Fewer young people can afford to have a car

Actually you’re right, Kaz. BOTH political parties are parties of the capitalist class and so both pander to the leading capitalists.

 

I think the price of land near desirable bigger city areas has inflated more than rural farmland areas.
Most of the workers in many of these agricultural areas are no longer Americans, these days. They hire poor immigrant labor. So the price of agricultural commodities is probably more connected to current (low-skill) immigration policies than it is to prevailing American wages.
So basic food commodity prices (like rice and beans) might not really be such a good indicator of inflation.

 

For years I've maintained that in a free-market economy, you're paid exactly what you're WORTH in the human labor market. You may be a brain surgeon; you may be a ditch-digger -- same principle -- you command compensation based on what you are worth to your employer and/or the "market" -- period.

Whether a person is buying cars, houses, or anything else, it all boils down quickly to what you can afford. It seems agonizingly absurd that anyone should have to keep on pointing it out, but the truth is, if you aren't able to do anything, you don't know anything useful, and if you aren't prepared even to learn to do anything else, you aren't going to be able to afford anything. (These are the people who become "Proles" in Orwell's masterpiece, "1984")

You don't need to have a Bachelor's Degree to be able to figure this out. And unfortunately for them, way too many people chose to get Bachelor's Degrees in areas that command very little income or career opportunities.

."Me, work for minimum wage?! But, I've got a B.A. in Sociology!"

 

Yep. Just pointing out that there's no reason why anyone should starve.

 

What does "food insecurity" mean?

 

I mostly agree. More Americans are becoming poorer now, and the purchasing power of their money is decreasing. Higher food prices at the grocery store is throwing added strain on household finances, especially for lower income households. There is evidence that consumers are reducing their purchases of more expensive types of things in grocery stores and buying less meat. But I doubt that many are going to literally starve and go without food.

 

The privileged state in which post WW2 Americans happened to find themselves is going away. We are becoming more like the rest of the world.

 

The world is different...my teenage years were in the 70's and huge difference in how the World worked then.

In my day public schools taught drivers ed. Now less schools teach drivers ed, leaving that responsibility to the parents. Not all parents are cut out for that type of teaching. I'm not. My two kids got jobs and I served as taxi until they paid their way through drivers school.

Back in my day you could buy a used car cheap and make repairs yourself. Most cars in the 1970s school parking lot were beat up cars that were simple to maintain..

This day and age with the sensors and technology in these recent models...maintaining and repairing your vehicle is less of an option. Personally...my parents allowed me to drive their older, almost to the end of life car. I tore it to hell...even went off road with it. Then they co-signed my first car but only after I had a down payment. I paid for it and took care of it.

My kids had their first car by 18. Entirely paid by them.

If kids work while in high school, had parents willing to take them back and forth to work, and if schools taught drivers ed and help with licensing...kids will get their own used car at least by 18.

It's not a terrible thing to have LESS 16 year olds on the road driving the car Mom and Dad gave them.

 

In the same way your straw man prevents me.

 

Today that's increasingly less of an option.
Today it's typical for both parents to have to work full-time, so the parents have less time (or energy) available to drive their children to places.
And middle class students are under more pressure to perform well academically at school, pressured to go to college because the chances that they will be able to live a middle class adult life without college are lower than they were in the past. For this reason it's harder for these students to work than it was in the past.
If a student is working too many hours, they will often have less time and energy to perform as well at school. Getting good grades is important for scholarships and being accepted into good colleges. A lot of children are pushed into "advanced placement" classes in high school and then with all the afterschool studying and homework their brains are too tired to work, it becomes too exhausting.

Also, high levels of immigration in many areas have displaced younger teen workers from many of the types of jobs they used to hold in the past. So it can be harder for teens to find a job, and they might have fewer good options to select from. (I'll give a few examples: waitress, fuel station attendant, valet driver, assistant at construction sites, helping to pick berries in the fields during the summer)

 

Isn’t a worker worth the value of what s/he produces?

 

It was defined in the last sentence of the post.

 

IOW it’s your personal spin and dance and otherwise meaningless.

 

What did that sentence say?

 

“Did”? It still says the same thing. See post 24.

 

It's more complicated than that. Yes, in one theoretical sort of sense that is true. The concept applies differently on a microeconomic scale (for an individual business) than it does on a macroeconomic scale.
Supply and demand ultimately end up affecting "value".
On a macroeconomic scale, it can be hard to compare the value of what a worker produces to elements of value that are not produced by simple labor, like land, natural resources, or the value produced by those who create businesses.

If you want to discuss that further, you'll have to start a new thread.

 

the FED is run by a Republican....

 

The Fed has a board who make decisions.
Please stop derailing this thread off topic.

Start another thread. You're welcome to leave the link here.

 

Is this the sentence to which you are referring? "That works out to more than 35 million Americans who were either unable to acquire enough food to meet their needs, or uncertain of where their next meal might come from”

Rice is about $0.50 per pound. A pound of rice has over 1,600 calories. Who doesn't have $0.50 per day?

 

I created a thread on the Fed

 

This thread is about young people being unable to afford a car.
At the very least, please keep the discussion focused on either the younger generation being unable to afford things, or people being less able to afford having a car, or the immediate reasons why cars might be less affordable.

For example, we can point out inflation as a possible and likely cause, but please let's not debate the controversial causes of inflation in this thread.

 

I was replying to your post, lol, don't take us off-topic, the FED is part of the reason for inflation, stick to the topic

reminder, you said "The Fed is practically all Democrats"

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...d-to-have-a-car.610852/page-2#post-1074400937

 

Due to regulations, cars are too expensive. Given our current technology, kids should be able to order a kit and build a car.

 

I created this thread to talk about whether the Fed is the cause of inflation: http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/is-the-fed-the-cause-of-inflation.613137/

 

yes, but the FED raising interest rates is part of the problem....

but ok, let not blame Trump or Biden for the rise in prices.... let's discuss why they can't afford Cars... is it wages have not kept up with prices?