This week, the Commerce Department reported that consumer spending was heading upward, thanks in part to the strongest sales in six months for automobiles.
For the automobile industry, that's reassuring, but the larger trend points to a period of stagnation.
In recent years, there's been much speculation over whether or not Americans have gotten over their love affair with automobiles. We are often told that younger consumers (i.e., Millennials) don't like cars, and will all move to Manhattan and take the subway, or ride Uber cars everywhere else they want to go.
It's unclear whether or not we can blame auto sales declines on Millennial hipsterism, however. After all, with Baby Boomers moving into their 70s, more Americans are facing declining wage-based income and they're facing a need for more retirement planning. Fewer of them are running out and buying an "extra" car for weekend use.
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4 comments:
People use Uber because there are standards that a filthy disgusting taxi does not adhere to.
I had to take a cab in Baltimore and the slob of a driver had the front seat pushed back so far that there was no room for my legs in the back. Not only was it a danger it was uncomfortable.
Lets face it, Cabs have an awful reputation, one they earned. The taxi industry needs to clean up their act.
But now that Uber had become the rape taxi's, so which do you choose?
Unless you decide to lease, I can't see how anyone can afford a new car at the prices they charge. It's a bad deal all around to purchase a new car or truck.
Its about the haves and have nots. Problem I can't get my finger on is that we older folk don't care about cars like we used to and if the younger gens of life don't care about cars either (have huge debit), the WHO are the HAVES?
The elites (bankers who offer the low interest rate loans) are destroying our culture and way of life.
They have changed the way the economy used to function.
There is no economy now.
Only managed business - and the auto loan business is a broken model.
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