Not a GenZ, but i feel this. Forget affording a house. If I lost my car I’d be so fucked financially that I’d be in debt for the next 10 years or worse. And I know this because it actually happened to me 6 years back. Couldn’t get to work so I couldn’t make money. Within the span of a few months I was in almost $15,000 of credit card debt on top of a car loan. That’s almost half of what I make in a year I built that up in just a few months just to survive. I’m still in debt from back then and I still haven’t paid off the car and now I’m a little over 30 years old. All while I get to live in a shitty apartment building where half my neighbors are meth-heads while the other half make the meth (nothing against them personally. Except for the dude that bangs on my door at 4 AM) And one might think “this guy probably has a shitty job that doesn’t pay very well” and no, I don’t. I actually have a pretty decent job. I’m a CAD tech for a land surveying company and I’m making the most money I ever have in my entire life. Yet I’m still 2 paychecks away from being homeless.
Sorry, I just needed to rant cuz I’m 30 and tired of being poor.
I remember losing my car (my brother borrowed it and burned out the transmission fucking around. Totaled it. Thanks bro) and just trying to get around on bicycle during commute hours was pretty bad. My town hadn’t heard of bike lanes yet and riding on the street was a good way to get clipped by a pickup. I lucked into a POS Ford that cost $50, was held together with duct tape and I got ripped off, but it ran. Put a new radiator in it, pawned it off on the next schlub, and got something that wasn’t a deathtrap. But those were some rough months.
My 80 year-old parents are in this situation. In April they will have been “borrowing” my car for an entire year, because no one will employ them and the gig economy is the only thing standing between them and homelessness.
I’m lucky to live in an area with good public trans, myself.
Not a GenZ, but i feel this. Forget affording a house. If I lost my car I’d be so fucked financially that I’d be in debt for the next 10 years or worse. And I know this because it actually happened to me 6 years back. Couldn’t get to work so I couldn’t make money. Within the span of a few months I was in almost $15,000 of credit card debt on top of a car loan. That’s almost half of what I make in a year I built that up in just a few months just to survive. I’m still in debt from back then and I still haven’t paid off the car and now I’m a little over 30 years old. All while I get to live in a shitty apartment building where half my neighbors are meth-heads while the other half make the meth (nothing against them personally. Except for the dude that bangs on my door at 4 AM) And one might think “this guy probably has a shitty job that doesn’t pay very well” and no, I don’t. I actually have a pretty decent job. I’m a CAD tech for a land surveying company and I’m making the most money I ever have in my entire life. Yet I’m still 2 paychecks away from being homeless.
Sorry, I just needed to rant cuz I’m 30 and tired of being poor.
I remember losing my car (my brother borrowed it and burned out the transmission fucking around. Totaled it. Thanks bro) and just trying to get around on bicycle during commute hours was pretty bad. My town hadn’t heard of bike lanes yet and riding on the street was a good way to get clipped by a pickup. I lucked into a POS Ford that cost $50, was held together with duct tape and I got ripped off, but it ran. Put a new radiator in it, pawned it off on the next schlub, and got something that wasn’t a deathtrap. But those were some rough months.
My 80 year-old parents are in this situation. In April they will have been “borrowing” my car for an entire year, because no one will employ them and the gig economy is the only thing standing between them and homelessness.
I’m lucky to live in an area with good public trans, myself.