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The most surprising thing about this story is the apparently massive number of people who didn't have cars, relied entirely on public transport and then decided
by thu2111 6y ago
The most surprising thing about this story is the apparently massive number of people who didn't have cars, relied entirely on public transport and then decided to buy cars? How certain are you of that analysis? Surely that is a rather rare case, as the typical public-transit-only person tends to live in a city where parking space is at a premium. Whole tower blocks cannot easily switch from transit to cars overnight just because they prefer it.
Or is this the mass exodus from American cities I keep reading about? They're buying cars because they're moving from NY to Florida, that sort of thing?
- antiterra 6y agoIt could be both. I imagine public transit is something people would try to avoid in a pandemic. When I lived in NYC I always thought about getting a car but it never made sense to spend that money. Bring in COVID and that might have done it. My running theory is that manufacturers and retailers continue to underprice their goods,likely because they expect to eventually return to normal. This ends up effectively hiding inflation. Many buyers have more discretionary cash than usual due to reduced spending from lockdowns. Demand is therefore increased on the things people can and want to buy. Then resellers/scalpers see the margin and buy up inventory to arbitrage. The scarcity compounds.