Everything Shiny & New

What ever happened to making do? To getting by with what you had and being thankful it was at least enough? Now it's all got to be brand spanking new, today's generation 'Y' don't want second hand, they wont settle for having enough, they want it all and they want it now.

Of late i have been discussing a car with one of my young charges who is currently terrorising road users with her 'L' plates. I suggested something a few years old perhaps about 10 years with a few scratches already in place, thinking that this hides the few that will get added to by all new drivers. Something small with low power, cheap insurance. I thought back with fond memories to my first car, bought by mum & dad a little 1.0L Metro in mint green with a brown interior was my first chariot to Independence, but that was fine, hey it even had a tape deck in it with four yes count them four speakers. Yes it was slow, no i wouldn't have chosen the colour, but that car never broke down on me, it carried me and my friends everywhere we wanted to go and cost less than a packet of smokes to insure per year.

Alas I'm told this is not acceptable, and may lead to the need for physiological session where young people blame their parents lack of support for the 12 deaths of school mates they just inflicted with a semi automatic rifle. No second hand wont do, its got to be new, its got to be the right colour, its got to have air con (hey my metro had windows what more do you need?) its got to have a CD Player that will plug my I-pod in and blue tooth my phone. It better not have a dull interior, or windows that require manual labour to open them. More over it's got to be all these things for $15,000 which I'm going to take out a 6 year loan for in an economy that's dying, which I'm going to pay for with the complete lack of job security everyone faces today... oh and would you sign the loan papers to say if i cant pay it you will?

Now to clarify i understand fashion, i get the need to be seen in the right places, wearing the right clothes, on the right mobile phone to the right kind of people, i think its bloody stupid, but i do understand it. This driven social acceptance has always been there, but it seems somewhere since owning Levi 501's and a pair of Nike trainers was all you needed to be in the 'In' crowd someone raised the bar. A car is an important purchase, and one that reflects the person which is why most peoples 1st car was a drab old little run around where a glove box light was considered an optional extra. This is fine as it reflects its owner.... poor.

It is a fact that a lot of economic problems suffered by young people, not just now but since time inmemorium, are a result of over taxing their income. It's a deluge of store credit, interest free, personal loans, credit cards for youngsters now, a rob peter to pay Paul mentality where they pay their visa with their MasterCard because all their wages are outgoing on loans meaning they have to use the ammerican express to do the weeks shopping. People my age blame banks, credit card companies etc, we argue that they act irresponsibly giving these 'Kids' all this debt, but i say no! It is society that puts pressure on these youngsters, demands for the sake of social acceptance they spend $200 on a pair of runners, commit to 2 years of debt to own the latest Nokia phone or 6 years of abject poverty just to drive a car that will be worth 1/3 less than they paid for it ten minuets after they drive out the garage.

So stop i say, you don't need electric windows, you don't need a blue tooth stereo, you don't need metallic paint and more the point you can't afford it no matter what your friends say.