dagblog - Comments for "Arrears window: Car of the future? None, it appears"

Ah but since 1998 through

artappraiser — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 22:45:28 +0000

In reply to Arrears window: Car of the future? None, it appears

Ah but since 1998 through 2018, the killer is not car payments nor even housing but college costs, medical and child care. And HOSPITALS ARE RIPPING THIS COUNTRY OFF. Yes, I am shouting. They need to be threatened with nationalization or somethin'

I can't get this chart out of my head. We've engineered a world where essentials like education and healthcare far outpace wages, but, hey, check out them cheap TVs, phones, and cars!

This chart is what's behind our entire politics right now.https://t.co/hDCS8wTnde pic.twitter.com/xvjClWq3ND
— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) February 21, 2019

Ah, but did they explain the

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 11:59:12 +0000

In reply to Ah but that does not sound

Ah, but did they explain the mysteries of the Holley 4-barrel and a double overhead camshaft? Not sure how they'd look on a French door, but pretty sure you'd be the first on your block. (Were you the McKenzie Philips type or Laverne & Shirley on roller skates or...?)

Ah but that does not sound

artappraiser — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 06:17:08 +0000

In reply to

Ah but that does not sound like a "junker," that sounds like a babe magnet out of American Graffiti belonging to John Milner, including the paint job. The mystery of what you were planning to do with it being the attraction. (hot rod?) All the better that dad thought it a junker, without a clue.

I just luv the story of the reverse installation of the stick shift, something about that just appeals to me!

Remembering my Pinto did make me think of how not having working doors on a car at all was once cool, all the best foreign movies had sports cars with no doors and where the guys jumped in and out.

The paint job on your illustration looks like a Butch Brinza candy apple flame job to me, I knew him intimately for a short while in my misspent youth and before I moved on to a 8-yr. relationship with his buddy who bore the nickname "Doctor of the Streets." They were both members of American Graffiti generation, a decade older than me. On Chevy or Plymouth? sadly I have to say that I don't really have an informed opinion, though the Dr. did teach me to say GM cars suck. I was a young woman and we needn't worry our pretty heads about that stuff too much.

(Speaking of Bondo, I learned to use it 4 years ago restoring some rusted metal French doors, via that miracle of giving-away-secrets-of-the-male-brotherhood, YouTube. I did a beautiful job, smooth as silk, was so very proud. And YEAH, now it's all rusted through again.)

A Guy Called LULU — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 05:03:24 +0000

In reply to Yeah, I always had junkers,

I wanna take you on a kind of inebriational travelogue here
Well, ain't got no spare, you ain't got no jack, you don't give a shit you ain't never coming back. Tom Waits.

My first [car] was a '50 Mercury. The "Black Torpedo". Not the one bellow.-

$50. No external handles, all had been bondo-ed over and everything including window trim was primer flat black. I don't remember how I got in or for that matter how I got out. I remember the trunk lid flopped open when I hit a bump too fast. The three-on-the-tree shifter was still in place but a floor shifter had been incorrectly installed. The pattern was bottom left for first to upper right then down for third so I convinced a few people for a little while that it had a four speed to go with the flat-head eight. Varoom! Pissed my ol' man off when I bought it but he had always said that when you can buy it you can have it so I got to park it at home for a little while.

Let's argue about which is best, Chevy or Plymouth. You go first.

I had a temp $100 Pinto where

artappraiser — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 02:25:14 +0000

In reply to Yeah, I always had junkers,

I had a temp $100 Pinto where the driver's door arm rest was missing so I used a coat hanger to open and shut the door. It also had cut pieces of aluminum sheets replacing rusted out floor. Someone bought it from me when I got something better @ $75. I hope they didn't die in it.The floor thing was very common in the midwest as there was no rust coating that worked invented yet (on purpose maybe--planned obsolescence.) There is a story of Obama in Chicago picking up Michelle in one of floorless models for date, I recall reading that. Actually, as more people found it easier to buy a brand new car, that was part of the movement to more cars per family in the Midwest, as people would keep the junker to drive in the winter, so as not to ruin the new car with the salt exposure. It was your "beater for the winter."

Yeah, I always had junkers,

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 01:14:44 +0000

In reply to Oy! Scary as hell, like the

Yeah, I always had junkers, once bought one off a student leaving town for $100, block in too tight to change 1 of the sparkplugs, think I drove it 2 years.

Oy! Scary as hell, like the

artappraiser — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 23:46:08 +0000

In reply to Arrears window: Car of the future? None, it appears

Oy! Scary as hell, like the whole house of cards gonna fall again soon.

They have built an economy by convincing consumers that this, this, that and that is the basics of a middle class life. And a huge financial economy to loan the money to do that. And those things provide jobs and growth, but without paying them enough to continue keeping that growth pyramid up.

About a decade ago, I started to notice that one never saw junkers on the road anymore. So much so that people raised to buy and drive junkers, and not be saddled with a car payment, which was considered a luxury, like me and my family, were really looked down on. Like: geez can't you afford a decent car. Rather than: how stupid to pay a loan company for a new car if you aren't flush.

Throw in that rents and/or house payments seem to be at an all time high across the country And that college tuition and loans to pay for it has skyrocketed. Something's got to give.

Some thoughts First being clear that I am not mentioning this to lecture about the morality of living frugally like in the old days. It's just that I don't think people realize enough how expectations have changed, that what hit me, here. It's striking to me as a child of the late 50's and early 60's, that what was defined a middle class then, and so many describe as the golden days we have fallen from, is a false thing, the mythical land of "MAGA".

Here's what that era was really like, this is the basics of middle class back then:

1 used car per family, 2 at the most. You bought cars from want ads in the newspaper if you were smart, and from used car dealers if you were dumb Most young people starting out would never ever dream of buying a new car!
1 TV set, color if you were lucky. Couple of radios. Phonograph player or stereo if you were lucky or artsy. Two fans. No air conditioning. I refrigerator, 1 stove, 1 washer, maybe a dryer, chest freezer if you could manage it to save on meat.
No such thing as credit cards and no investments.
Health insurance covering hospitalization only. Unless you were in a big union which might have their own medical coop with the worst doctors and cheapest medical equipment around.
Clothes and household furnishing purchased on layaway. Savings were for repairs if the car broke down. Christmas Club savings for Christmas gifts.
1 phone line, not a party line if you were lucky, strictly limited long distance calling any but the very local area, as it was too expensive
Small 3-bedroom ranch house if you were lucky enough to have greatest generation parents who gave you the down payment as a wedding gift
Not everybody gets to go or should even think about going to college
Things like books and movies were a luxury entertainment item.
No kid gets a bicycle unless he or she can save up some from after school jobs and allowance to at least contribute to the cost

We "grew" a new economy from changing those expectations. Basically by giving the middle class the tools of credit and investment that only the wealthy had access to previously. Without raising the real adjusted amount they were being paid. Nobody talks about "keeping up with the Joneses" anymore, because everyone became a Jones to feed the consumer economy.