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And yet, luxury car sales are up 5% in April 2013 over 2012 according to the WSJ.
That does not disprove my statement, you realize?
Break America into income quintiles. The lower quintiles are increasing car ownership rates at faster levels (more room to grow helps).
If you could break Millennials out by income you would find a decrease. Top quintilers under the age of 31 own cars at a lower rate than 5 years ago, 10 years ago, or 20 years ago.
Income stratification explains luxury car sales. That and leases by $30,000-millionaries.
Maybe that's why SWPLs hate buses so much? Perhaps it reminds them of the shame and indignity they endured in high school because their parents wouldn't buy them a car?
so all the folks who put their bikes on the bike racks on buses in the DC area are NOT SWPL's?
As a SWPL, I'd say we like the bus more than the class of people below us. We are self actualized and don't associate our transportation choices with status. That's probably because it is exactly that, a choice.
And that class would be what exactly?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back
BTW, I read your list of DC friend car ownership habits. I have to say it is the exact opposite of my peer group in DC. In fact, I find car ownership more common in the Brownstone belt than in DC west of the River. I imagine it has to do with their fields of work. My DC peer group is mostly transplants on the Hill or in related policy fields.
My two friends who do not own cars are lawyers. One works for the federal government and the other is a professor. Of the ones that own cars, three are engineers, one is a policy dude, and the rest are lawyers. I also have two friends who are doctors and own cars, but they work outside of the city.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back
Who would take a job in MD?
Someone who works in a hospital or for a defense contractor.
My two friends who both own cars are lawyers. One works for the federal government and the other is a professor. Of the ones that own cars, three are engineers, one is a policy dude, and the rest are lawyers. I also have two friends who are doctors and own cars, but they work outside of the city.
I'll say that the list is not surprising. If we fleshed out a few more details, like did the policy dude grow up in VA? Are the lawyers from Tier II schools? How many of them are white/nonwhite? We could better establish the pattern.
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Originally Posted by BajanYankee
Someone who works in a hospital or for a defense contractor.
I figured as much. Not SWPL.
Last edited by Considering Coming Back; 05-03-2013 at 09:28 AM..
so all the folks who put their bikes on the bike racks on buses in the DC area are NOT SWPL's?
SWPLs on the East Coast don't complain so much about buses. It's largely the SWPLs in Sunbelt cities that cry "but the studies show white people won't ride buses!"
What do you suppose cab driver unions are going to have to say about self-driving cars?
Taxi unions are historically very weak, where they exist. The jobs suck ass, are incredibly dangerous, have no benefits, and are low-paid, which is one reason immigrants do them so often (they can live half the year here in squalor, the go back to Bangladesh and live like a king the other half of the year). Most drivers are considered "independent contractors" and have to lease the taxis from the companies, although some are self-employed.
While the current limited supply undoubtedly helps the drivers, it benefits the taxi companies far more. Regardless, I don't expect they'll be able to hold it up more than a decade or two once it become feasible - even in places like New York.
I'll say that the list is not surprising. If we fleshed out a few more detials, like did the policy dude grow up in VA? Are the lawyers from Tier II schools? How many of them are white/nonwhite? We could better establish the pattern.
Policy dude grew up in Chicago. Lawyers are Ivy. All are black with the exception of the couple on Capitol Hill (white and have cars) and one in Logan (white and has a car).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back
I figured as much. Not SWPL.
I'd say a radiologist is very SWPL. So is an ER physician.
Policy dude grew up in Chicago. Lawyers are Ivy. All are black with the exception of the couple on Capitol Hill (white and have cars) and one in Logan (white and has a car).
The Logan is rather an anomaly, assuming he's a transplant who has an office downtown. If he grew up in McLean or works in Bethesda, not so much. Then just a party guy.
Elite black culture has not adopted the same cultural norms as SWPL culture. They are still playing by the handbook of the previous generation. Some might argue writing their own playbook.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BajanYankee
I'd say a radiologist is very SWPL. So is an ER physician.
But they aren't. SWPLs aren't heavy into medicine and the ones in the field are into public health policy or international medicine. They would be working in offices on Connecticut, not rendering actual services.
SWPLs on the East Coast don't complain so much about buses. It's largely the SWPLs in Sunbelt cities that cry "but the studies show white people won't ride buses!"
I thought greater DC, esp NoVa, was not culturally "east coast"?
The lower quintiles are increasing car ownership rates at faster levels (more room to grow helps).
My old neighborhood broke down roughly 30/30/30/10 white/asian/black/latino with hardly anyone in the bottom quintile of household income (call it the 5th), nearly everyone was in the 3rd or 4th quintile, a few households in the 2nd quintile and an insignificant number in the 1st.
Most of the asians were 1st or 2nd generation. The 2nd generation generally wanted to stay in the neighborhood but the 1st generation were giddy about rising property values because they couldn't wait to sell and move to the suburbs. Older whites and blacks wanted to stay, the younger ones talked about moving to the 'burbs more often than not. Car ownership was seen as a status symbol amongst all races in the 3rd and 4th quintiles. Whereas people in the 2nd quintile took far more pride in what their houses looked like than in a car.
It has nothing to do with whether or not another class can afford it but with desiring things which are difficult to possess. Owning a car in a place where registration, insurance, maintenance and parking are prohibitive is a big deal to people who come from backgrounds where most people don't have one. If you've grown up in the suburbs with 3 or 4 cars in the driveway and spent much of your childhood in the backseat of one - cars are not that impressive and you have a completely different perspective on their value.
A much more important phenomenon when it comes to increasing rates of car ownership amongst the lower quintiles is the increasing suburban orientation of lower income people in the US (also happening in the rest of the developed world). Rents are cheaper but transportation costs are much higher. The grass is always greener and a lot of inner city, blue collar families still see the suburbs as a land of opportunity and good schools.
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