Why The Young Hate Cars

Great post. I agree 100% with you about the arbitrary laws facing teen drivers. I’m 17 and live in Tennessee which has a graduated license program. I got my license last year when I was 16. My restrictions were that I couldn’t have more than one friend in the car with me and I couldn’t be out before 6am and after 10pm. now I could update my license because I’m 17 and have anyone in the car with me and be out until 12 I believe. anyway I haven’t updated because to update it would be a massive waste of time to go back through the DMV. I will just wait until I’m 18 to update to a unrestricted license. until then I will drive like I’m 80 after midnight.

Eric, GREAT post and many GREAT comments.
I believe many points made were pointing to the real reason. But if I had to name the number one reason, and if someone else made this reason already please forgive the repeat I didn’t read ALL comments:) Oh.. anyway #1 is the internet! Kids think their friends live in cyberspace and only sometimes in real space.

When I was a kid I remember the burning desire to drive(freedom & friends), hell I owned a 1973 Opal GT before I could drive! These Nanny State rules would not have slowed me down!

Being poor made me a mechanic and cars were simpler so I could learn, built my first motor on my mothers kitchen floor. I derived great satisfaction and pride in being able to repair anything! Now kids get the pride by hacking an online game.

Even a 10year old used car is beyond the capability of the average teen now, beyond very basic stuff. But then cars are in general much more reliable then in my youth.

Another late thought about the whole issue of teens learning to drive is that if some people have their way, the whole question might be moot soon enough anyway.

A respected investment advisor, Ric Edelman, has said on his radio show that children under 5 years old today might never actually drive, because he expects self-driving cars to be the norm by the time these children reach 16+. However, he has also said in his books and on his show—hugely optimistically—that he suspects human lifespans are about to increase dramatically, with 120+ becoming the average instead of 75–80. I think that’s wrong for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here. I suspect he’s just as wrong about self-driving cars, but it might be because 10–15 years won’t be enough time. However…

Tesla’s Elon Musk said in an interview in March that he believes driving will eventually be outlawed in favor of computer-driven vehicles: “It’s too dangerous. You can’t have a person driving a two-ton death machine.” He later clarified his remarks to say that he himself hopes driving never is banned, but warned that the public might one day demand it if human drivers become a liability.

Car and Driver discussed Musk’s remarks in the context of all the distracted drivers we see who text and talk on cell phones while driving. (A disproportionate number of those getting into accidents driving while texting do seem to be teens and young adults.) Distracted drivers will be one of the main causes of such legislation once more self-driving cars are available.

The obvious alternative is tougher licensing standards for the whole population as in Europe. Causing an accident there is akin to professional negligence because of the stringent training and rules for all drivers. But that gets right back into the issue of the present graduated licensing and restrictions for teen drivers now imposed in many US states, and how that will put off many from starting to drive in the first place. It’s the rock and hard place problem…

Everybody here discussing the reasons for teens not wanting to drive or get involved with cars has made an excellent point. Here are some more thoughts:

Some states, such as North Carolina, now require a teen to present proof of insurance to be able to get a driver’s license in the first place. In other words, “floating” without being insured is not possible in those states. When I first started driving in Virginia in the 1970s, my parents did not have to worry about adding me to their policy right away.

The infantilization of teens and young adults is real. Note the new mantra that young people’s brains aren’t “fully formed” until their mid–20s, so they must not be held fully accountable for violent crimes, hurting others in accidents, or general bad behavior. This has been the reason, for example, for eliminating the death penalty for younger offenders. The same principle applies to driving. If the kid shouldn’t be held accountable, then he/she probably shouldn’t be driving, goes the logic.

Also, there is striking evidence that today’s youth are generally much less mature for their age than were those their age, say, 30 or 40 years ago. Citing this, some prominent people such as conservative parenting guru John Rosemond have long called for raising the driving age to 18. He has said that today’s 16–year-olds have about the same level of maturity as did a typical 12–year-old in the 1970s, and he seems to have a good point. Of course, this means that a 16–year-old with the mentality of a 12–year-old probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel—so again goes the logic. Not saying I necessarily agree, but a lot of others do, and that’s the issue.

The aggregate, constant cost of cars, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc., plays a role. Student loans, other debt, and low income do as well. But cars have long been an appliance, even for Mom and Dad. As much as I like cars, mine is used as an appliance too. I don’t have space nor money to spare for a “tinker” (hobby) car, and I’m in my 50s without gobs of debt. Imagine what a 22–year-old’s situation might be by comparison.

Parents’ willingness to chauffeur Junior and Missy wherever they want to go plays another role; from where do you think the soccer mom stereotype comes? Why learn to drive if Mom will take you everywhere anyway and you can watch DVDs or play video games during the ride?

Those electronic devices are another factor, combined with the demise of shop and other practical classes and training in schools. We have a generation of kids who know nothing about how things work and don’t know how to fix anything. They have no practical skills. They haven’t learned anything really useful before becoming adults, and employers are complaining about this as well. So kids learn nothing about cars in the first place, even if they have access to a relatively affordable vehicle. But they sure know how to text and play Grand Theft Auto V.

I work for Mazda at a low level and speak only for myself. One of the training staff at work, who visits to train dealer techs, mentioned that his now grown children were not allowed video games and the like at all when they were growing up, and he said they are in their 20s and have the maturity and knowledge about the real world that youth used to have. And, he noted, they drive and like cars. That’s a pretty revealing anecdote. Perhaps it’s the key.

We’ve come to treat the bees the way we treat ourselves.

The market has spoken. These $600 plastic “flow” hives are the bee’s future, much as our increasingly limited and controlled plastic environment is our future.

Raising a relatively free and sovereign bee, would mean only a small additional marginal effort. Doing so pays for itself in the longterm. Living as relatively free and sovereign people, would also be only a small additional marginal effort. Doing so will payoff in the longterm.

3 Reasons to go against the Flow Hive

Who’s to Blame for the Honeybee Holocaust? Maryam Henein. Author of the 3 reasons article.

In the end, actions will be what matters. Words can serve to guide our actions, but for them to really matter, action of some sort eventually needs to be taken.

In the case of bees, isn’t it possible that emerging plastic hives, and existing commercial hives could be adapted to increase bees’ freedom and sovereignty?

The Deeper Message of the Flow Hive
https://naturalbeekeepingtrust.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/the-deeper-message-of-the-flow-hive/

By extension, isn’t libertarianism possibly a straight-forward marginal pursuit to mitigate problems, and increase desired outcomes that benefit the many, and adversely affect only the powerful few?

In the longterm we will win, so long as we align our goals with reality. Those in power are fighting a losing battle to defy nature, the time is coming when a change becomes inevitable.

All we need do is shape the emerging change to our advantage. All we have to do is refuse to be victims of abuse, and decline to be seduced by the lure of gaining power and doling out abuse in the future over those who’ve previously abused us.

The young are indifferent to cars. For those young who do buy cars, the vast majority conclude a $20,000 car still gets them there in the same amount of time; it’s cheaper to operate; it still keeps them dry; it handles well; and it holds its value well as a used car.

The attitude that cars are a mere appliance is the most common. Cars these days have zero status and are generally considered a burden whose cost should be minimized, not a status symbol worth burning one’s hard-earned money on.

The Dubious Future of the American Car Business—in 14 Charts

From a GM presentation, here’s a brisk guide to today’s auto industry and how it’s in danger of leaving behind the poor and the young

Your comment is what I have experienced and very true. I would add that the mechanical crafts, all crafts, all of humanity has also been stifled by severe abuses with patents, copyrights, registrations, licensings, permittings, fees, inspections, tax IDs, they approve and deny on and on and on. I’ve seen people invent really good things and then drop them when asked to jump through the hoop that is afire and hanging from a nail on a brick wall.

I have a friend who would like to get a food product “approved” but you have to pay a $480 filing fee (in 2015) just to submit it in Utah. If it has any errors or is not accepted for any reason that money is history.

As the proud owner of 8 Millennial children, I see this a little different Eric. While the younger generation today do not treasure cars as much as we did growing up, I am not so sure that the fact that cars gave us freedom/cars are now another source of control, tracking, and headache is the entire reason. Sure, it may play a part, but I do not think it is a huge part.
I think the main reasons kids are not interested in cars as much anymore is technological in several aspects. when we grew up around ’68 Chevelles, and ’72 Gran Torinos etc. cars were very simple. Mechanically speaking, they were not much more complex than a lawn mower. They were very easy to work on, and quite easy to customize. Now, cars are highly complex, and not easy to work on at all. further, it is very difficult to customize them unless you know what you are doing.
The mechanical crafts are also no longer respected. When we grew up, being a shade tree mechanic was respected. Now, I think it’s toatally different. Kids today respect game developers and people who can write code a lot more than people who can spin a wrench. I see this reflected among small business owners I have met. Many folk talk about “good jobs” leaving the country for Mexico and China, and that there no good jobs out there. But if you talk to a mechanic, or an electrician, or a plumber, or a locksmith, they will tell you it is impossible to find good help these days. Meanwhile, programmer jobs have disappeared in a glut of too many applicants for too little work. It’s a cultural shift. People don’t want to work with their hands anymore, and they no longer respect people who do work with their hands.
And if you’re not good with your hands, and it is difficult to modify them anyway, why would you be interested in cars for anything other than getting from A to B in comfort?
Next, when we were growing up, we didn’t have the communications that kids did today. We never asked on the phone “where are you?” because the phone was bolted to the wall… Now, you can chat with your friends wherever you want whenever you want, and you don’t have to drive over there to see them. If you don’t have to drive, why be interested in cars?
I think that the day of the shade tree mechanic, who hops up an old Barracuda in the back yard are gone for good, Eric.

Unless somebody is involved in commercial activity, such as driving a taxi, limo, or a semi for Target or McDonald’s, they are not required to obtain a driver license. They are allowed to exercise their God-given right to travel, as opposed to getting permission to “drive” from a gang of criminals calling themselves “government.”

This country is a SHThole police state… FK the parasitic “government”.

Good essay today Eric. It seems to have stimulated a number of wide ranging thoughts.
As to today’s teens and cars, part of this trend is the feminization and infantilization of young people from early teens to mid 20s. Nearly all are taught in schools where 90% of the teachers are women (aside from coaches). Teens are coddled and swaddled until their 30s by helicopter parents. Encouraged to live at home until married, like house poor Europeans. None of this normal in the 50s or 60s, when young males would be shunned if still living at home after age 18.
Of course the Nanny State has burdened young drivers with special restrictions and expensive mandatory insurance. In more rural places, driving is still needed very early. In cities and towns, many young adults drive parent’s cars or bum rides, ride bikes, walk, buses, etc. I couldn’t afford my own car until a senior in college but got my learner’s driving permit at 15.
And would any teen prior to this century want to drive a Mini Cooper or Yugo like small box like the ones popular with the Millennials? Even the painted up “hippie vans” were more macho. The first Japanese auto company to produce a $15K Hello Kitty car in blue and pink will sell millions. Are they putting estrogen in public school water fountains now?
Teens and especially young men suffer from Immortality Syndrome, as in “I’m never going to die” no matter how stupid and dangerous they are. So keeping some of these off roads is a good thing for the rest of us. But driving is the best expression of individual ability to act independently and make ones own decisions. Being transit dependent is stunting intellectual growth.
The Chinese get it, the Europeans don’t. Which is why the Chinese are rabid capitalists w/o apology and most Europeans meekly line up for their two month vacations, no work “jobs” and other handouts, like subsidized housing. All complete with trams, buses, trains and shared bikes paid for by the State. Everyone can go just where Big Sister wants them to be.
China is rapidly building highways and roads and cars, trucks and motorcycles. There, it is not cool to be a Millennial wimp living at home and taking the bus (not that most still have to do so due to the costs.)
On the bright side, in the US most young people are far more libertarian than their parents, if only due to the Internet and common sense. So driving isn’t everything. The shaky broke-bank economy may be at fault, that and obscenely expensive education that creates huge debts.
My Depression era raised parents made it clear I was out of the house at 18 or paid rent to live in their basement. Those circumstances no longer exist, and let’s face it, many if not most Boomers are politically stupid and have little to no confidence in their children’s ability to take personal responsibility.
At the very least, we should encourage Boomer grandparents to give their grandkids cars when possible. Some then will get the hint and leave the parental nest. Or at least learn to live halfway free.

The young hate your values and your principles. They don’t see you as part of the solution. They’ve experienced you as a major part of their problem. They want you out of the way, along with all the other evil crap that we all agree are our obstacles to our respective visions of a freer world.

Most of the best and brightest on the internet are AnComs, not AnCaps. We know all to well and are largely in agreement as to the inferiority of the AnComs.

But there’s a problem with AnCaps. They assert their superiority over AnComs by fiat, or with incomplete arguments. If they were being rational and scientific about it, they’d concede there is some non-zero chance that AnComs are right and AnCaps are wrong. They don’t do this. They “know” they are right. And AnComs are “wrong.”

I think this can be resolved by breaking unproven linkages in events. Why not acknowledge the French Revolution brought a great deal of freedom to the world to a lot of people. It freed generations from the shackles of hereditary castes, and got the masses out from under the thumb of the church and the older generation in general.

Much of the Russian Revolution was of great benefit to the slavic peoples. The masses of them were still in slave status. And the power of their church was unbearable. It was due to their inexperience and naivete that they were unable to reap the benefits, while simultaneously guarding against the costs, which became quite massive over time.

From a consumer perspective. Both the French & Russian revolutions were experienced as a great good. Why should they care what effects their freedom had on the rest of the world. There’s no provable connection between one and the other. If the Industrial Revolution and the American Revolution were both so great a thing. They should be able to adapt and thrive despite the French and Russian Revolutions.
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AnCaps believe that a person’s value is utilitarian based on what they can contribute, while AnComs believe it is innate and everyone has value simply because they are human, and that all people bleed the same color. AnComs see the unseen that AnCaps discount as insignificant.

AnComs are oblivious to the rights of creators and owners of property. They are blind to the unseen of ownership and individual creative effort. They create systems that quickly breakdown because they imagine people will work against their own best interests. They begin from an idea of unlimited freedom, but the quickly devolve into unlimited compulsion, because their systems just don’t work in the real world the way they imagine.

AnCaps have no problem with private tyrannies (work places) because of the theory that if conditions are too bad the workers can go somewhere else… but they must earn their inalienable right to life and liberty by the sweat of their brow.

AnCaps respond that competition is irrelevant here because conditions will be the same everywhere. Workers will get the minimum pay and the maximum productivity expectations that the market will bear. No one *chooses* to work in a sweatshop! They do it out of necessity. The coercion is not direct, but it is intrinsic to the system.

The AnCaps claim ownership and control of all resources in the world beyond all reason. How can it be noble and reasonable, to deny access to water and tillable land and hunting and fishing grounds unless you “buy” it from them.

Where they make improvements to things, one can argue that is their property. But when a tiny minority claims to own everything within sight, and even things far far away, you have to question that and validate the claims. AnCaps system is actually even more fantastical than the AnComs.

AnCaps create a world where everyone starves unless they are catered to, because somehow they’ve come to “own” every last atom of the world. AnCaps are beyond the ridiculousness of the AnComs. By a very great margin.

I don’t favor either one entirely. They’re like the Alphas and Betas in Brave New World. I am divergent and factionless, I have elements of each, and also characteristics beyond either of them. I won’t agree that AnCaps aren’t true anarchists. I would take one any day over a Republicrat. And over an authoritarian AnCom. But I don’t agree it’s been proven that AnComs are wrong or evil. And I do think the errors and evils of AnCaps are greatly in need of investigation and correction.

I think there’s some kind of hybrid solution available. Which should satisfice both schools and also shore up each other’s systemic weaknesses in order to advocate a hopefully bulletproof system.

Look at the software market as model. Free/Open Source software is developed completely voluntarily by devoted communities, without coercion (systemic or direct) or expectation of profit, and made freely available for everyone on the planet to download and use for no cost. We are talking about some of the most solid software out there that provides 95% of the backbone of the internet. Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP to name a few.

It’s crucial to recognize free/open source software is largely derivative of for profit software. There’s been a taking here, and the right thing to do is to acknowledge this debt and affirm it as real and ongoing concern.

Open Source ends ups being the best of the best. But a real danger is, creators will cease to create, if they aren’t given their due for their efforts.

So far, Open Source hasn’t crashed the commercial software market and in some ways bolsters it by providing more choices AND forcing commercial companies to stay on top of their game and not only out compete other vendors but also give people a reason to spend money for something they could get for free.

To my mind, property owners and AnCaps are on shaky ground enforcing their claims, because they don’t provide any workable alternative. If your system includes a majority of the people suffering and starving unless they submit to your whims, you’re going to learn that quantity has a quality all it’s own.

Some open source products even have dual licensing models, where you can get the “community version” for free but can also buy a commercial license for value added extras such as additional functionality and professional support.

This model is easily extended into the offline world where all of the basic goods and services needed to support human life on this planet to a reasonably comfortable degree could be provided freely by a community option, yet entrepreneurs would still be left with enough of the fruits of their labors to compete and sell value added extras that many people would want above and beyond basic living.

The smart thing to do, is for AnCaps to determine a level of bloodsucking they can tolerate, and then move forward from there. Eventually new ways of commerce and keeping of account can be initiated so those whose value is “given” to the masses, get back what is their due.

This way everyone benefits to some degree. Yes AnComs get something for nothing or nearly nothing in the short term. In the long term, AnCaps still end up far superior to those of lesser ability and willingness to make an effort.

Even if it makes philosophical sense to say those who produce nothing deserve nothing. This never works in reality. Eventually those with nothing will take something from anyone and everyone without prejudice.

A wise farmer puts out some feed for his animals. And doesn’t prevent wild animals from feeding themselves according to their wild protocols. Worse case, the farmer has to make provisions for those nearby in the wild as well.

To leave any animal too hungry, and with no options to feed themsevles, is to invite disaster on all of his labor and all of his hardwon capital. It’s suicidal and contrary to his best interests. Where is the moral victory, to be eaten by wild animals, all the while thinking: “I’m better than they.” I’ve won a great philosophical battle. There can be no sense in that.

Seems to me there’s a lot of speculating going on around here. Anyone actually talk to teens to find out what they think about cars, or are we all just assuming we know?

Yes, financial reasons are high on the list, but these kids are also the ones who’s grandparents and parents buy them whatever they want (my nephews have more toys then anyone I’ve ever seen, but I’m told that’s fairly typical). Why should parents who throw thousands of dollars of toys at them change their tune with automobiles?

P.J. O’rouke thinks teenagers don’t want cars because the parents were at work, so they didn’t need to get their groove on in the back seat, just engage in some after-school activity in the comfort of their own beds.

I think it has more to do with parents (and society) keeping kids “young” for greater lengths of time. Many of you have mentioned that you had part time and even full-time jobs while in high school. I remember playing trombone in the city band (for pay -I even had to join the union), and singing in church and symphony choirs, alongside adults, including some of my teachers. I was treated as a peer, not a student. I was expected to behave like an adult, know my part and concentrate for the entire 2+ hour rehearsal. It was very hard for me to go back to school and think it was important after that. I don’t know that that happens so much anymore, because there’s a band for every skill level these days and everyone gets to participate. But that’s just me speculating. Maybe I should ask a teenager…

What should the young do? The ones I’ve encountered mutter in ominous cryptic riddles. Saying an old dog like me won’t be able to learn their new tricks. Wait until we’re in charge, things are going to be different and you’re going to be sorry.

What exactly do they imagine they’re going to take from me that isn’t already spoken for. Whatever I’m still holding on to, its mainly due to skill in hiding and squirreling things away. On paper my net worth is below zero, and nothing is on the horizon that’s going to change that.

Watercooler talk these days of the former middle and upper middle classes is about how to quitclaim your house safely and abandoning mortgaged businesses and rental properties back to the bank without to much pain.

There’s no credit available anymore. Unless you count buying trinkets on the installment for twice of three times their actual worth, plus usurious interest of course. No one will stake you as an investment, unless you’re already a success.

That’s most of business right there. Keeping two sets of books. Perfecting two different faces. One for the government and lawyers that shows how broke you are. Another set that shows vendors and creditors how wealthy you are and how great your cash flow is.

Most of what we grew up with is obsolete now. There aren’t going to be longterm stable jobs. Guaranteed rates of pay. Reasonable services you can rely on you. Everyone is a two face, looking to scam the other guy just to try to survive.

Whatever honorable professions and establishments that still exist out there. There’s hordes of zombies swarming them and looking to assimilate them and eat the flesh right of their bones.

Reputations. Contracts. Fair dealing. Reasonable pay. Quality work. Fulfilling promises. Loyalty. Friendship. Win win. More and more, this stuff doesn’t work. It’s all vanishing and becoming a relic.

What’s new is how do you cut corners. How do you get something for nothing. What can you take from your family and get away with. Or from you spouse and her family. Your neighbors and friends. Your workplace. What can you grab when no one’s looking.

Things are upside down and inside out. And suddenly you understand why grandma always stuffed her purse with condiments at restaurants. Because things only stay good for so long. To survive you have to make compromises.

Most of us agree on what’s the right thing to do. And what’s the wrong thing to do. And a lot of time is spent determining who is good and who isn’t. Maybe that’s not the answer anymore. Maybe everyone deserves to enjoy their consumption, so long as the consumption doesn’t hurt the other.

The ghetto kid has a stolen bike. At least he should be left in peace to enjoy the thing. The neighbor girl brought everyone some free DVDs because it was her last day, and why not load up the car, and give herself a going away gift. So you take one and you watch the movie, consuming is a pleasurable experience.

Maybe everything isn’t related to everything else. Maybe the kids eating the food stamp steak dinner ought to just enjoy themselves. Every bit as much as the widowed father who works three jobs to support his daughters and cook them a generic macaroni and cheese meal.

What’s right and good will win out in the end. Cheaters cheat themselves. They end up in the gutter or an early grave likely as not. You have to believe in that. It’s when you try to cobble together some half-assed system to punish the bad guys, that things get so confused and worse than they already are.

Most of the value being traded these days is done in a militaristic command sort of way. Very little of what we consume is freely chosen and optional. We’re just kidding ourselves when we think we have all these options and choices. Few of us do, if you evaluate your situation honestly.

The whole point of non-aggression. Of economic cooperation. Of not attacking each other and respecting each other is consumption. The only point of being a laborer is to consume. The point of being an owner is to consume. The point of accepting handouts is to consume. Fellow consumers of any kind are not our enemy.

Our enemy is those we are commanded to employ. Commanded to pay. Commanded to obey. The ones that tell us what we can and cannot consume. The one’s who promise one thing, and then deliver something quite different.

Communism. Nationalism. Fascism. Corporatism. Theocratic authoritarianism. Socialist authoritarianism. The evil can be most simply observed by its interference with consumption.

It is not worth any kind of enforcers and leg=breakers, to prefer technicians over brute laborers. To favor industrial machinery owners over vast families of manual laborers. To prefer saving over spending. Not even to prefer creating over taking handouts.

So long as no force is used. So long as each is not prevented from consuming things however each sees fit. The noble stoics and the profligate spendthrifts will each reap what they sow.

This means fiat money. Savings account. Deeds of ownership. Titles. Licenses. Permits. Everything that’s based on the administrative slavery state. Is under question. It’s vulnerable. It means those we might say are the good guys who earn an honest living. Might in the final accounting, be the bad guys who prop up the slave owning class and keep us all in chains.

Maybe you’re the problem. No cashier owes you a smile. Courtesy. Good service. No worker on the job owes it to care about what you as a customer feel you are owed. Those who own nothing have no obligation to those that own everything. Not when such ownership is wielded in such an inhuman fashion.

Let’s start with everyone is just people. Whether you’ve never worked a day in your life. Or whether you’ve busted your ass and had taxes taken from you to support a dozen deadbeats. That’s neither here nor there as to your obligations as an adherent of the NAP.

It should be clear by now you have no rights. Not when rights are bequeathed by a murderous tyrant mob with no honor or sense of proportion. You only have obligations. If you want things to be better, you have an obligation to see everybody as they really are. And make your peace with it.

Maybe you’re going out to work on an oil rig or drive a truck or clean toilets all day. And you have the same amount of disposable income as your neighbors with five kids and a stream of welfare checks paying for it all.

People are fat. Sedentary. Autistic and mentally confused. Because that’s what works best these days. Nobody owes anybody anything. Including being productive. Or curbing their consumption. Live and let live means especially let the worsts of the worst live.
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I remember what someone said to Eric a while back. About what he is owed.

He “finds” things and he shares them, he pays nobody. Nobody pays him. It’s all free. Because consumption is occurring I lean towards thinking this is a good thing. Sure there might be even better things. But don’t let even better be the enemy of the good enough.

He says: “I don’t expect to be paid to share ideas for a better world. Although you don’t have many root-striking posts [at EPautos] anymore so I don’t visit as much, you roll the same line as many bloggers who think their content is worth a living, like Stefan Molyneux for example.

It’s not. There are hundreds out there sharing these ideas for free. My website is just one. Perhaps write a book and I may buy that.

It seems you would advocate the ability to maintain what you take on, like your cars. Yet you don’t seem to be able to find your own IP address. A website costs absolutely nothing to maintain above a few hundred bucks a year if that.

I’ll have none of the pay services, perhaps you should make it a subscription only site. That would put people like me to rest.
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That’s a lot to process. Stefan’s channel has 56 million views. As a ballpark amount, I’d say he deserves 56 million dollars for all the effort he put into those vids. If things were fair and just, he have something of equivalent worth.

Not dollars, because those all get spent paying ransoms, and caging opponents, and killing enemies. And wasting on boondoggles. But something of great worth.

This inability to pay Stefan hurts us all. Makes us all continue in our powerlessness. Because we don’t see right actions receiving just rewards. So we become cynics. And waste effort deciding who to blame. Instead of building a new system for us each to keep up to date on what we owe and what we are owed. So we can all behave logically and do for others so they do for us.

This dismissive negation of the obvious value Stefan has given with little compensation isn’t from a mouth breathing clover. This isn’t some well fed government trough sow. This is the future that’s facing us. This is from one able to think. Able to produce. Able to relate and cooperate. This is how the young people I talk to think about things. This is how many of them are in my direct observation of them.

They have no conception of the principles we hold dear. They’re just waiting for us to retire and to die. Or else for a chance to make a grab for everything and just take what they feel is due them. Because they’re younger and they’ve been promised things. And that’s just how the world works, you take what you can for free.

They buy from a megagiant retailer box what they must. And nothing more. They have telecoms, media, cloud connectedness, insurance, vehicles, through expensive credit. They get most of the rest for free in whatever way they can. This is the reality of today’s consumers. It seems pointless to waste a lot of words saying what is good and what is bad about them. We already know that, we agree with each other, we also know the younger people aren’t listening to a word of it.

It’s going to be up to us to find new ways to trade value for value. The old ways are impossible now. The young will never afford what we once could. What little they’ll buy and own, they’ll never be as free to enjoy, everywhere there’s the zombie hordes looking to take anyone’s surplus, any way they can.

We can teach them a better way. But we’ll only succeed if we approach millenials and the young at their level of understanding. Which we’ll only know by asking them. Listening to their answers. And keeping to ourselves how horribly misguided and deluded everything they say is.

And work slowly to correct them and give them the wisdom they sorely need, while taking the energy and new knowledge they offer.

The young hate nearly everything. And they have long complicated negative opinions about everything. And except for the few with skills, knowledge, and wealth, no one is going to listen to them or get anything useful out of them if they stick to the old norms and expectations and don’t find new ways to interact and evolve.

New ways to give and receive value for value. A small group of old set in their way guys have limited options and chances for success. If some of us really listen to the young, and only after really hearing them and understanding them. Find ways to get through to them, and shake the cobwebs out and get them thinking productively. Maybe we both still have a chance in all of this.

According to .gov there are 330 million people in the fusa. 110 million get food stamps or some other .gov assistance. 93 million can’t find jobs because there are no jobs thanks to .gov. That which can’t go on forever won’t. I only hope these young people are smart enough to keep a list of who needs to be hung when the time comes.

I don’t think most kids hate cars. The “disinterest” is due to cars being increasingly out of reach for teens. There are no longer any inexpensive used cars to buy to begin with (thank you cash for clunkers). Even if you can find one, in order to get a plate on it, you probably have to fix a number of things. Then there is insurance. The insurance itself can cost more then a minimum wage job will produce, and that is if a teen can even find that job. Many teens today that truly want a job have little chance of finding one. Then to even get a drivers license now a days, yikes.

Back in the day, $400 got you a car, now a days you buy a computer or an iphone. No wonder teens (and increasing older people too) withdraw into that insular “online” world. The real world is a hassle (for everyone not just teens) and only getting worse and worse in that regard. And you know how teens avoid hassles when they can. Just wait until they are in their 20’s and 30’s and they haven’t outgrown that.

It doesn’t help that most schools now a days badmouth both cars and part time teen jobs too. They were starting up with that even back when I was in high school (88-92), and they have only turned up the rhetoric on that since. School is your job, they would say…….. I remember a teacher tearing into a guy in my class for working nearly full time during school. Thankfully that guy blew that teacher off because he knew he had a good work ethic and preferred making money over school (his grades weren’t bad). Working that much didn’t hurt him at all, he does well today.

When I had to do hiring in college for other students for janitor jobs, it was eye opening. How many of my fellow students had NEVER had any paying job before applying for the jobs I was filling. There was a guy who had no idea about showing up on time, or doing the job or anything and he drove me crazy with how much time I had to spend supervising him. He was already 22 years old! There are college grads today, that their first job will be the one they get after they graduate from college!! Imagine them not understanding showing up on time, employers must be thrilled.

The ultimate goal here is to make driving and owning a car such a stinking hassle that only the overlords and other “privileged” folks will do it. The rest will be forced back onto mass transit. So much for those summer road trips.

A lot of parents also don’t want their kid to drive on their insurance because of liability concerns, so they make the kid wait until at least 18 & force them to secure separate auto insurance.

I let my kids drive @ age 16 on my insurance, but I added a $2 million umbrella liability policy, for a total of $4000/year (home+auto+umbrella) for 4 drivers (2 adult, 2 teenager), & 4 vehicles, the newest of which is almost 10 years old.

Even the most appliance-like cars are not very appliance-like when it comes to the routine maintenance required to keep it running. Brakes, tires and timing belt replacement might be worth more than the car. Kids can’t afford it and neither can their parents.

It’s not hate so much as indifference. For the kids cars have always been disposable appliances. EXPENSIVE disposable appliances. Heck I’m 36 and just now getting a drivers license because of money. On $12 an hour a $200 a month insurance payment like I have on my 2003 Murano is asking quite a lot, and I have no regular debt, am single, and bicycle 3.5 miles to work to avoid fuel costs, and have been doing this for fifteen years. One traffic ticket already had me worried about making all my bills.

It really does boil down to a cost-benefit analysis.

The first awakening for me to the fable of the state, of cops as good guys, as courts as being temples of justice, was those first three speeding tickets at age 16.

I have wasted many years trying to fight the evil of that system because I was programmed with the ideal of it, the hope that if just one man with the stones to stand up and say NO to it could turn the tide of corruption. Hollywood shows us that that’s the way it works, right? And yet year after year I’ve seen the tranzis insist that my right to drive and carry a weapon, much less an effective one, is a privilege for which I must beg the state, because I’m “free”(tm)?

Could it be that this will backfire with the current generation? That there is a God, or call it karma if you will, and the latest generation has come of age with the illusion of liberty and justice shattered? With the election of the communi**er, might the ripping of the coverings from their eyes be accelerated? With the proof in front of them that the old line demonized racists were in fact right and the “downtrodden” in fact just want to take over and run our society into the ground?

One may hope that in fact they are simply exercising their right to drive without the BS, at least in an increasing number of cases? Why not, as the system is a joke and it will cost you less to be ticketed for driving without a “license” and insurance than the cost of those things. And how are they to identify you without them?

Eventually the bad guys will lose. They always push too far, and are hanged on the crossbar of their own towering corruption, greed, and folly. Law can NOT be enforced without the willing acquiescence of a large majority, and already most resent it and resist in some way. So if the kids are opting out on paper, that is a great thing.

Granted, it is an expensive, hassle and discrimination plagued process for young people to get a license, insurance, and then drive. Cars and driving are not as fun or interesting now. And social media provide alternative ways to stay in contact.

But having a car and license are still Priceless. Without them, your mobility is limited to your feet, your bike, uber, or “public transportation.” A huge amount of self sufficiency, personal mobility, and FREEDOM is sacrificed.

Hmmm…..this would play right into the hands of The Overlords.

Wake up young people! Don’t make this terrible mistake.

The right to travel, predating this country by several thousand years, is officially gone…

Eric, when we were teenagers, we also had jobs at 15+ that helped pay for the car that we bought so we’d have something to drive. Good luck getting a full-time job as a 16 year old in the summer…isn’t that illegal now?

Even if a teenager wanted to jump through all of the hoops that are required in order to exercise their right, they couldn’t afford it, because they’ve lost the right to earn money to pay for gas/insurance/car, etc.

For young adults (Millenials), they’re opting out of cars because of the expense. They’ve got tens of thousands of college debt to pay for, and a $500 car payment plus insurance plus gas means they can’t swing it. Those that can are either living at home with mom + dad (free rent), or were lucky/smart enough to graduate with a STEM degree.

They also had their financial formative years happen during the 2008 time-period, when the stock market took a 40% dump. They saw what happened to their parents and/or their friend’s parents, and they’re unwilling to go into debt that is controlled by someone else.