Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick
Interesting that they present the case as if he is "trapped" in his situation and "has" to pay that much in order to commute.
How about providing some solutions for his problem such as:
1. Get parttime jobs that are closer to home.
2. Dump the pickup and get a car or motorcycle that gets far better fuel mileage.
3. If the pickup is necessary for his line of work, dump the current pickup for an older and/or smaller pickup that costs far less in payments and to insure and gets better fuel mileage.
4. Move to where the jobs are.
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I agree about providing solutions but I think to really solve these problems we need more systemic solutions. Each of your recommendations has pitfalls. 1) the unemployment rate is up over 12% in some parts of the USA and part-time jobs never have benefits and might require as much or more driving depending on distances between them. 2) Is answered by three. 3) I totally agree but it's not hard to imagine this guy's seven-day per week job plus family life making that switch significantly more difficult to actually accomplish in his favor, with a reliable second-hand vehicle. 4) And if his house is underwater? If the jobs are in an area with poorer schools? If moving would take him far from elders to whom he's beholden, or would have to commute back to look-in upon?
There's a lot left unanswered by the video, stuff that matters. There is a need for the kind of systematic thinking and planning that our politics seems incapable of now.