[jpfromlondon]

It was common (at least here in europe) to simply buy your car, with the proliferation of finance and lease it is now the norm to essentially rent your own car for two to four years before inevitably having to trade it in for another, perpetually on the strap.

This has driven the actual price of vehicles both used and new to astronomical levels under the assumption that you will have it on-plan rather than own it outright.

Major things aside, it's the every day minor erosions in qol that depress me...for example cereal boxes used to be stiffer, chocolate had more cocoa solids, products were on average better quality, to get that same quality requires you to know and spend a lot more, we aren't imagining it, there was a sweet spot somewhere between 2003 and 2016.