Skip to comments.
Auto Financing - The Decline of Public Transportation
Myself
| 10/16/01
| Scott Warwick
Posted on 10/16/2001 9:31:31 PM PDT by TwoBear
The other day while waiting to perform some local elementary school volunteer work, I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman seated next to me. Jack was his name. We exchanged warm plesantries as we normally do here in the South, and discussed our enthusiasm for the work to be done. While conversing, we discussed the motivation as to what brought us to our volunteering. In both cases, geographical history was a major contributor.
I explained to him that I had grown up in the area where we were volunteering and had answered a call in the local newspaper for volunteer tutors for the local elementary school. He had answered the same call and explained that he was originally from Wisconsin but had lived in our city for over 50 years. He proceded to say that he and his young wife upon moving to our city had located in some well known townhouse style apartments that still exist to this day. The reason they selected these apartments was their proximity to the city busline. Which 50 years ago was a necessity for them to get back and forth to work. You see they didn't have a car as newlyweds. Novel thought, huh?
I don't know why, but all of sudden it hit me. My, how things have changed. Couples starting out 50 years ago didn't have cars. There wasn't such a thing as financing a car for the next 72 months. You had to save and buy your first car. Thus, the need for public transportation.
It dawned on me that with the rise of financing for automobiles came the decline for public transportation. Now every new couple usually has not only one car, but two! Every college student has a car as well as every teenager that wants one and has a part time job. But they also have major debt, which hampers them their whole lives. I rue to see the day that Gen X reaches retirement and mounds of debt still exist. You think its bad now, it will be astonishing then.
Amazingly, couples today give you a look of insanity if you even broach the subject of riding the bus to work. They cannot even fathom it. But the worry of thousands of dollars of debt is non-existent. Everyone has it they say, its the norm. Being debt-free is impossible. It wasn't 50 years ago, ask Jack.
As I sat down to basic addition and subtraction my mind wavered to the days of old and marveled at how the way things have changed. Thank you gentleman Jack for reminding me of the way it used to be.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS:
1
posted on
10/16/2001 9:31:31 PM PDT
by
TwoBear
(twobare@aol.com)
To: TwoBear
WHEELS =FREEDOM
To: TwoBear
I would usually consider myself a transit advocate, but bus transportation has one major flaw: The buses travel on public roads with other vehicles, so there is no real time savings associated with them. If anything, the numerous stops make a bus trip longer than an auto trip between the same two points.
Mass transit generally only works well when the vehicles operate on their own right-of-way and aren't constrained by vehicular traffic (LRT or commuter rail, for example).
In addition, surveys of former bus riders indicate that the primary reason they stopped using the bus was the people they had to share the ride with, not the service itself. I can understand this attitude completely. The day I showed up at work smelling like the last guy in my bus seat was the last day I ever took a bus.
To: Alberta's Child
Car financing = Decline in public transportation? Law of unintended consquences or two things that have nothing to do with each other? Ice cream consumption goes way up during the summer months. Child drownings go way up in the summer months. Ice cream causes drowning? Give me just a itsy, bitsy break here, will ya pal?
4
posted on
10/16/2001 10:00:35 PM PDT
by
calljack
To: calljack
He's probably got a point. I'm sure home ownership increased when banks started offering 30-year mortgages, relaxed credit terms, etc.
To: TwoBear
I think another important factor is government subsidy of the automobile through the Interstate Highway system.
To: TwoBear
Now you can get 0% from some dealers for a new car. (You can't get crap on a trade in) Thats great for a first new car buyer. Plop a couple of thousand down and have a note less than $220, provided you not spending more than $15000.
No effect on public tranportation, though. Another problem with PT is that nothing is central any more and things are so scattered out. Most trips require a transfer or two. Then expect a long walk to boot. No thanks, time is to valuble.
7
posted on
10/16/2001 10:16:38 PM PDT
by
oyez
To: TwoBear
Seems like a strange subject when the rates are now zero!?
To: TwoBear
Behind all of this -- easy car financing, subsidized mortgages, interstate highways -- was the fear of another Great Depression. It was the Keynesian idea of keeping demand high. Now we've arranged our human geography so that in many parts of the country a car is a necessity. Gains in cheaper food and clothing, get eaten up by higher transport costs. It was a big mistake, and if things change it will be a result of some great trauma and bring more troubles in its wake. I recommend the last episode of the PBS New York series to see just how much in love with the automobile NY planner Robert Moses and other midcentury Americans were. Or take a look at Robert Caro's massive biography of Moses. The good side is that no one in public life will ever be as naively enthralled to the car.
9
posted on
10/16/2001 10:38:33 PM PDT
by
x
To: TwoBear
This Gen Xer drove an 88 Cutlass he bought for cash for the last 8 years while making $200 a month "car payments" to his own investment fund and as a consequence walked out of the dealership last month with a new Grand Cherokee he paid cash for. In 5 or six years, I'll do it all over again. Interest money looks nicer in my pocket than in the pocket of the bank.
10
posted on
10/16/2001 10:48:08 PM PDT
by
SoDak
To: SoDak
Good for you. I've been debt free for 4 years + now - no loans, no mortgage, a Platinum credit card I pay off every month - and trust me, you get an unbelievable feeling of being in control of your financial destiny.
No credit to me: somewhere around a mid-life crisis, Somebody taught me the hard way that wealth is measured not by how much you own, but by how little you need. Sorry I was such a slow learner.
Comment #12 Removed by Moderator
To: John Locke
You're correct, one doesn't need all that much. I've always been willing to drive an out-of-style car, and live in a modest home in order to insure I wouldn't be beholden to anyone or the government anytime in my life for my daily bread. Of course, I'm the son of a very tight Norwegian farmer, and that's sort of drilled into you growing up.
13
posted on
10/17/2001 7:26:44 AM PDT
by
SoDak
To: SoDak
I like your approach, but here's an even better idea: Never pay cash for a car even if you can easily afford it. Instead, go to your local bank and tell them that you want to take out a $30,000 car loan for five years (or whatever length of time you intend to drive the car), and you will fully collateralize it with $30,000 cash that you will use to open a five-year certificate of deposit. Under these circumstances, some banks will offer you the five-year loan for an interest rate that is exactly two points above what they are paying you for your CD.
After five years, you have your car paid off at an effective interest rate of 2%, and you still have your $30,000 plus the interest it earned. Sell the car for $8,000 or whatever it is worth, and you can do the same thing all over again with a more expensive car.
To: TwoBear
I think my title kind of misconstrued the point of my post. A question mark properly placed would have worked much better. Never the less, I do believe increase in available credit to basically anyone has had a profound effect on the United States in the last 50 years. The point I was trying to convey was that attempting to live without credit is rarely even practiced anymore. I know it is by a few, but not a majority as it used to be.
15
posted on
10/17/2001 10:26:12 AM PDT
by
TwoBear
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson