Now that I am the proud owner of a fourteen year old Honda, I pay attention to the cars around me. I am no better at recognizing models than before, but now I see how expensive they all seem to be. Considering how little the people of this country are capable of saving, surely the majority of them are paying on loans for those cars. All those thousands and millions of people, all paying every month on car loans.
It's strange, when you think of it, all those un-owned cars swarming around. I mean, those cars don't belong to the people driving them around, not really. They belong to the bank, with nothing binding them to the person using them but a whole lot of obligation. Even I don't really own my car. (Here I want to insert my explanations: I have a loan, but it's not that much, and I'm paying it off fast, and I need the credit score. But. While that all makes me feel better, it is hardly relevant, except for the part where it makes me just one of those people who has a loan.)
It makes me think how disingenuous it is to say, "This is my new car," for most of the country, including me. And yet, everyone thinks of those cars as belonging to them. Even I do. And we are all, mostly, wrong.
It's strange, when you think of it, all those un-owned cars swarming around. I mean, those cars don't belong to the people driving them around, not really. They belong to the bank, with nothing binding them to the person using them but a whole lot of obligation. Even I don't really own my car. (Here I want to insert my explanations: I have a loan, but it's not that much, and I'm paying it off fast, and I need the credit score. But. While that all makes me feel better, it is hardly relevant, except for the part where it makes me just one of those people who has a loan.)
It makes me think how disingenuous it is to say, "This is my new car," for most of the country, including me. And yet, everyone thinks of those cars as belonging to them. Even I do. And we are all, mostly, wrong.
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