More Than 80 Percent Of Americans Can’t Afford New Cars - eviltoast
  • FUCKRedditMods@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    We’re careening towards the tipping point where the commute to my area to work will make it not worth it.

    Jobs around here pay $16-18/hr and I have a couple coworkers who drive 1hr20m each way for that $16

    Meanwhile rent anywhere near here is $1600/mo

    It’s already almost unjustifiable for people to commute to this area to work, and you can’t live around here on the wages these places offer, so everyone is desperately hiring.

    These retail companies are going to fold like a house of fucking cards. And honestly they fucking deserve it. These big chains enjoyed decades of insane profits without raising wages at all, now they have to raise wages for people to even exist and they’re still raising prices on goods to offset their new wage expenditures.

    God forbid these corporate subhumans sacrifice 1% of their profits each year so that the entire economy doesn’t collapse.

    • enki@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Assuming that’s about a 60 mile commute and they average 30 miles per gallon, that means it costs your friends 1/8th of their income just to drive to work.

      2 gals x $4/gallon x 2 trips = $16. That’s one hour of their eight hour shift that they have to work just to be able to work.

      That’s if they get 30mpg. At 20mpg, it costs them $24, or 1.5 hours of work just to afford to get to work.

      • I'm Hiding 🇦🇺@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        Yet the most popular new cars sold are V8s that weigh 2.5 tonnes and are the size and shape of a brick shithouse. In this country, you can’t even buy a small, economical hatchback new anymore, even if you had the money.

        Fuel costs in the 1970s were never anymore than 40¢/Litre, yet that was the “fuel crisis” and the driving force behind econo-boxes. Now at $2.20/Litre, Ford of Australia only sell two whopping big utes, a van, and three ugly SUVs.