Same has happened in the NL and even worse. 10 years ago you could buy a car starting at 9k euro. Nowadays the cheapest car sets you back around 18k. Corrected for inflation the increase is 30%. The claim is that adding required safety features is driving the costs up.
Is that pollution tax? In Norway, a VW Golf diesel isn't much cheaper than a Model 3 for similar reasons (389,000 NOK vs 499,000 NOK) whereas in the UK the difference is much bigger, about 100% more expensive to get the Tesla.
Cars are getting incredibly expensive, far beyond what the median income can afford.Baloney!
https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/cheap-and-generally-cheerful-three-decades-of-australias-cheapest-car Cheap cars have more capability/safety/features/functions than ever and still remain cheap.You can argue with me, but you can't argue with the facts!
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median individual income in 1976 was $6,617 which is $32,572 in 2023 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
Consumers paid an average price of $5,450 ($29,586 in 2023 dollars) for a new car in 1976, according to National Automobile Dealers Association numbers.
So, in 1976 Joe Average could buy $32,572 / $29,586 = 1.1 average new cars per year for his Joe Average wage.
In the year 2022, the median individual income was $46,001 and the average price of a new car at the end of 2022 was $49,388!
So in 2022, Joe Average can now only afford 0.93 new average cars per year on his Joe Average salary.
That's almost a 20% increase in price, on average, compared to median salary. The only reason Joe Average can afford these increases is... increased debt, paid off over longer time. Cars as a service, essentially!
Cars are getting incredibly expensive, far beyond what the median income can afford.
Same has happened in the NL and even worse. 10 years ago you could buy a car starting at 9k euro. Nowadays the cheapest car sets you back around 18k. Corrected for inflation the increase is 30%. The claim is that adding required safety features is driving the costs up.
Is that pollution tax? In Norway, a VW Golf diesel isn't much cheaper than a Model 3 for similar reasons (389,000 NOK vs 499,000 NOK) whereas in the UK the difference is much bigger, about 100% more expensive to get the Tesla.No. Just the base car price going up.
That's almost a 20% increase in price, on average, compared to median salary. The only reason Joe Average can afford these increases is... increased debt, paid off over longer time. Cars as a service, essentially!
[...]
Stupid people choose to spend more of their money on more expensive cars? That is choice, cars in general have not become more expensive but people are choosing more expensive cars. And getting worked up over some 10-20% shift? overreaction:Cars are getting incredibly expensive, far beyond what the median income can afford.Even with your figures, that doesn't ring true.
The net effect is to send people into deep debt and squeezing their disposable income. If you are old enough to remember how Europeans and Americans lived in the 60s, 70s, and even 80s you will know instinctively that this is all true. I personally know people that bought houses in the UK for less than GBP 1,000 back then, lol. I'm not sure what happened!
That's almost a 20% increase in price, on average, compared to median salary. The only reason Joe Average can afford these increases is... increased debt, paid off over longer time. Cars as a service, essentially!
Perhaps cause and effect are reversed here: Access to easy credit is what has driven up the cost of cars.
If people can't afford to pay cash, manufacturers would build cheaper cars if credit wasn't as cheap and easy.
ie: In the 70's air conditioning was a luxury option. Now it's almost standard.
Spiraling debt is an integral part of our current economic system, and we are currently witnessing how it ends up like.
It really is only a step forward from slavery; peonage or debt bondage, to be specific.
people with really old money, probably looted since WW2
It really is only a step forward from slavery
Same has happened in the NL and even worse. 10 years ago you could buy a car starting at 9k euro. Nowadays the cheapest car sets you back around 18k. Corrected for inflation the increase is 30%. The claim is that adding required safety features is driving the costs up.
