The original poster seemed to have a problem with people being able to recoup and profit from the sale of their home.
The original poster seemed to have complained about government involvement distorting the market. I’m not sure that’s quite the same thing.
The difference between a money pit (i.e. a car) and an investment (i.e. a home) is that you can get the money back that you invested + extra if you are lucky.
Every car I’ve ever owned returned all the money back that I invested and then some. Why the hell would you buy one otherwise? They also depreciated, but that doesn’t matter when the gross investment returns are greater than the depreciation cost.
The original poster seemed to have complained about government involvement distorting the market. I’m not sure that’s quite the same thing.
Perhaps I didn’t understand their sarcasm. The government didn’t distort the market so that people can make money from the sale of their home and property. Unless they are going back to a time before governments, when people were trading animals for land and so on… the owner would get as much value as the person buying it had in the acquisition. This almost always turned a profit for the seller, unless they were completely desperate.
Every car I’ve ever owned returned all the money back that I invested and then some.
As in, you’ve profited from the sale of every car you’ve owned? Or that owning a vehicle, allowed to you not spend as much as you would have without one?
If it’s the former, then it would be unheard of, unless you’re omitting some critical detail.
Why the hell would you buy one otherwise?
I can’t speak for other people, but I’m sure convenience and “my job” are at the top of the pile. If given a choice, I don’t think most people would want to own a car, especially if affordable housing is on their mind.
I also don’t think many regular consumers are buying cars for some chance to profit from the sale of them afterwards. I think the majority of car owners have resigned to the fact that they will never recover the costs of owning a car.
As in, you’ve profited from the sale of every car you’ve owned?
I profited from owning productive capital. You know, an investment!
I don’t think most people would want to own a car
I certainly wouldn’t. I don’t like owning a car. But it has been hard to turn down the return on investment potential. Where else were you going to get those kinds of returns?
In the past, that is. I haven’t bought a car recently. With the price of vehicles today, it’s not clear if there is still much ROI to be had – it seems pencils have been sharpened pretty sharp. But I’m not looking for one right now either so I haven’t crunched the numbers very hard.
I also don’t think many regular consumers are buying cars for some chance to profit from the sale of them afterwards.
I wouldn’t think so either. If they are looking for a bank account that returns some interest, they’re more likely to go to a bank. But if they’re looking for an investment, cars have been pretty good (maybe no longer; we shall see).
