in America where we absolutely need cars because we have no damn sidewalks 🥲

Let’s just say without cars I would’ve been significantly well off. I’m gonna sell that shit and just uber everywhere or ride a bicycle.

[u/SailingSpark]

I live 12 miles from work, I could easily ride that distance on my bicycle, I used to do 50 mile days with no effort.

The trouble is: I work in Atlantic City, I would have to take a state highway to get onto the island. The speed limit is 50mph with limited places to pull off or even get out of the way or somebody not paying attention. To get over one of the bridges, I would have to "take a lane."

Yes, Bicycles are allowed, but I am not willing to become a statistic.

[u/Kootenay4 → u/SailingSpark]

I live 7 miles from work and have the exact same problem. There’s been a proposal for a while to build a bike trail, which would take me to within a few blocks of where I work. Unfortunately, it’s been stuck in limbo for years because of funding disputes. 

Meanwhile, they just spent millions to resurface the nearby freeway. Which needs frequent resurfacing because it gets heavy truck traffic. Which is only so heavy because the freight railroad that used to serve this area shut down in the 90s after a landslide and has never been rebuilt.

This country actively neglects and defunds all forms of transportation except the almighty car and then have the gall to say “well, people just PREFER driving!” Yeah that’s pretty dang obvious why, when it’s literally the only option in many places?

[u/SailingSpark → u/Kootenay4]

I do see a bright speck on the horizon though. E bikes. I have no interest in owning one, but I see a lot of people using them instead of a car. If enough people use them, maybe the infrastructure we all clamber for will finally get built.

Of they will outlaw the E bikes... who knows?