I’m 34 years and one month old. I’ve “owned” two cars in my life; a 1993 Accord that my parents bought for I think somewhere south of $1000 in 2004; and my grandmother’s 2003 Grand Marquis, which she sold me for a symbolic dollar when THAT car was nearly a decade old, when she was too far into dementia to be able to drive it anymore, and my Accord was pulling pretty hard to the right constantly.
I stopped driving that car a little over a year ago, because a (late by about a month) routine oil change revealed that there was almost no oil in the car. Maybe a leak? I'd need to get it inspected, and a leak in the oil lines can be pricey, they said. I didn't have a spare $100 let alone $1000, so I parked it in the driveway and decided to wait until I had enough money to deal with it. Well, I never did! So since then I've gotten around on foot, by occasional Lyft, buses to and from Atlanta (before covid), rides from friends (also before covid), and by borrowing my partner's car periodically. It's been a huge pain in the ass, and only possible because I happened to live within reasonable walking distance of a few key places.
At no point in my adult life have I ever thought seriously about being able to buy a vehicle. I've just never had reliable money available.
Anyway, I saw an ad for a truck, and suddenly wondered how many car commercials I've seen despite never being in the market for one. I regard all cars with indifference; they are something I have basically no opinion about, because they are beyond contemplation. And yet I have seen the ads; people do buy cars. New ones, even! Somehow.
... No point to this. Just thinking.
But if you want to be deeply angry about wealth inequality, you can listen to an episode of a watch-enthusiast podcast (I don't want to go into why I did this) where they refer to a watch as "surprisingly affordable" because it's available "for less than ten thousand dollars." I bought a $30 Timex maybe seven years ago for work, five apartments ago (which have also never had anything to do with desire, but only affordability and happenstance), and I don't know where it is now.