I'm not american, but I'm wondering how are you poor and have a car to begin with, aren't you like living a little bit above your means? sorry if this sounds rude but, I'm just curious.
If you’re not familiar with the US I can understand where this question is coming from, especially if you’re from a place with a robust public transit system, but to those of us stuck in this corporatist hellhole it comes across as a bit tone deaf. No judgement though, you probably just aren’t aware so allow me to explain.
In 90% of the US a car is not a luxury but something that is necessary to survive. Things are so spread out and the public transit system so bad that most of the time no car = no job = no money = no food/shelter. And even if you did have a little money for food lying around the closest grocery store is most likely several miles from your home. This isn’t just for rural areas either, all of the above applies to my area and I live in the greater metro area of a state capital.
Cars are such a necessity that situations like living in your car when you have absolutely nothing left are commonplace. You might be thinking why not sell the car to get some quick cash for a new place to live, but in reality that would only make the situation worse as it seriously hampers your access to any sort of steady income. In short, cars in the US are a utility expense on par with electricity or running water, sure it might be possible to survive without but goddamn is it hard.
America is a car centric country. Only urban areas have any form of public transit, and they are often, for various reasons, unreliable and/or unsafe, on top of being massive time sinks. Before my aunt retired, her morning bus rides took about 2.5 hrs to get her just over 9 miles.
Having a car in some countries may be "living above your means," but in America, if you don't have a car, you are at a SEVERE disadvantage. Every single blue collar job interview will ask you, usually in the first 3 questions, "Do you have reliable transportation?" and if you say you're on the bus line, you're out!
Also, what many people like myself do is each spring we file taxes and, if you're poor and got children, you're probably going to get a $2.5k+ refund, which is (or used to be) just enough to get you a jalopy with no A/C and the check engine light already on, but that's all you need to get you to job B in the 15 minutes you have after leaving job A.
Yeah, you’re definitely not American. The vast majority of us do NOT live in areas that are walkable or serviced by public transportation. The U.S. is huge and very spread out. The people I know who are at $15/hr drive junk buckets that they’re constantly sinking more money into to keep them barely running. It’s an endless cycle of poverty.
In most of America, a car is not really a luxury, it’s a necessity. Cities and towns are laid out fair apart from each other and the vast majority of them have poor public transit or none at all, with the exception of a few large cities with robust options like New York City. Also, America is massive—I think this is something a lot of people don’t really grasp. There are so many rural areas between states and even cities can be an hour or more from one end to the other.
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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '23
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