The post concerning a hypothesized link between withdrawal of higher education funding by the state 30-40 years ago and a waning of interest in driving and owning cars today by the younger generations has elicited this comment:
This has never been a mystery to me. All this malarkey about demographics and different attitudes towards transportation dances around the obvious reality; millennials are avoiding cars because of budgetary pressures from other climbing costs – housing, education, health care.
Hourly car rental programs are spreading. That’s a leading indicator that things and services Americans were once able to afford independently are now priced such that they must be shared. The “sharing economy” exposes a declining standard of living.
Certainly, with such services as zipcar, car2go, and even Uber, it appears that way. However, I have not run across any research (yet) regarding the backgrounds of the users of these services. Are they people who are backsliding, economically speaking, or are they people who could not afford a car now, or ten years ago, or ten years in the future, but now can share in the, virtually speaking, ownership of one? And what of those who can use the dollars saved by on-demand rental to buy something else? I think the reader’s argument needs further bolstering.
But by addressing the reader’s assertion, I’m permitting an exclusive primacy claim to the economic motivation of the folks buying, or not buying, cars, and I’m not actually prepared to do that. In other words, economic motivation may not matter to some folks. For example, the ecologically concerned consumer may look at the impact owning a vehicle has on the environment and choose not to own a vehicle, but rather rent only when really necessary – ride a bike, walk, or take public transit. I know these people, I read their blog entries and news articles, I hear their proposals for increasing the economic costs of owning vehicles as a way to help the environment.
And there are other motivations. For some, it’s simply a matter of convenience: cars take time that can be devoted to more important matters. If public transit or rental is inexpensive and convenient, why own a car? If you’re living in a big city and they’re starting to talk about restricting, or even banning, cars in the city proper, then why own a car?
Therefore, I cannot share my reader’s confidence in his assertion until supporting data is provided.
I did go looking for prices of cars in constant dollars over time, but the question is complicated by the fact that the base car of 50 years ago is a far different beast from today’s base car: much less safe, more materials used (i.e., heavier), inefficient. I had to question the value of the comparison.
