How do so many young families have $80k SUVs?

[Anonymous]

These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I feel a little hostile towards people with giant SUVs but I feel way more hostile about people who crusade against cars and parking, and insist that everyone who wants different things than they do is morally deficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

But your sense of excess and entitlement is entirely based on what you chose and like. Anything above what you chose and like is “excessive” and you don’t spend any time on people who manage with less than you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

DP here. The people with the giant SUVs are the SAME people with the McMansions. Highly correlated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

2008 called, there’s a protest in the Whole Foods parking lot against the Iraq war if you want to drive over in your Volvo XC70

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

DP here. The people with the giant SUVs are the SAME people with the McMansions. Highly correlated.

+1. Excess begets excess. And people like this tend to live in the same neighborhoods, have kids at the same schools, etc. So what they see validates these choices and encourages them to consume even larger ones. I have known multiple people who moved from smaller homes to larger ones in a neighborhood of large homes. Within a year -- SUV (perhaps before they drove a wagon or a sedan). Within 5 years -- big SUV. This is true regardless of family size. We have some friends who moved from a row home in DC where they had a small BMW (very nice car, but small). They moved to a 4 bedroom house in Falls Church, and within a year they both had SUVs. They have one child. So a family of three in a 4000+ square foot house, two car garage, two luxury SUVs. If they still lived in the city they'd still have a nice life (private schools, great neighborhood, nice home, etc.) but they'd live in a house half as large and drive a small sedan. But where they live, everyone has a big house and huge cars, plus everyone drives everywhere since nothing is walkable, people engage in activities that involve more gear, which validates them having the big cars, and so on. It's a cycle.

Whereas you see people who move into the city go from two cars down to one. Then maybe get a cargo bike and stop driving their one car as much. They walk more, take metro, because it's convenient. Their neighbors all live in smaller homes as well, many people only have one car or no car, there is social pressure to walk or bike places, people will recommend bike seats for kids or a bike trailer, or suggest taking turns walking the kids to school to help each other out. Different culture, different choices.

What I'd love is if we could duplicate that city culture of smaller footprints and less car-dependency, out in the suburbs. Not everywhere, if you want a big house and car-dependent lifestyle, you'll always be able to find that. But near metro stops or convenient bus lines into the city, it would be great if we could actually build higher density, smaller houses with smaller yards, grocery stores and commercial districts built at a pedestrian/bike scale so that you could live there and mostly get around on foot or bike, take metro into the city for work, and just use your car on weekends or for specific tasks like taking a kid to sports meets or whatever. There are lots of places around DC where this would be possible, but there is so much resistance to the kind of density and infrastructure you need to make that happen. But it would provide opportunities for so many more people to access that lifestyle at various price points.

[Anonymous]

I got a new Ascent for 45K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see much of a correlation between wealth and driving nice cars/SUVs. Most high net worth people I know drive beaters or a used Corolla. They are millionaire next door types maybe worth a couple mill. I used to live in the hood and you would see lots of nice cars. Also worked many low paying jobs back in the day and coworkers had expensive cars as well. I know firefighters driving around in bad ass trucks and I know for a fact they don't make enough money to justify those purchases every few years. When I see someone with a really nice car, I just think that they are either showing off or bad with money.

Give me a break. Go drive around Spring Valley, Kenwood, Edgemoor, and similar neighborhoods. I can tell you how many Corolla's there are in those driveways - ZERO. What you will see is lots of very expensive cars.

Only a small percentage of people live in those striver neighborhoods. Millionaire next door types would be broke if they tried to live in those neighborhoods. A vast majority of people driving around in those 50k cars don't have a pot to piss in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

How big is your house?

DP here. The people with the giant SUVs are the SAME people with the McMansions. Highly correlated.

+1. Excess begets excess. And people like this tend to live in the same neighborhoods, have kids at the same schools, etc. So what they see validates these choices and encourages them to consume even larger ones. I have known multiple people who moved from smaller homes to larger ones in a neighborhood of large homes. Within a year -- SUV (perhaps before they drove a wagon or a sedan). Within 5 years -- big SUV. This is true regardless of family size. We have some friends who moved from a row home in DC where they had a small BMW (very nice car, but small). They moved to a 4 bedroom house in Falls Church, and within a year they both had SUVs. They have one child. So a family of three in a 4000+ square foot house, two car garage, two luxury SUVs. If they still lived in the city they'd still have a nice life (private schools, great neighborhood, nice home, etc.) but they'd live in a house half as large and drive a small sedan. But where they live, everyone has a big house and huge cars, plus everyone drives everywhere since nothing is walkable, people engage in activities that involve more gear, which validates them having the big cars, and so on. It's a cycle.

Whereas you see people who move into the city go from two cars down to one. Then maybe get a cargo bike and stop driving their one car as much. They walk more, take metro, because it's convenient. Their neighbors all live in smaller homes as well, many people only have one car or no car, there is social pressure to walk or bike places, people will recommend bike seats for kids or a bike trailer, or suggest taking turns walking the kids to school to help each other out. Different culture, different choices.

What I'd love is if we could duplicate that city culture of smaller footprints and less car-dependency, out in the suburbs. Not everywhere, if you want a big house and car-dependent lifestyle, you'll always be able to find that. But near metro stops or convenient bus lines into the city, it would be great if we could actually build higher density, smaller houses with smaller yards, grocery stores and commercial districts built at a pedestrian/bike scale so that you could live there and mostly get around on foot or bike, take metro into the city for work, and just use your car on weekends or for specific tasks like taking a kid to sports meets or whatever. There are lots of places around DC where this would be possible, but there is so much resistance to the kind of density and infrastructure you need to make that happen. But it would provide opportunities for so many more people to access that lifestyle at various price points.

I could walk to everything but have no time.

[Anonymous]

The funny thing is so many of these families have just one kid or maybe two. They don’t need the space. They just want to project an image.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

The problem is that you (and your family) are not likely to survive a crash with a large commercial vehicle in a small car. I would feel more comfortable driving a smaller car if there weren’t so many of these on the road on the highways near my house.

[Anonymous]

The same people crusading against these cars as bad for the environment are traveling on planes and cruise ships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see much of a correlation between wealth and driving nice cars/SUVs. Most high net worth people I know drive beaters or a used Corolla. They are millionaire next door types maybe worth a couple mill. I used to live in the hood and you would see lots of nice cars. Also worked many low paying jobs back in the day and coworkers had expensive cars as well. I know firefighters driving around in bad ass trucks and I know for a fact they don't make enough money to justify those purchases every few years. When I see someone with a really nice car, I just think that they are either showing off or bad with money.

Give me a break. Go drive around Spring Valley, Kenwood, Edgemoor, and similar neighborhoods. I can tell you how many Corolla's there are in those driveways - ZERO. What you will see is lots of very expensive cars.

Only a small percentage of people live in those striver neighborhoods. Millionaire next door types would be broke if they tried to live in those neighborhoods. A vast majority of people driving around in those 50k cars don't have a pot to piss in.

You're out of your depth here. If "millionaire next door types" would be "broke" if they tried to live in those neighborhoods, then you're just proving PP's point. Striver neighborhoods? LMAO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cars are extraordinarily selfish - they’re dangerous to others and bad for the environment. But they’re a good representation of the people that drive them and their excesses and entitlement.

Many of these people who drive their cars also whine about billionaires having too much wealth.