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Comment by audi100quattro | Hacker News Reader

We still live in an ownership society AFAIK. Owning your own home, car, the vast majority of products you use pays. Owning multiples of each pays even more. The parts of society where this isn't true is media, and it's a shame.

You should buy what you need with the rights you're entitled to, and figure out the difference between what you need and what you really don't.

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Someone with a username matching a fairly fancy car manufacturer would think that, wouldn't they? :-)

I so don't miss owning a car. If you don't need a car for daily commute then taxis and renting is much much cheaper for when you do need a car.

And it's not just the money. The life drain of owning a car is a big cost.

If I lived in Houston I'd reluctantly own a car though.

Do you have any children?

I owned cars from my 18th birthday and a significant amount of my earnings went into them. Now that I am closer to 40 than to 30 and living at a place that can actually provide me with a decent public transport I can see myself not owning a car but the thing is that I have a kid and really don't want to tell my wife and my daughter that we have to go on a bus or wait for a cab to go to the nearby lake for a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. Also I lease a car for around 200 GBP per month which is less than what I would pay for public transport. With those 200 GBP per month and for a three year lease tires and maintenance are included. What's not to like?

200 GBP a month is a lot of Ubering. That can be like 5-10 hours in a cab per month (depending on trip lengths). And on top of that you don't need to pay for fuel, insurance, parking, mechanic, cleaning, MOT, etc... etc... (ok, so you mentioned "maintenance included", so that's a pretty sweet deal, actually. still not worth it and you're not comparing apples to apples)

What's your total cost that you should compare to? 600 GBP a month maybe? 700? (maybe with your deal only double the number you said)

I'd rather have "wait for uber" over "searching for parking spot" any day. Or I rent a zipcar. You could rent a zipcar every weekend and it'd still be cheaper than owning a car.

But no, I'm not in your position, and there are things you don't mention that I know about, like child car seats, that has made a friend of mine keep his car.

I didn't say there are no exceptions.

I have an e-bike, live near public transport, bike lanes, and hate owning my car too. Would I switch to using Lyft exclusively? If the south bay invested more in the VTA like Muni in the city, and Lyft was much cheaper for long distance driving, yes. Otherwise, no.

What about things that aren't worth the cost to own them outright? Take a chocolate fountain: No one needs one, but it might become worth it to buy access to one at some small fraction of it's cost.

I'm not against renting, or something as a service etc.. I'm just saying the benefits of actually owning something you need pays for itself. If you're new to skiing and want to try it out? Rent the gear. Going more than twice a year? I'm sure buying good gear is worth it.

How does owning multiple houses or cars pay?

If you need them, even as an investment, you can always rent out a house. Having a small car as a daily driver and a big one for a family car makes sense.

There are drivers that rent Priuses for hundreds/week and earn a living on Uber/Lyft. The owner is making a killing I'm sure.

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