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by __d 21d ago
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- Zambyte 21d agoWhat about selling busses and trains, and buildings bike lanes and train tracks? Loans and cars aren't the solution to loans and cars, but there are solutions.
- lhamil64 21d agoPlus, money isn’t always the reason people can’t or don’t drive. People may have disabilities that prevent them from driving. Heck, some people just don’t like driving. Improving public transit, biking, and pedestrian infrastructure solves most of these issues, and it’s frustrating how car-centric the US is in most places.
- raddan 21d agoI lived in a place for a few years that had a free public transportation network. I can’t tell you how liberating that was, because it meant that I could get to lots of places without owning a vehicle. They even had bike racks on the busses, which meant that you could easily cover the last mile. That place decided that free public transportation was a good investment. I think many people here would see it as a waste of their tax money. But those people are not low income. They can afford to buy cars. I occasionally hear my coworkers remark about how they would never ride one of those city busses—YUCK. It kind of grinds my gears. Living in that place made me feel like the community actually cared about me. It made a big impact on how I think about what is worth spending my taxes on. We already subsidize the middle class (roads ain’t free!) and we subsidize the heck out of corporate America. A small slice of those subsidies would make a big difference for people at the bottom.
- WalterBright 21d ago> A small slice of those subsidies would make a big difference for people at the bottom. More than half of the federal budget is for entitlements.
- raddan 20d agoYou’re missing the part of the budget that no longer exists because of tax reductions for the wealthy. Also, so what? It should be more.
- WalterBright 20d agoTaxes were not reduced for the wealthy.
- raddan 20d agoCitation needed, or at least qualification. https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/what-will-tax-provisions-big-budget-bill-really-do https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/what-will-tax-provisions-... https://www.npr.org/2025/11/05/nx-s1-5590112/trump-beautiful-bill-taxes-republican-rich-wealthy https://www.npr.org/2025/11/05/nx-s1-5590112/trump-beautiful...
- WalterBright 20d agoThere were many new tax deductions, but they did not apply to the wealthy as they were phased out at higher income levels.
- mmooss 21d agoThe OP addresses that: "When people wave off Waymo or bus lanes or bike lanes because car culture is fine, they mean it works fine for them."
- adrianN 21d agoMost people hate all drivers except themselves.
- classictraffic 21d agoToo late – we're going to see "Show HN" posts of vibe coded apps related to this in 48 hours
- roenxi 21d agoHow do you expect their material conditions to improve if nobody attempts to get more stuff to them? I doubt the "HN crowd" was about to do anything, but it'd be better if someone saw some sort of market opportunity here. It sounds pretty miserable not being able to get to a well paid job. I personally appreciate all the people who lent me money and sold me cars. It enabled a lot of income for me, over a lifetime.
- toomuchtodo 21d agoVote for people who will drop tariffs and allow the import of cheap EVs manufactured at scale. US automakers have chosen to abandon anything not a $40k-$100k SUV or pickup truck, and purposely minimize production to optimize for profits over volume. You can either leave the country, pay the captive market tax, or import a cheap car when allowed to. Chinese automakers cannot find enough marine capacity for exports at the moment (currently at a ~12M unit/year export run rate). Imports are allowed eventually imho, it’s just a matter of when (elections and representation turnover rate). Until then, the poor are held hostage for profits (as is tradition in the US).
- Zambyte 21d agoThe solution to car problems is not more cars. It's serious alternatives to driving. We don't need Chinese cars. We need trains, busses, and bikes.
- toomuchtodo 21d agohttps://vividmaps.com/public-transportation-in-the-united-states/ https://vividmaps.com/public-transportation-in-the-united-st... Never happens on the timescale of the next decade, maybe two. How far along is California high speed rail? When did they start? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-Speed_Rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-Speed_Rail (construction began in 2015 and it won’t be operational until at least 2031, 16 years later) If you break ground today, you won’t see new public infrastructure operational for at least a decade. Brightline light rail was built in Florida and is approaching insolvency, even with 3M riders per year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline We could provide subsidies to move the disadvantaged to major urban cores with public transportation systems, I’d support that. Have to find the funds to do it though. Cheaper than trying to build anything new in the US for sure. https://dailyyonder.com/half-of-all-rural-counties-are-losing-population-what-is-contributing-to-those-declines/2026/04/15/ https://dailyyonder.com/half-of-all-rural-counties-are-losin... https://ecpmlangues.unistra.fr/civilization/geography/map-us-population-density-2021 https://ecpmlangues.unistra.fr/civilization/geography/map-us... https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/poverty-area-measures/descriptions-and-maps https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/poverty-area-measures... (Where will those bikes, busses, and trains you mention be built? China, as they are 1/3rd of global manufacturing capacity)
- strangattractor 21d agoNo sane poor person would buy a used Mercedes. Parts and repair would cost more than the car. The only people that would think a $1000 Mercedes is worth it would be rich.
- coderenegade 21d agoDepends on the Mercedes. There was a time where Mercedes made cars that had a reputation for reliability similar to Toyota's today, and those cars are still fairly reasonable to keep running. The problem is that they're now becoming collectors items. Anything from the last 25 years though? Best to look elsewhere.
- deleted 21d ago[deleted]
- SoftTalker 21d agoA W123 mercedes (late 1970s-early 1980s) is an exceptionally well built car. Reliable, easy to work on yourself if you're handy, parts not expensive. At this point they're getting hard to find and prices for decent ones are climbing but for a long time they were a great car and easy to find for low thousands.
- strangattractor 21d agoYou could say similar things about older BMWs. People leave notes on my 2004 Honda CR-V asking if I want to sell. A Honda civic I put on Craigslist took less than hour to sell. Repairability of any used car is becoming increasing problematic. Nursing an old automobile past its prime is becoming a lost art:)
- SoftTalker 21d agoI've owned two Hondas and I would not touch another one. Both had transmission failures at under 200K miles. They actually are designed so that you can't change the filter without removing the transmision from the vehicle and splitting the case. I will say that the engines seem good.
- hn993302 21d agoWell that was random
- thelastgallon 21d agoI'm sure this post will start dozens of AI startups to help poor people with their car buying experience.
- deepfriedchokes 20d agoIs this sarcasm? Serious question. At least half of HN is autistic. Anywhere there’s friction there’s a market opportunity. Everyone knows that. So this must be sarcasm.
- dang 20d ago"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads. Also: "Don't be snarky." (FWIW I don't think you meant to do either of these things, but the worst internet patterns propagate unintentionally.) https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html