While driving around in another part of town today, I spotted a new kind of shop:
"Tire Rental" "As low as $3.00/week"
They have sidelines: Wheels (tire won't be much good without a wheel), and all manner of fancy bling, or rims, or whatever they call it.
Hint: unless you see things like "gentrification" or "urban renewal" cropping up in the papers in respect to that particular section of town, real estate is not a good investment there.
nate
Yup, they have them in the poorer parts of Phoenix too. Sure wish I would have thought of it. Hmmm I wonder if one could rent sneakers?
cm
"HeyBub" wrote in news:dJGdnZjqm-jYcazUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:
In some NC areas it is a common business to rent fancy wheels and tires. Even have ads on the radio.
Colortyme Custom Wheels Lease-To-Own
This one operates in many US states. Map link shows mostly concentrated in the southeast quadrant.
"Gawwwwwwwww-lee! Well I'll be dammed huh?!!"
Yeah, they have been around for several years on the west side. Poor people seem to have poor money management skills. It's not all that rare to see $3000 worth of wheels and tires on a car that's not worth $1000.
Hey, I live on the good side of town.........eventually, and I am very close, if I replace a tire on my '84 Buick, the tire is going to have greater value than the car :o) Got a little hole in the roof that I need to repair ... Bondo is the only thing I have heard of for the purpose, but I have never used it. And then there is the plastic on the Landau part of the roof. Lucky me, they had ladies day at the junk yard (my first time) a couple years ago, so I got some missing trim. There is a similar car in the neighborhod that looks better ... I may have to follow it home :o)
For years I've seen worthless turds walking around wearing $300.00 sneakers.
TDD
Nothin' new. 'Bling' wheel rental places have been around for years. One summer as a kid, I did FHA inspections on repo houses, to make sure the windows were all there and there were locks on the doors, etc. Blew my mind to see these crappy little shacks with shiny Caddies out front, many with obvious add-on padded vinyl tops and fancy wheels and such.
Guess if you can't afford a decent crib as a show-off item, you go with what they see when you are out and about showing off.
-- aem sends...
i wonder if thats like renting appliances,it ends up costing 3 times more than if you just bought it.
----------------------------------------------------------------
That is one of the things that keeps the poor people poor. No cash, no credit, so they rent for the same monthly (or weekly) payment forever.
You can buy a new refrigerator for about $450 today. In the same building where I worked was a used appliance dealer that preyed on the low income families. He'd sell a used model for $300 with weekly payments at 22% interest. Miss a payment and he'd repo it and sell it again.
you'd think that people would clue up and go to the library and search craigslist and/or just go to the salvation army. Heck, I do that (well, craigslist, not SA) for non-essentials and I'm not poor. All you need is an old pickup truck and you can get all sorts of stuff for cheap/free.
nate
Don't ferget that $2,000 sound system.
Steve
I seriously doubt that's what keeps poor people poor.
Anywhere in the US, used washers, dryers, and fridges go for around $50. More if you have to have newer or side by sides. What keeps poor people poor is having to have that $600 fridge, pay 22% interest, and not paying the payments when they could have owned one for less than the down payment on the new one.
Steve
Actually, it all comes down to parental apathy and failing schools. The ranks of the poor are rapidly growing not just due to the economy, but due to the lack of education in basic life skills like balancing a checkbook or budgeting.
That has been a pet rant of mine for years. Many or most parents obviously are not up to the job, so the High Schools should teach a course, at least a full semester, on 'Stuff you HAVE to know how to do to survive'. Basic personal finance, how health insurance works, how apartment and car leases work, why 'Rent to Own' is best avoided, etc. Maybe throw in a week on basic car care, like how (and why) to check and change oil, and how to change a tire and jump a battery, so you don't get ripped off the first time that comes up. Make passing a requirement for graduation.
-- aem sends...
Of course "getting ripped off" is somewhat relative and something needs to be done to kill this trend of disrespecting skilled "manual" trades.
Oh, I respect the hell out of skilled manual trades, and I have no problem paying fair compensation for actual needed repair work, done properly. But in my younger days before I caught on, and in talking to siblings and coworkers about the experiences of them and their relatives, I find 'wall jobs' to be epidemic. Lotta crooked tradesmen, shops and shadetree guys out there, and their favorite prey are the inexperienced and untrained people who have no idea what the hell is going on. Most females get NO training in house and car repairs growing up. Most guys that think they are experts, aren't. I grew up in construction, and have turned a wrench or three, but am still clueless about a lot a specialized or modern stuff. But when I call BS when they try to rip me off on the things I DO know about, I have to wonder about what is going on with the things I know nothing about.
'Caveat Emptor' came about for a reason.-- aem sends...
Add in something like "how to make a beat up fridge/filing cabinet/dishwasher front/whatever look like new with some 320 grit, a sanding block, and a rattle can of appliance epoxy" and I'm with ya.
I actually take some perverse satisfaction in taking something two steps away from the dumpster and making it look respectable again. That, and a lot of older stuff is more quality made than new stuff...
Of course, taken to an extreme, you end up like... well, me. Drives the girlie nuts, because there's half finished projects all over the damn place just waiting for a nice warm day to be dragged outside and sprayed. "Why can't we ever have new stuff?" Well, 'cause I don't make $150K/year. Wish I did, but I don't.
nate
I think it's lots of other things. If many of these people were suddenly thrust on an island, ala Robinson Crusoe, they may work out just fine. Or maybe they'd be dead in a couple of days. My brother in law is illiterate, and his construction company did $12 million last year. Go figger.
Steve
It's up to the person. My little sister in law got a used green Datsun 210 in about 1978 for her sixteenth. Dad showed her how to check the water and oil. He told her that if she didn't keep them full and the car burned up, she'd be the one paying the repairs.
One day, she got ready to go. She came back in and said that her car was a quart low, and she was going to put oil in it. Good girl. About half an hour later, we were leaving, and she was STILL putting oil in the car. We investigated, and found that she found a tiny funnel, and was slowly pouring it into the dipstick tube. We showed her the oil filler cap, but she thought out a solution of her own that worked.
Some things you cannot teach.
Steve
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