That’s not too bad.
If you also live in it.
One of the things about collapse in the US is the only place most people in the US have left to budge is getting rid of their car, and thus places with functional mass transit in the US are going to grow MUCH more than car suburban car wastelands and cities built entirely around cars which will likely be hit brutally hard as the US goes into another Great Depression.
Yeah too bad the whole country went all in on cars when building every city and town for the last hundred-ish years
Not at all likely to happen. Rural citizens can’t function without their cars because you can’t get to work or anywhere else without it, so the cars will remain and other corners will be cut.
I don’t think you understand how desperate things are about to get for the average person in the US, they will have no choice. It will not be optional, people will be forced into getting rid of their cars consequences be damned they needed the money/couldnt afford the expenditure.
Rural people aren’t paying rent. They can afford to fill up their vehicles. The only things that may change for some of them is switching to more fuel-efficient vehicles or foregoing car insurance (which is a good thing.)
Rural people aren’t paying rent.
What?
They own their homes at much higher rates than people living in major cities.
Do you think people living in rural areas have more extra money to spend than people living in cities…?
Some people do of course but I highly doubt that generalization holds.
They have more than enough for their vehicles. You don’t know how much of a drain on people’s finances paying rent actually is or how cheap it can be to own a car.
You should see for yourself sometime.
I doubt it. Who’s going to buy all the cars? It’s not like you can just easily sell any old car when you decide you need to. Also the economically disadvantaged would tend to have older, less desirable cars.
Nobody has to buy them. Many will continue to be reposessed as people can’t afford the payment, those who do not owe money on their cars will be unable to purchase another one when their current car dies. The car market is absolutely fucked and as has prices increase, spare parts become harder to find and replace at home, people will have no choice but to abandon their cars.
Cars cost a very high amount to keep running when you include all the costs, yes it sucks for many people in the US that there car will be worth shit when they are forced to sell it but by then they won’t have a choice or not, they will be forced to get rid of their car because of how much it is costing them to own and maintain it.
i am already at this point. i spent 1000 to get my brakes and tires done, and the next day the batterry died. before that, my coolant system broke down 3 different ways in under a year, and my window mechanism breaks every fall after the first freeze.
now my car has been sitting in the driveway untouched for almot a year, i am still paying off the brakes/tires bill, and i rely on my Ruckus to get me around town whenever weather permits. literally cheaper to make payments on my scooter then it is to keep my car on the road. plus the mileage is a godsend, get abt a hundred miles a gallon. if i lived outside of the city, or didnt have a partner with a vehicle for bad weather days, i would be fucked.
What car did you get so the rest of us know to avoid it?
Those costs are highly variable and can be very low. I have 30+ years owning and operating automobiles in the USA, so I can speak from a well of experience on the topic.
If your car is running OK, able to operate well enough to travel in, your only cost could be gas. Some of us have cars that are paid off and low-maintenance. Insurance is required by some states, but you don’t technically need it to operate the vehicle. You can also get low-cost liability-only insurance to meet the bare minimum legal requirements. Routine maintenance can be cheap if all you do is change the oil and filter - this can cost $30 or less every 5000-10000 miles if you do it yourself.
But if you’re a dumbass who bought a monster truck with long financing and high payments, you’re gonna have a bad time.
These guys are just part of the metropolitan, anti-car crusade on lemmy. Most of them have no experience living life outside of a major city, yet think they know everything about it.
I’d just write them off as nutjobs and move on.
If your car is running OK, able to operate well enough to travel in, your only cost could be gas.
Incorrect, the gas is the cheapest thing you pay for over time with a car in many ways.
https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/articles/breaking-down-the-cost-of-car-ownership
https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/Transportation-Economic-Trends-Transportation-Spen/bzt6-t8cd/
Incorrect, the gas is the cheapest thing you pay for over time with a car in many ways.
Well, that’s completely wrong for me. Gas and car insurance are by far the biggest expenses I’ve had owning my car. You may be getting suckered into buying shitty/American cars that require more maintenance than others.
It’s also possible you’re getting scammed hard by mechanics. Here’s a hint: if you’re calling mechanics and you hear a woman answer the phone, hang up. You’ll be paying hundreds of dollars extra for your repair so she can sit on her ass all day and answer the phone.
Those areas will be abandoned when there’s nothing else left to cut
Or they might just flourish with homesteaders experiencing true freedom, off grid and self-sufficient.
I’m honestly interested in doing that but only after all the conservatives move out or die of old age, because they will be hostile to you if you try to do a hippy communist solar powered electric cars and permaculture and Pagan orgies
We’ve seen this happen already btw, time and again. Most of Appalachia, for one thing, tons of textile mfg towns in the south, steel / auto mfg in Detroit and etc. The response (~none) to guaranteed lead in the water in Flint is fully damning, a data point like Uvalde to make all others nearly irrelevant. Flint Michigan is a federal government directly saying “we will never help you, because you cost money”.
One thing is clear - it can be fantastic to live somewhere in the US that is booming. And the flip side of that coin? No help is coming whatsoever for places whose economic engine starts to run dry.
Lots of these abandoned places yet carry on, cuz ya know, they aren’t faceless economic engines, they’re communities of humans. And it gets fucking bleak.
Anyone who thinks they live somewhere it couldn’t happen to them might wanna think about it. Look at property insurers pulling out of Florida. Climate writing is on the wall. That’s not even just abandoning the economic has-beens. But you’ll be fine, probably.
so that’s what, 10-20% of the population ? the other 80% however…
