2 ms·

You guys know you can walk into a dealership with one car and walk out with another car and a check in your hand right? I'm not sure where this "paid off" stra

You guys know you can walk into a dealership with one car and walk out with another car and a check in your hand right? I'm not sure where this "paid off" straw-man argument comes from. I've driven perfectly reliable cars that cost less than $5K. A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K. Why not trade that in and get another "paid off" car worth 5K and a check for 10K? I guess it depends on how you were brought up. I'd rather sell all my possessions at pennies on the dollar, live in a honda civic, and do odd jobs than take government assistance.

poikniok 12y ago
Why the irrational fear of taking government assistance?
- Shivetya 12y ago
  there are those who were raised to do all for themselves and others rather than take a handout. This includes working multiple jobs and the like instead of accepting assistance. you cannot under estimate the value you place in things in your everyday life when you know you worked to obtain them. I cannot imagine being unemployed and simply collecting money and assistance. I would take entry level jobs putting up groceries to bide my time, or be at the local donation center sorting stuff for free. idle time leads to an idle mind and that does more damage than about anything else I know of
  - Delmania 12y ago
    The problem with this mindset is that it conveniently ignores the fact that these people pay into this handout programs every pay check. It's akin to paying for health insurance every 2 weeks and then paying all costs out of pocket because you don't want to rely on others.
- CPLX 12y ago
  Because we're Americans, and we've been subjected to a several decade long PR campaign so that instead of thinking the obvious, which is that the government assistance program is precisely for this kind of situation, and the author of the story, having paid into the system for years, should of course use the temporary help to get back on her feet, we are trained to believe that those benefits are for "bad" people or "other" people and we don't want to be one of them and they are so shameful and vile that even being associated with that group temporarily will rub off and taint you.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    I'm not American, I just prefer that people that really need it get it rather than that I'd get it as long as I can find some other way to make ends meet. That would include selling off my assets and working crap jobs if that's what it took. It's nothing to do with shame or finding people that do need assistance vile, I just don't consider myself (for now, this may change) to be one of them. But then again, I've always been the 'help yourself' type of person, my main reason for that is that I like to have some control over my life and government hand-outs rarely come without strings and can be withdrawn at a moments notice. But for those that really need them it's very good they exist.
techsupporter 12y ago
> You guys know you can walk into a dealership with one car and walk out with another car and a check in your hand right? A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K. The trade-in, dealer value for my paid off car is approximately $2,100. According to Kelly Blue Book, the dealer value for a well-equipped 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK with 150,000 miles on the odometer and in "very good" condition is $5,124. > I guess it depends on how you were brought up. I'd rather sell all my possessions at pennies on the dollar, live in a honda civic, and do odd jobs than take government assistance. I strongly object to the insinuation that my, or anyone else's, rearing was any less moral or righteous than yours simply because I wouldn't conduct a fire sale of my assets, make my family homeless, and forgo the social services that my tax dollars have paid for. Not once in my adult life have I had the misfortune of being unemployed, gravely ill, or some other tragedy, and for that I am both very lucky and truly grateful. My childhood was the exact opposite for my family and I'm thrilled that my parents didn't pack us into the Suburban and say "welp, that's it, kids, we're on the streets now!"
Mikeb85 12y ago
> A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K Not a 10 year old C-class, especially not a C230.
adaml_623 12y ago
"government assistance" sometimes means the government lending you some of the tax that you've already paid them back. It's called a safety net because it saves people.
shillster 12y ago
Every time a vehicle is bought/sold there's transaction overhead. Real time and money is lost each time an individual replaces their transportation.
fr0sty 12y ago
>A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K. Not even close. The three Kompressor models in '03 were the C230, C32 AMG and SLK32 AMG. KBB trade-in values for those cars are about $3k, $5k, and $10k respectively and it is likely they had the C230 otherwise the author would have called it their Mercedes AMG. Luxury cars are terrible at retaining their value. If you want that, buy a Honda Accord or Toyota Corolla.

poikniok 12y ago

Why the irrational fear of taking government assistance?

Shivetya 12y ago
there are those who were raised to do all for themselves and others rather than take a handout. This includes working multiple jobs and the like instead of accepting assistance. you cannot under estimate the value you place in things in your everyday life when you know you worked to obtain them. I cannot imagine being unemployed and simply collecting money and assistance. I would take entry level jobs putting up groceries to bide my time, or be at the local donation center sorting stuff for free. idle time leads to an idle mind and that does more damage than about anything else I know of
- Delmania 12y ago
  The problem with this mindset is that it conveniently ignores the fact that these people pay into this handout programs every pay check. It's akin to paying for health insurance every 2 weeks and then paying all costs out of pocket because you don't want to rely on others.
CPLX 12y ago
Because we're Americans, and we've been subjected to a several decade long PR campaign so that instead of thinking the obvious, which is that the government assistance program is precisely for this kind of situation, and the author of the story, having paid into the system for years, should of course use the temporary help to get back on her feet, we are trained to believe that those benefits are for "bad" people or "other" people and we don't want to be one of them and they are so shameful and vile that even being associated with that group temporarily will rub off and taint you.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  I'm not American, I just prefer that people that really need it get it rather than that I'd get it as long as I can find some other way to make ends meet. That would include selling off my assets and working crap jobs if that's what it took. It's nothing to do with shame or finding people that do need assistance vile, I just don't consider myself (for now, this may change) to be one of them. But then again, I've always been the 'help yourself' type of person, my main reason for that is that I like to have some control over my life and government hand-outs rarely come without strings and can be withdrawn at a moments notice. But for those that really need them it's very good they exist.

techsupporter 12y ago

> You guys know you can walk into a dealership with one car and walk out with another car and a check in your hand right? A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K. The trade-in, dealer value for my paid off car is approximately $2,100. According to Kelly Blue Book, the dealer value for a well-equipped 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK with 150,000 miles on the odometer and in "very good" condition is $5,124. > I guess it depends on how you were brought up. I'd rather sell all my possessions at pennies on the dollar, live in a honda civic, and do odd jobs than take government assistance. I strongly object to the insinuation that my, or anyone else's, rearing was any less moral or righteous than yours simply because I wouldn't conduct a fire sale of my assets, make my family homeless, and forgo the social services that my tax dollars have paid for. Not once in my adult life have I had the misfortune of being unemployed, gravely ill, or some other tragedy, and for that I am both very lucky and truly grateful. My childhood was the exact opposite for my family and I'm thrilled that my parents didn't pack us into the Suburban and say "welp, that's it, kids, we're on the streets now!"

Mikeb85 12y ago

> A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K Not a 10 year old C-class, especially not a C230.

adaml_623 12y ago

"government assistance" sometimes means the government lending you some of the tax that you've already paid them back. It's called a safety net because it saves people.

shillster 12y ago

Every time a vehicle is bought/sold there's transaction overhead. Real time and money is lost each time an individual replaces their transportation.

fr0sty 12y ago

>A 10 year old Mercedes in great shape is probably worth about 15-20K. Not even close. The three Kompressor models in '03 were the C230, C32 AMG and SLK32 AMG. KBB trade-in values for those cars are about $3k, $5k, and $10k respectively and it is likely they had the C230 otherwise the author would have called it their Mercedes AMG. Luxury cars are terrible at retaining their value. If you want that, buy a Honda Accord or Toyota Corolla.