The Price We Pay

I came across this article last weekend and I wanted to share it with you.  The author is able to put the whole scenario in simple terms, like this:

"One way to think about this is to compare it to purchasing a car. It is expensive when you have to make your monthly payments, but once it is paid off there is a period of time when it is fairly inexpensive to own that car, aside from gas and the occasional breakdown. Eventually, those breakdowns become increasingly frequent and your fuel economy is nowhere near that of a new car, so it becomes time to trade it in. Or, you continue to fix and repair every breakdown until the body rusts apart to the point it is no longer safe to drive.

The problem is, you had grown accustomed to not making car payments, and so the new car – even though it uses less gas and creates less pollution – hits your pocketbook. But you cannot magically have your old car back. So you can blame the government for making new cars less polluting, or for introducing a new tax since you bought your last one, but ultimately buying a car in 2011 is more expensive than running one you had paid off 10 years ago."

I love this analogy and enjoyed the rest of this article. You can read the whole thing here.