51–60 of 213 posts
After watching their parents and grandparents obsess over material possessions, why is anyone surprised when Millennials choose to prioritize other things? Owning a bunch of stuff is a giant hassle and doesn't bring you any more happiness. Perhaps they have just learned the lesson their parents taught them.
I'm fairly sure the reason 21-30 year olds aren't buying houses and cars in droves isn't because they are "quirky eco-conscious individuals" that your marketing "isn't speaking to"... I'm pretty sure its mostly because: 1: Many of them don't have jobs (or have low-paying jobs) because of the economy. 2: Many of them watched their parents drown in debt from houses and cars they bought but couldn't really afford 3: Stu…
> "What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits?" It's hardly surprising that people without the money for cars are of the opinion they aren't so important anyway. Not being able to afford things tends to draw into sharp relief the difference between wants and needs. And I realize Ford's marketing d…
The only reason I ask, is because I'm almost finished reading, in The Power Broker, how Robert Moses permanently crippled the NYC metro area and Long Island in particular, forcing them into a lower-density, automobile-centric society, when they would have been better served by mass transit, which he let rot on the vine. I imagine most other metro areas that were expanding at the time followed the same path.
> "What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits?" It's hardly surprising that people without the money for cars are of the opinion they aren't so important anyway. Not being able to afford things tends to draw into sharp relief the difference between wants and needs. And I realize Ford's marketing d…
> The only real threat from lasting attitude change, is that perhaps millenials will vote for more transit projects and subsidies over more car/road projects and subsidies and thus make it more feasible in more areas to not own cars. We can only hope.
That's not to say that it must be inherently so. Just that, so long as these projects are typical government projects that are expected to go over-budget and over-deadline with no repercussions, they will be used as a tool for political favors and cronyism, at our expense.
[1] http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/denver-fools-the-wall-street-... Quote:
The old-style public transit system used cheap, flexible buses whose routes could be altered overnight to take people from where they were to where they wanted to go. When Denver first built rail, it substituted expensive but glamorous trains for inexpensive buses, but still allowed people to go from where they were–provided they were willing to drive to a park-and-ride station–to where they wanted to go–provided they wanted to go downtown. ...
This has been tried before, of course, most notably in Portland. How well did it work there? In 1980, under the old bus-transit model, transit carried 9.8 percent of Portland-area commuters to work. By 2010, with seven different rail lines and scores of transit-oriented developments, transit carried just 7.1 percent of the region’s commuters to work.
Aside from those whose livelihood depends on car sales, who have an obvious incentive not to believe it, why is it so hard to believe that people might simply not want to own a car? The whole tone of this article seems like: It appears that millennials don't want to own cars, but that can't be right, can it? If I could get away with not owning one, I certainly would. As it is, I spend as little time in it as possible…
I thought that assumption throughout the article strange, too. A factor no one else seems to have mentioned (which admittedly only applies to transport, not housing) is that public transport is, overall, getting better. In London I have an Oyster card which actually gets me all the way to my dad's house too, even though he lives well outside London. Something like this just would not have been possible in the 90s, an…
Most places aren't like that, unfortunately.
In 1985 the average age of a car on the road was about 6 years. In 2012, the average age is over 11 years. This has a number of obvious implications on new-car purchasing behavior of young people: 1. It's much easier to buy a used car now since they have more years of service in them. 2. Getting a hand-me-down from a relative is possible. 3. Culturally, getting a new car is much more rare so there is less pressure to…
Culturally, getting a new car is much more rare so there is less pressure to do it. I agree, and this isn't just for Gen Y-ers, either. Most of my Gen X friends (I guess I'm a Gen X-er, too) have no interest in purchasing new vehicles. My wife and I have owned exactly one new car (which we then sold after 6 years to purchase our camper van), and our current vehicle is ten years old. Shiny cars just aren't the status…
It's really a crazy contrast from what I remember a number of adults doing back in the 80s -- a new car every two years, regular as clockwork.
I own a car now, simply because I tried relying on public transport for a year and found the experience pretty depressing - it makes your day so very long (I was basically doing 6am-7pm including commuting) and loses you flexibility. I fell into a routine of coming to work, going home, and doing nothing else, because it was so much effort to plan a trip anywhere other than the office. It started to make me sink into…
> younger generations don't see a house or a car as a symbol of status or wealth, merely as something to be used, as a necessity And then there are fixies - impractical bikes that cost 700 euro simply because they are cool. Whereas you can get a practical bike for less than 200 euro. Maybe it is that we are cheap, so those things that cost beyond a certain threshold (like cars and housing) just need to work, whereas…
Further, a bike that costs less than $200 is certainly not a bike I would buy for commuting. Having commuted without a car for over three years, I can assure you that steel frames are not your friend and arguably not practical if you want to enjoy your lifestyle.
In the age of smart phones, the car has ceased being a vital communication tool for young people. There's no need to drive to the mall to see if Paul is there hanging out. A text will let me know that he's at Joel's party instead. Another text and Steve will swing by in his car. The housing situation is another matter. There's a glut. Credit is tight. Jobs are scarce. And housing prices are going down. Millenials are…
How about poorest generation. Wages are stagnant and down in real terms. Debt burden out of the gates (thanks to educational loans) are through the roof. Social norms around employment security have collapsed. Returns in the stock market have been flat to down their entire sentient lives. They've seen home purchases wreck the financies of their parents (and especially their X-er older siblings who bought at the peak.)
Oh, and under/unemployment is running over 50% for under-30's.
I don't know, Atlantic, maybe that little recession thing we were told was over has something to do with it.
In 1985 the average age of a car on the road was about 6 years. In 2012, the average age is over 11 years. This has a number of obvious implications on new-car purchasing behavior of young people: 1. It's much easier to buy a used car now since they have more years of service in them. 2. Getting a hand-me-down from a relative is possible. 3. Culturally, getting a new car is much more rare so there is less pressure to…