XPost: alt.autos, alt.autos.ford, alt.autos.gm   
   XPost: alt.autos.nissan, alt.autos.toyota, alt.trucks.ford   
   XPost: rec.autos.misc   
   From: tedm@toybox.placo.com   
      
   "PerfectReign"  wrote in message   
   news:6cace7F3gdpc0U1@mid.individual.net...   
   > C. E. White turned on the Etch-A-Sketch and wrote:   
   >   
   >    
   >   
   > > "We see people with $10,000 in negative equity," Redfern says. "A dealer   
   > > does not have enough room to help the customer out of it."   
   >   
   > That's insane!   
   >   
   > I've done the calculations. I figure if - instead of commuting in my   
   > mid-size Avalanche at 15MPG - I inherited a small econobox that got 25MPG,   
   > I could potentially save about $2K/year in gas.   
   >   
   > That would be nice.   
   >   
   > However, if I were looking at replacing said Avalanche with said econobox   
   I   
   > wouldn't even think about loosing $10K in negative equity. It would take   
   > five years of driving the econobox just to make up for it.   
   >   
      
   You don't understand how the majority of people think, financially.  If   
   you really looked at the housing credit crisis and why it happened you   
   might understand.   
      
   30 years ago, people would save up money for the big ticket items.   
   They would make sure that their income was higher than their expenses   
   by a fairly wide margin and would sock away as much as they could -   
   because they knew that they had to have a savings to cover those   
   unexpected expenses.  Like a set of new tires, or a trip to the   
   emergency room to set a broken leg, etc.   
      
   Today, people don't want to save.  They have been taught by a   
   generation of shysters that they want to spend as much as they make   
   because somehow if their money sits in a bank somewhere it gets   
   smaller and smaller.  (apparently nobody understands compound   
   interest anymore)   
      
   Of course, the problem then is that for this to work it's -imperative-   
   that your expenses are the -same- every month.  You cannot have   
   any large unexpected shock expenses.   
      
   People will go out and buy a new car that's under warranty and   
   also buy an extended warranty - because doing that, you can finance   
   it all, and your car+warranty payment is now the same every month.   
   You won't have unexpected car expenses because the warranty   
   takes care of that.   
      
   Obviously, doing it this way costs people more in the long run,   
   but they would rather pay more as long as the costs are the   
   same every month, than pay less and save the difference to use   
   for the unexpected expenses.   
      
   The people replacing Avalanchs with econoboxes are doing   
   it because the fuel price rises are unexpected, and have   
   broken their budget.  So, the trade in the Avalanch, get a   
   new econobox, and finance everything.  Then their uncontrolled   
   variable expenses - fuel - drop.  And their non-variable   
   expenses rise, but not as much because they have financed it   
   and thus pushed the additional expenses into the future.   
      
   Look at President Bush.  He has pushed most of the Iraq   
   war expenses into the future for Obama to deal with when   
   he becomes president.   And I will bet that by then the   
   debt will be so large and the deficit so high that even if he   
   wanted to, Obama will have no choice but to push it into   
   the future for the next president to deal with.  And so on   
   and so on.   
      
   And your amazed that the common citizen is watching this   
   financial gamesmanship and doesen't want to try copying it   
   himself?  Where have YOU been?   
      
   Ted   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)