You have probably heard the mantra of the World Economic Forum (it sounds as if we’re all part of it, doesn’t it?) about how in the near future, you will own nothing and they will be very happy.
For all-too-many, that is already the reality. It has been for at least a couple of generations now, probably.
Debt rather than ownership has become a way of life. If you owe, they own you. How many are already owned?
How many Americans could refuse to obey what their employer – acting as the adjunct of the government – told them they had to do in order to remain employed? Knowing that if they weren’t employed, they would very quickly be unable to pay what they owe? As distinct from figuring out a way to live? The answer is obvious. Most of these owned people would do as they were told.
They did do it. They wore a “mask.” They rolled up their sleeve. They would probably have fetched a stick, too – if their employer had told them to.
And for the sake of what?
A new car?
That is one of the ways they have come to own so many people. The average price paid for a new car is now about $50,000 and while much of that cost can be blamed on the pushing of even more expensive EVs – which has pushed the cost of cars in general even higher – a lot of the blame is owned by the people whose lack of aversion to being owned has resulted in the cost of cars in general going up rather than down.
There ought to be a variety of new cars on the market priced around $10,000 or even less. Or – rather – there’s no good reason there ought not to be. The “car” is a very mature technology. It has been around for more than 120 years – like the incandescent light bulb, which was very inexpensive until it was forced off the market for exactly that reason.
With cars, it has been more subtle. The cost of the average new car is higher than ever in part because of compliance costs; i.e., the cost of designing a car to the specifications decreed by the federal government – which somehow acquired the power to issue such decrees. Readers of this column already know all about that. The other part, though, is the transformation of the car into the luxury car. Even the economy car – which doesn’t exist anymore.
It is absurd to speak of an “economy” car that has climate control air conditioning, a multi-speaker stereo, power windows and locks, a standard automatic transmission, cruise control, aluminum wheels and so on. Yet all new “economy” cars come standard with most or all of the foregoing equipment – which used to be optional in economy cars. Which is how they were kept . . . economical.
It is probably why you don’t hear about economy cars anymore. Instead, there are entry-level cars.
