Should it be /necessary/ to own a house and a car? :) What is the value in having a car? Transportation. That transportation is so expensive that in much of th

Should it be /necessary/ to own a house and a car? :) What is the value in having a car? Transportation. That transportation is so expensive that in much of the US it's cheaper and more convenient to own a half ton piece of steel and burn 7300 gallons of petroleum products a year than to rely on something community-based (public transport, anyone?) - does that say something about us as a nation? That we have naturally (or, as some would point out, unnaturally) drifted towards the methods of least efficiency in our society, for transport at least? What is the value in having a house? Is it the land? I suppose land is important. What happens when your land loses value drastically, though? Turn it into farmland? Process it for trace elements? Is it the house? The way they're built these days, they won't last another twenty years. Our lives are transient. Shouldn't our abodes and methods of transportation be more permanent, built to outlast us and benefit future generations? True: success takes hard work, dedication, and more hard work. That people are worried, in a modern society, about obtaining access to the very things which are necessary to /do/ that hard work (a safe home; healthy food; transportation to loved ones and places of work; knowledge) makes me sad. Lack of motivation and general ennui among the populace is not the cause of problems, but a symptom of them. One cause, as outlined (with poor examples, nonetheless) is bubble-wrapping everything for future generations. Somehow I doubt this is the primary - or even a tertiary - cause. What are the true causes behind it?