I work in auto manufacturing in the US. Not directly making cars but making parts that go into cars.
The amount of work we’ve been doing is insane - overtime pretty much every day for the past two months to keep up with orders.
But that makes no sense. All these cars we’re helping to produce, who the hell is buying them? Nobody has money for a new car. Most people in my city seem to be driving cars that are at least a few years old rather than brand new.
I do the math in my head and it doesn’t make sense. Who is buying all these cars? Are they even selling? It seems like a scam of some kind.
For every ten people who don’t have the money to buy a single new car, there is one person who has money to buy ten new cars.
I’m exaggerating a bit here, but my point is that more and more the economy is geared toward a shrinking minority of people at the top with a lot of disposable income who consume most of the “luxury” goods, while everyone else has nothing to spare because it all goes to various forms of rent and just trying to survive.
This is dead on. The top 10% of “income earners” contribute 50% of consumer spending. But as you imply, they don’t buy 10 cars, 10 homes, 10 refrigerators etc. The model is unsustainable, but we knew that already, that’s the we’re here
Also, if cars stopped being made due to their lack of demand, the business would close up, and the capitalists who run that particular industry would have to find new labor to exploit.
I’m thinking of fossil fuels sales.
Yeah, that too.
You’re not wrong. A family not far from me have two adult children living at home. I’m sure they contribute to family expenses, but the house and property are mortgage free. The pop worked his backside off and only recently retired. One adult child won a tidy lottery and couldn’t think what to do with it, and has three vehicles parked on the lawn.