Cars & Debt

Today I had a meeting with one of my international TAs at school and the conversation rolled around to staying solvent in graduate school. Coming from a country outside the U.S., she asked me if it was possible to make a living working at stores like Old Navy or Target. I told her that if you owned a car, absolutely not!

Of course I ended up yanking out Chris Balish's How to Live Well Without Owning a Car. She and her husband (and one child) live close-to-the-bone as graduate students and both work multiple jobs to stay solvent. When I told her that the average family pays over $8,000.00 per year to own a car she did not believe me. We opened up Balish's book and started tallying. She stopped counting when she hit $8,000.00 for only one of their two cars.

It was an interesting conversation and make me think about how much Car Culture has influenced people that are often struggling to make ends meet in the U.S. yet feel forced to buy into what counts for "normalcy". These two just looked at what everyone else was doing and bought into the old "but I need a car to get to my job and be a responsible adult" without thinking about the fact that in this country, your employer can require you to have a driver's license but never pay you enough to own the car they are implying you *must* have to work for them.

I am not trying to glorify or romanticize being car free or car lite, but I couldn't help but see the strain this young couple are under financially for what amounts to two depreciating assets. This just does not make sense to me.

Food for thought.