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But very seriously, it goes through life; the drum major instinct is real. (Yes) And you know what else it causes to happen? It often causes us to live above ou
by hprotagonist 7y ago
But very seriously, it goes through life; the drum major instinct is real. (Yes) And you know what else it causes to happen? It often causes us to live above our means. (Make it plain) It's nothing but the drum major instinct. Do you ever see people buy cars that they can't even begin to buy in terms of their income? (Amen) [laughter] You've seen people riding around in Cadillacs and Chryslers who don't earn enough to have a good T-Model Ford. (Make it plain) But it feeds a repressed ego.
You know, economists tell us that your automobile should not cost more than half of your annual income. So if you make an income of five thousand dollars, your car shouldn't cost more than about twenty-five hundred. That's just good economics. And if it's a family of two, and both members of the family make ten thousand dollars, they would have to make out with one car. That would be good economics, although it's often inconvenient. But so often, haven't you seen people making five thousand dollars a year and driving a car that costs six thousand? And they wonder why their ends never meet. [laughter] That's a fact.
Martin Luther King Jr., 1968
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/drum-major-instinct-sermon-delivered-ebenezer-baptist-church https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/dru...
- sfrank2147 7y agoSomewhat tangential, but the most absurd ad I've ever seen was when Dodge ran an ad during the Superbowl quoting from this speech.
- hprotagonist 7y agoI know. they have balls, if no sense.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoThat's their style. I'm surprised they don't have a Hellcat Journey "just because". It works fairly well for them. Jeep SUVs sell well. Chrysler and Dodge sedans, SUVs and van like vehicles pretty much have half the market for people with bad credit (with Nissan having the other half).
- linksnapzz 7y agoThe Journey Hellcat Edition (Would that be the 'Don't stop believin'' option package?) was probably discussed, then deprecated only on account of not having a transverse automatic rated for arbitrarily silly nM's of torque.
- SilasX 7y agoSorry for being even more tangential, but an Israeli friend joked about this that "You shouldn't mix your Rams with MLK." (i.e. Dodge Ram and Martin Luther King vs the kosher dietary restriction of not mixing meat with milk)
- zweep 7y agoI heard a President’s day ad for a Jeep CHEROKEE that had a song with the US Presidents in order. I don’t know if they got to Jackson shudder
- perl4ever 7y agoWhenever people make a comment about references like that, or with sports teams, it makes me think: - If it was common to make references like that in Germany to Jewish institutions, groups, or tribes, ambiguously "honoring" them, would that be a bad thing? Would it be gloating over victimizing them, or commemorating their bravery? - Given that (my impression is) they don't, what does the cultural difference really signify? Are Germans entitled to feel superior for it? Like, I can imagine a world where there were sports teams called the "Maccabees" or the "Ghetto Fighters". I think that German cars do make reference to groups in ways that surely someone could find offensive, like the VW Touareg. Is this better/worse/as bad as using "Cherokee" as a name?
- zweep 7y agoI don’t think you have the context. President Andrew Jackson violated a Supreme Court ruling to basically commit a genocide and expulsion of the Cherokee from land that was theirs by treaty.
- synlatexc 7y agoFirst I've heard of the suggestion that the cost of a car should be 50% of annual pay. To me that's insane, but then again I view my car as an appliance[0]. [0] https://oppositelock.kinja.com/i-used-to-take-it-as-a-given-that-an-interest-in-vehicl-1464717649 https://oppositelock.kinja.com/i-used-to-take-it-as-a-given-...
- xboxnolifes 7y ago> ...should not cost more than half of your annual income.
- brianwawok 7y agoUS median household income is 63k. So for a two income house, that would mean two cars costing a total of 31.5k max. A 2020 yaris starts at 15,650. With fees, should be around that mark. The problem is, the median US household does not buy a Yaris. They spend more like double that. So 30-40k PER car, two cars per household.
- perl4ever 7y agoFor a coherent analysis, you should use the median income of two earner households. Two people where one makes $75K and the other makes $50K equals a household of $125K. And it seems obviously extravagant to me for a middle class family to have two new cars. One maybe, but two? But even so, by the formula, the family can afford two $30K cars.
- syshum 7y agoin 2005, the last actual data I could find that lists 2 income households, the median income was $75,293, assuming that income kept pace with inflation that would be $98,562 today not 125K, Such a family would not want to spend more than 49K total on their cars. so that is 1 car for 49K or 2 for 24K and that IMO should be the extreme absolute limit
- SilasX 7y agoI think it's intended as an extreme upper bound, not the optimal value.