[bigDinosaur]

I have to admit, while the US is technically richer I feel like the country is constantly plumbing the depths of decreasing livability for everyone else by insistence on things like gigantic trucks. The reality is that people usually aren't using them to haul big loads and in fact, due to how heavy the cars are themselves, actually are quite bad at hauling big loads. If challenged on why they need a vehicle of such size, of course suddenly they're hauling multiple tons around every evening.

[kbelder]

It doesn't matter what they usually do. It just matters what they occasionally do. For hauling, or range, or number of passengers... people don't buy a vehicle that satisfies their average daily requirements. They buy one that satisfies all the requirements they expect to encounter.

[bigDinosaur]

It would make far more sense to spend less and simply rent for the 99th percentile use (which btw most people probably actually never use). The issue with these big trucks is severe negative externalities for other road users and pedestrians - if that didn't exist I would not care at all if people wasted money.

Also these big trucks have really sucky hauling capacity, it's actually a weird part about them that few people seem to note (and confirms my suspicion most people get them for other reasons).