This article further expands on the beginning piece last week on street economics and particularly on cutting down transportation cost by continuing to drive an older vehicle as I will relate some experiences. I drive an almost 30 year old Honda back and forth to work and put about 10,000 miles a year on it. I stopped to pickup a hitchhiker on I45 who was walking with his dog, Tucker, trying to get from Indiana down to Houston. He asked how old the vehicle was and wondered if maybe after a few miles it might give out and we would both be walking with Tucker.
My father, the Dutchman, drilled into me the principles to keep a car for a long time. Always keep the oil changed, never speed off from a stop, slow down gently before a stop, and always keep the RPM’s at very moderate level. My wife had a CRV that she drove 325,000 miles and 15 years before selling. The buyers trashed it out within 6 months.
I bring street economics up because the federal government is dramatically cutting benefits as of January 1 to the 40% of Americans identified as the working poor. Unless they adopt a severe form of street economics, they will be without health insurance, reduced child care benefits and early child education benefits. These people will have to adjust or see their lives come apart at the seams.
