I used to live in this weird apartment building that once had been fancy, so it had large common areas with fitted carpet; but now was "significantly less desirable", and residents used to let their dogs shit on the carpet. It was the cheapest 1-bed flat I could find at the time. 2/3 of the cars parked outside were recent BMW's or Audi's. Everyone will choose how they spend their own money, but some fall for the glamour of consumerism more than others, and for many young men with jobs but no families that means the coolest car you can manage, even if you have to live in a damp hovel and wade thru dog shit to get to it every morning 🤗

Doesn't sound like someone who's minutes away from starving buying something that was obviously unnecessary though, does it?

And if a guy with shitty credit and unsteady income is able to get financing on a six-figure truck, that's more the banks fault.

If you are going to make a statement about people, generally speaking, we like to have proof.

Have you actually seen this new car welfare person or is this a straw man born of your keyboard?

I was using "brand new" as in they buy a new car to replace the car they have. Not necessarily a shiny new, newest model up to date state of the art car, but a they replace the car they have with a new car.

Believe it or not there are people who would say "How can you say you are poor -- you just bought a new car?" then tell The Daily Mail that illegal immigrants are using tax-payers money to buy new cars.

A new car is not that much more in a lot of places than a used car, especially right now. Plus, you can earn supplementary income with a new car that you might not be able to in an old car. In some markets you can't drive uber without a very new car.

This is why the advice is basically not to judge so much, especially considering billionaires are literally making record profits off of food and medicine right now.