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오늘 쓴 Chapter 11장…..

일을 하는데도 가난한 이유….자동차 중독….

11

Auto Addiction

50% of Americans do not need a car.
-Brad Kong

Owning a car causes all sorts of problems; it costs a lot of money, too. One of the most ridiculous stories I have heard was the case about Sandra Bland: she virtually died only because she owned a car or she was a smoker. People generally do not have much chance to meet police unless they drive a car. I read a book titled “Talking to Strangers” written by Malcolm Gladwell the other day; this book starts with an episode regarding the death of one lady.

Sandra Bland was a 28 year old African American woman from Naperville, Illinois. She graduated from Texas A&M University in 2009 and had diverse jobs before she died. In July, 2015, she was driving to start her new job in Prairie View, Texas and got pulled over by a traffic cop. I actually watched the whole footage on Youtube and it seems everything started as a routine traffic stop for a signal violation; the police asked for license and registration, etc. And then, suddenly things got pretty bad after she started smoking. I assume the police was a nonsmoker. He asked to put off the cigarette and she refused; they started arguing; the officer got offended, and she got arrested and moved into a jail. Surprisingly, she committed sucide by hanging three days after she was booked into jail.

Let me ask you one question: Would she be alive by now if she was a non-smoker? I robustly suggested not to smoke if you want to save money in the beginning. But, I just did not realize it can cause a death like this. Or would she be alive now if she did not own a car at all? I know some people really need a vehicle for their jobs. But, in my opinion, too many people just have too many cars for nothing; there are plenty of alternative choices nowadays, but people don’t even consider those from the start; many do not have a plan to live without a car to begin with; they just have cars unconsciously and these bring a full spectrum of problems into their lives; a car can cost a chunk of money, big enough comparable only to housing costs. We cannot live without a house, but I believe half of Americans can live without a car.

To be fair, I like to make sure that I am not necessarily on the police side. In 2003, my girlfriend, who is my wife now, and I went to Miami, FL from Champaign, IL by car: the greatest road trip. On the way back, we planned to stop by Charleston, SC since I heard it is a famous tourism city. Not long after I crossed the South Carolina border, I was stopped by a traffic cop, and he said I was driving too fast. It was amazing that the highway has a 30 miles speed limit; he said I was driving 45 miles, which is still pretty slow for any highway in common sense; he also explained that I do not have to go to court, but I have to send a $52 fine for the ticket by check, which is unusual. I felt like I just got robbed of $50 for nothing.

When I think about it now, these crooked South Carolina highway patrols were there intentionally; probably, it was a tourist trap for the first time visitors. There is no way I got into a local road with a 30 miles speed limit suddenly as I had driven all along the highway from Florida. I believe many people make the same mistake as I did on that spot; these frauds just chose newish cars with foreign license plates (non-South Carolina) to make $50 easily. Since these low quality people ruined my day, my wife and I canceled the Charleston trip and decided to go home directly through Georgia. Later, I heard a lot of Americans complaining about the same experiences. I am glad I did not spend a single cent more in that State and got out.

I believe this woman, Sandra, might have a similar situation as I had. According to the report, the police car was driving fast and pushing right behind her, so she was yielding the lane for it. And then, she got pulled over by the cop for not turning on the signal light for it; simply, this guy stopped everyone for nothing. It is unfair and upsetting, but I believe she should have acted a little bit cool; I did not tear up and throw out the ticket to the South Carolina police in 2003.

Regardless of this incident, apparently, she had written a lot of articles against the police regarding black rights movement before she passed away. But, please remember that these officers are humans, too. Getting more tickets does not bring them more salary, so it is worth being polite and explaining things a little bit; I do have a couple of experiences where they did not charge me anything and walked away. She did not have to act rude bluntly or start smoking right at that moment.

Or better yet, maybe not owning a car can solve all the problems I just mentioned so far. I know this story is not all about car ownership. But, let me tell you one thing for sure: personally, I have lived without a car for five years as of 2022 and never been happier; in fact, no car has gotten rid of 30% of my life problems. Let me explain what happened to me in the last twenty years and what made me decide to get rid of my car after owning for over 18 years.

* * *

The first car I had was a brand new Hyundai Elantra. I bought it in the year of 2000 and had kept it for 13 years. The second car was also a new model of Elantra in 2013. Maybe I bought a Hyundai twice since I am from Korea. But, honestly I liked the designs. I kept that one for about 4 years. So, my car ownership had been about 18 years total though I rented cars before and after.

My biggest horror was about mechanics. Have you heard of “Mechanics trauma”? Probably not since I made the word. Having horrors after horrors, I had strange symptoms that made me feel uneasy even with the smell of mechanics: You know the mild gas smell from the working area. Cars went back in worse condition many times even after spending a chunk of money. I had to squeeze my budget crazily since I had been short of money. Many mechanics replaced original good factory parts with cheap after markets even after getting $1,500 payment.

I particularly had a hard time after my first car became 10 years old. In 2010, my daughter was born and economic depression came. The store could not make a lot of money, but I had to keep pouring money into it.

I should have replaced my car by then. Monthly payment for a brand new car could be cheaper. For some reasons, I thought it is wise to keep a car with healthy repairs. Honest repairs improving the car condition never really happened throughout my ownership.

I was in college when I bought my first car in 2000. I remember it had been great for about 7 years. The first frustration came after the timing belt change. The dealership said they will give me a loaner car and asked me to leave the car for a day. They suggested a strangely lower price of $375 even though $500 was common for timing belt change. You know what? They did not change it.

After the timing belt change, I was about to finish up college in Buffalo, New York. I planned to move to Chicago to start a new business. I thought I will visit NYC one last time since I got a new timing belt, anyway. After parking my car in Manhattan, it did not start again. I spent so much money for towing, timing belt change and cylinder damage. It took a few days to repair. I had to go back to Buffalo by bus and back to NYC via plane to pick it up. I think the total cost was about $3,500.

Horror did not stop there. In fact, it was merely a beginning. Whenever I went to any car related place, I spent money just like nothing. I felt like American consumption starts with a car. Once you have it, you must spend a good amount of money somehow and anyhow. Even a low life’s excuse to get money is “gas money”.

I will explain more details in chapter 13, but I live in a walkable neighborhood now. Though one of our neighbors, Jim, had lived without a car for 30 years, I thought that it was crazy in the beginning. We are all addicted to cars to some degrees.

I used to have chronic back pain when I had cars. That is long gone for years after starting walking. And, I am much thinner and notice that I have way more free time as well. It takes time to wash, fill gas into or repair a car. I do not have to visit the DMV, insurance office, police station or court, either.

How can a normal citizen be a criminal quickly? I think driving a car makes the chance 10 times higher. Drinking at a bar and coming home is not really a crime. With a car handle in your hands, it is. Some good people can be hit and run criminals. They may be bad people or not just good at driving.

I used to rent a car every month right after removing my car. Renting has become less and less and almost none now. My wife uses Uber whenever she needs it.

When I used to own a store, there was a nice, but poor maintenance guy. He had three daughters and four cars. He had two jobs and his wife worked all the time. But, they had been flat broke. I learned that he eventually lost his house though the couple had paid a mortgage over 20 years.

If you work to death, but do not see any money left, see if your car could be a reason. It is sad to lose a house over a few cars. Humans have lived with a car for over 7 million years. One car a person is simply ridiculous.