Is that pollution tax? In Norway, a VW Golf diesel isn't much cheaper than a Model 3 for similar reasons (389,000 NOK vs 499,000 NOK) whereas in the UK the difference is much bigger, about 100% more expensive to get the Tesla.No. Just the base car price going up.Well your unreferenced figures (as usual) are cherry picked and/or misleading:
https://russianvagabond.com/cheapest-car-in-the-netherlands-guide/
There are cheap vehicles with manufacturer recommended pricing around and under 10k euro, but like the rest of the world with the shortage of automotive deliveries street pricing is exaggerated at the moment.
That ChatGPT generated website...
Spiraling debt is an integral part of our current economic system, and we are currently witnessing how it ends up like.The requirement for continued growth is based on the fact that the current system requires there is always more debt than money in circulation. To pay for the debt, growth is absolutely required, or the system fails.
When one truly understands how the current worldwide financial system constructs fiat money based on debt owed to private central banks, one tends to not want to live on this planet anymore.
It really is only a step forward from slavery; peonage or debt bondage, to be specific.
Spiraling debt is an integral part of our current economic system, and we are currently witnessing how it ends up like.The requirement for continued growth is based on the fact that the current system requires there is always more debt than money in circulation. To pay for the debt, growth is absolutely required, or the system fails.
When one truly understands how the current worldwide financial system constructs fiat money based on debt owed to private central banks, one tends to not want to live on this planet anymore.
It really is only a step forward from slavery; peonage or debt bondage, to be specific.
Spiraling debt is an integral part of our current economic system, and we are currently witnessing how it ends up like.The requirement for continued growth is based on the fact that the current system requires there is always more debt than money in circulation. To pay for the debt, growth is absolutely required, or the system fails.
When one truly understands how the current worldwide financial system constructs fiat money based on debt owed to private central banks, one tends to not want to live on this planet anymore.
It really is only a step forward from slavery; peonage or debt bondage, to be specific.Do you have a better alternative that provides an amount of money that matches the size of the economy and allows to have enough control to keep inflation at around 2%?
My working theory is that money is nothing more than a representation of an amount of work.
With more people around the world working to create better lives for themselves, I don't see how this system can fail in the next 500 years.
And central banks do have ways to make the amount of money in circulation to become less or more.
The real money is in the insider knowledge of where the interest rate targets are going to move.
Cars are getting incredibly expensive, far beyond what the median income can afford.Baloney!
https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/cheap-and-generally-cheerful-three-decades-of-australias-cheapest-car Cheap cars have more capability/safety/features/functions than ever and still remain cheap.You can argue with me, but you can't argue with the facts!
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median individual income in 1976 was $6,617 which is $32,572 in 2023 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
Consumers paid an average price of $5,450 ($29,586 in 2023 dollars) for a new car in 1976, according to National Automobile Dealers Association numbers.
So, in 1976 Joe Average could buy $32,572 / $29,586 = 1.1 average new cars per year for his Joe Average wage.
In the year 2022, the median individual income was $46,001 and the average price of a new car at the end of 2022 was $49,388!
So in 2022, Joe Average can now only afford 0.93 new average cars per year on his Joe Average salary.
That's almost a 20% increase in price, on average, compared to median salary. The only reason Joe Average can afford these increases is... increased debt, paid off over longer time. Cars as a service, essentially!Stupid people choose to spend more of their money on more expensive cars? That is choice, cars in general have not become more expensive but people are choosing more expensive cars. And getting worked up over some 10-20% shift? overreaction:Cars are getting incredibly expensive, far beyond what the median income can afford.Even with your figures, that doesn't ring true.
What? fiat panda has gone from about 9000 euros in 2018 to more than 13000 today. It's the same, basic, simple, cheap car, but they had to add a whole bunch of electronics (ADAS) in order to comply with regulations. Other more powerful cars are becoming more expensive as well because in order to meet emission standards the passive and active elements are an added cost
And central banks do have ways to make the amount of money in circulation to become less or more.No. They cannot reduce the amount of money in circulation at all.
No. They cannot reduce the amount of money in circulation at all. They can only make more money out of nothing, and create more debt by lending money to governments. Governments can reduce the amount of money in circulation in the future by borrowing less, but central banks oppose that because it means they profit less from the interest.