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Sometimes I think of cars as a classic prisoner's dilemma. If everyone has cars, everyone is worse off than if we all agreed not to have them. But individuals i
by kfarr 4y ago
Sometimes I think of cars as a classic prisoner's dilemma. If everyone has cars, everyone is worse off than if we all agreed not to have them. But individuals in isolation will always choose to have a car if they even slightly benefit. In most first-world countries now anyone of nearly any socioeconomic status can get access to a car, so we've hit maximum saturation which decreases quality of life for everyone.
The negativity of car infra was very slow to appear and for a long time cars appeared to be a miracle. For some it's obvious in retrospect that we've over-invested in motor vehicle infrastructure, but for many the negative externalities are still not clear and/or ignored by the training of societal norms.
- oezi 4y ago> But individuals in isolation will always choose to have a car if they even slightly benefit. Car ownership is a terrible economic decision in many, many cases. It is just metal rusting motionless most of the time. They are a perfect example of irrational behavior. Many people would be financially better off to rent cars for long trips and rely on public transport otherwise (most rural settings aside).
- kfarr 4y agoYes it is a fact for most people when you run the numbers all inclusive (not just car payments but insurance, gas, tolls, tickets, repairs, parking, oil changes, etc) they just don't pencil out. In fact Uber and Lyft knew this and part of their "success" was in leveraging sunk cost fallacy that car owners want to "make extra money" with an underwater asset whose depreciation from making said "extra money" is not included in the calculation of most drivers.
- gruez 4y ago>Yes it is a fact for most people when you run the numbers all inclusive (not just car payments but insurance, gas, tolls, tickets, repairs, parking, oil changes, etc) they just don't pencil out. Can you define what "pencil out" exactly means? I searched around and it looks like the TCO for a car ranges around $1000-$1100/month if you're buying used. At average US hourly earnings[3] of $33.03/hour, that works out to a break-even of 31.8 hours/month. If you're single and don't do anything other than commute to work (30 min each way), I agree that this doesn't "pencil out", but as soon as you have kids or a partner (twice the amount of errands to run!), it easily becomes worth it. [1] https://www.caranddriver.com/auto-loans/a41545320/average-cost-of-owning-a-car/ https://www.caranddriver.com/auto-loans/a41545320/average-co... [2] https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/auto-loans/total-cost-owning-car https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/auto-loans/total-co... [3] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t19.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t19.htm
- blowski 4y agoThis argument works less well for families living in less urban areas.
- hbrn 4y agoA slightly more accurate name for it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons