Jordan Weissmann - Why Don't Young Americans Buy Cars?

Auto makers are worried about the Millennials. They just don't seem to care about owning a car. Is this a generational shift, or just a lousy economy at work? 

Richard Eskow — Picture the United States Without Student Debt made me think of this. The elite own the means of production but every action can have unknown consequences. The elite decided to lower taxes on themselves and so they funded a big campaign through their think tanks to get the public behind it. It worked. But it was difficult for the state to fund itself, especially its war machine, so the elite funded a campaign which said it was unfair that some people can get to go to university for free while other hard working people fund it, and so free university education was abolished. The bankers rubbed their hands together about the thought of all those student loans, but now indebted young people can't afford to buy cars anymore.

To be fair, the young have also lost interest in cars because they would prefer to buy software and electronics instead, but lack of funds is certainly a reason why they don't buy cars anymore. KV

Kids these days. They don't get married. They don't buy homes. And, much to the dismay of the world's auto makers, they apparently don't feel a deep and abiding urge to own a car. 

This week, the New York Times pulled back the curtain on General Motors' recent, slightly bewildered efforts to connect with the Millennials -- that giant generational cohort born in the 1980s and 1990s whose growing consumer power is reshaping the way corporate America markets its wares. Unfortunately for car companies, today's teens and twenty-somethings don't seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They're not even particularly keen on driving. 

The Atlantic

Jordan Weissmann - Why Don't Young Americans Buy Cars?