Andrew DamitioMar 6, 2023
Cathy Tuttle

Buying a home builds equity. Buying a car destroys it. The US car-based transportation system forces people into debt and fosters poverty.

"it’s not unusual for drivers to carry negative equity. Dealers say more people are arriving at their lots $10,000 underwater" owing more on old cars than the cars are worth.

Heart-wrenching examples of low income people forced to go into debt because most #USA #transportation is for #cars & only cars.

#CarCulture

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/tacoma-woman-among-increasing-number-of-americans-trapped-by-car-debt/

Tacoma woman among increasing number of Americans ‘trapped’ by car debt

The Seattle Times
Mar 6, 2023 at 5:07pmWeb
Show threadLyle Solla-YatesMar 6, 2023
@CathyTuttle “I don’t want to be paying interest on cars that I don’t even have anymore”
Show threadJoeChipMar 6, 2023
@CathyTuttle
I suspect people who bought houses in the last 2 years will end up underwater as well.
Show threadBill SeitzMar 7, 2023
@CathyTuttle much like with college, these folks are paying more for signaling than utility. (a Ford Explorer?)
Show threadMark Ingalls Mar 7, 2023
@CathyTuttle The two times we bought a new car we were lucky to sell it for a profit. Glad to not be strapped with that kind of debt today, though.
Show thread😀🚲Mar 7, 2023
@CathyTuttle if you think paying interest on a car loan is a bad idea, or that these are other people's problems, wait till you hear what the DOT is doing to finance freeway widening and how long we'll all be underwater even before we're all underwater from climate debt. 💸
Show threadPeter LeeMar 7, 2023
@CathyTuttle it’s a frightening read for those affected, but those prices seem (from a Brit’s perspective) extraordinary. Why buy such expensive cars? Are there no more affordable used cars on the markets?
I bought my first new (or nearly new) car when I was 50 and got a car allowance with my job. Before then I bought what I could afford. Tens of thousands of negative equity sounds astonishing.
Show threadCathy TuttleMar 7, 2023

@peteralee @notjustbikes just published a screamer on "light trucks" & SUVs. It is more difficult to buy smaller cars in US + #car companies are spending billions to encourage up-sizing.

I also refer you back to the article that lays out heart-wrenching examples of people forced to go into debt because US transportation supports cars & only cars.

Local auto dealer worries about "customers shopping for small Kias — who rely on financing — more than Volvo buyers who he says often pay with cash."

Show threadPeter LeeMar 7, 2023
@CathyTuttle yes, I saw that bit. It’s a real tragedy that so much status and social value seems to be tied to car size & age. On both sides of the pond.
Show threadPeter LeeMar 7, 2023
@CathyTuttle @notjustbikes have you read Bill Bryson’s “Notes from a big country”? I vividly remember how he wrote of his confusion on returning to live in the US and finding that he was unable to walk anywhere in his town: everything was only accessible by car, and years of living in the UK had made him accustomed to walking for short errands, and for pleasure.
Show threadCathy TuttleMar 7, 2023

@peteralee @notjustbikes I've read a lot of Bill Bryson. Not that one though. I'll look it up.

One thing I'm noticing a lot now in The Netherlands are the little ramps added here and there for bikes to make it easy to go through a park, or pass through streets closed to cars.

In the US so many of these little ramps not only are missing, but active measures like gates and walls are added to cut off people from directly walking and biking to what are often very close as the crow flies.