The main motivating example given is rent vs. buy scenarios for a family minivan. I feel that the author may be biased by the last 7-8 months, during which, the

The main motivating example given is rent vs. buy scenarios for a family minivan. I feel that the author may be biased by the last 7-8 months, during which, the rationale behind having two cars has largely vanished. Another example given is the yard. Interestingly, usage of the yard would have shot up for a family with young children during this period. Here, again, I assume the author knows that a yard is a multipurpose area: playing, lounging, working during parts of the day (laptops make it easy to camp out in the yard for part of the day), swimming (assuming a permanent pool or an above-ground pool). If you use the yard for some combination of the activities above, then you would almost certainly not be able to substitute the neighborhood park for it. On the whole, I do not see how the 'You are not using 95%' premise itself holds here.