Recession and Cars

Heard on the radio this morning that in the US there was a decrease in car purchases by 37%. If you heard otherwise, please do let me know.

Not long ago, I heard car purchases were up by 40%. Hmmm. Now if there is a decrease by 37% what does it tell us? Do people no longer need cars? Or they can make do with what they have. Or perhaps they bought new cars or traded in their older cars for newer models simply because they could. Credit was not an issue. Whether they could afford to or not is a different issue.

Really cars tend to last a while. I used to hear that folks bought cars simply because they had to have the newer model or a different kind of car suited their personality or was necessary because of their lifestyle.

Now perhaps all that is changing, because of the recession. If car sales do not increase, would that be good or bad for the economy? Bad some would say. Good the others. Regardless, it is our spending pattern that has brought us where we are. And this is not only the case in the US. It applies to the rest of the world.

Why buy stuff when people can't afford to? Credit is available, so why not? There are the givers and the takers. Then there are the copycats. Why not live like the Jones, Smiths, Khannas, Kewalramanis, and Desphandes? One ought to stop and think perhaps the others earn a lot more. Perhaps the others have a problem that we do not need to imitate. Perhaps.

Perhaps we will go back to the way we were. Perhaps that way we were was not that good really. If it was, why are we in this state? Will we ever be the same again?