America's Average Car Payment Will Blow Your Mind
Putting the car crisis in perspective alongside the housing and retirement crises
There’s a car crisis in America. As if the retirement and housing crises weren’t enough.
Of course, we can choose to not participate.
We’ll quantitatively and qualitatively delve into this in a second—using a wholly positive perspective—but first an update on a travel-related story (that’s about much more than travel) we discussed in July.
Part of the problem—maybe all of it—springs from the way we do online content. Somebody finds—or found—how to get eyeballs and everybody else follows suit, like sheep. It happens across all levels of media—alternative, mainstream—and on social media …
You take a story. You find the part of it that could potentially make people anxious. You focus on that angle. You misinterpret or inaccurately summarize it. You overblow it. Then, every other online content platform and new organization takes the same story and does exactly what you did with it (and, most of the time, adds zero new information or context). This creates the sense that this story—and apparently stress-inducing problem—is massive. The repurposing amplifies the false narrative, which takes on a life of its own.
Case in point—the story that dominated the internet last week. That, come 2024, Americans will need a
visatravel permit to travel to Europe.
Turns out this travel permit isn’t happening in 2024 after all. Looks like it’s a 2025 event.
Fine. Hardly surprising.
Except it’s funny to watch the media response. Or lack thereof. Stories covering the development trickle in every few days. Nothing compared to the relentless onslaught of “news” in July that a visa travel permit would be required for Americans to travel to Europe.
Now—paid subscriber only content—the car crisis facing America and one way to view it.