Old 12-12-13, 05:00 AM
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joao_pimentel
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Originally Posted by Machka
Car is an expensive toy.

Toy?

I know some people own cars for recreational purposes ... maybe they build up hot rods, or have a nice sports car for cruising on nice days ...

But our vehicle is a functional tool ... not a toy.


Rowan works about 35 km away. There are no busses or other public transportation that would get him where he needs to go at the hour of the morning he needs to be there.
He could ride his bicycle, but 70 km/day over several good-sized hills would be very time consuming (3-4 hours/day). 70 km/day over several good-sized hills is also tiring ... especially given that his job is quite physical too.

Rowan could have taken a job closer to where we live, but it would have paid less.

So ... when you include all the various factors into the equation ... the functional tool becomes quite inexpensive.

wrong, each case is one different case, but that's wrong if you take the overall approach to the problem

do you know the concept "virtual speed"?

Imagine Rowan makes all those calculations on the simulator and gets something like 20$ per working day just for car (running and standing costs). Imagine Rowan earns 5$ per hour. Then he would need to work 4 hours per day just for affording his mean of transport.

If he lives 35km away from his workplace and he gets there in 30 min, his true average speed would be 70km/h.

Though, I remind, Rowan spends more 4 hour per day paying his car, working time budget strictly allocated for paying his car, so the Rowan virtual speed would be 35/(0.5+4)=8 km/h, just 11% of his true speed.

It means that if Rowan sold the car and found a job in front of his home door, earning one fourth of the money, would still be a good option

Or if Rowan sold the car and went by bike to that working place away 35km, and he just worked part-time, was still a better option.

Yes my friend, if you start to make the true calculations, car is a very expensive toy

Last edited by joao_pimentel; 12-12-13 at 05:03 AM.
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