[The_Blur]

Having looked back at some other young driver threads on the forum, I think we all need to rethink our stance. It is clear that most of us are more mature users here, but that maturity has not given any of us the right to refuse someone a car. Despite this one's poor delivery, I think he has a point that we forgot to consider. Allow me to explain what I call The Trap. After reading this, ask yourself if you think you deserved a car that was, at the very least, nice between the ages of 16 and 25.

The Trap starts when a person wants something as a young teenager. Parents start giving allowances in order to teach about finance, but kids will not understand immediately. They will buy new clothes, movies, CDs, and games over saving because they finally have the freedom to do so on their own. Many of us still do these things later, and yet we feel the need to criticize our youth for following in our footsteps.

When parents see this trend, they realize that their allowance is not enough to teach financial responsibility, so they encourage, sometimes more harshly than others, their children to get jobs, but most states won't hire someone until the age of 16 years. This is the first major point in The Trap. A teen must get to work somehow, but that teen has no access to a car because cars are expensive.

Now the parents, feeling obligated to help with this financial lesson, must buy a car, but no immature teen can handle a fast, cool, or luxurious car, so they buy a beater. Afterwards, the child is expected to pay insurance, cell phone bills, and still save for the all-important college education that will cost $50k in just over 2 years. This is the next major obstacle in The Trap. College is too expensive for anyone to reasonably save for it in the 2 years that he or she can be reasonably employed.

2 years later, that 16-year-old is 18, in a state school, taking out loans, and loving life in a college town that encourages underage drinking and a sports team whose jerseys cost $60 despite the thousands already spent on tuition. Everyone loves the team to which he or she belongs, and 4 years of happiness ensue. This is part of The Trap. These 4 years, whether graduation is reached or not, put the person so deep into debt that the next 25 years tend to be spent paying back loans in small payments.

Having now spent the last 4 years in college, the part-time work experience that even the most ambitious college academics pursue does not qualify as management or administrative experience. As a result, these poor souls have to go to work at the entry level, making hourly wages alongside the other poor souls who couldn't afford college or qualify for financial aid. In effect, you've got an entire social class of workers who, based upon their age and lack of money, take jobs for which they are overqualified. In the end, whether this person went to college or not, at the age of 23, the person is still working entry level jobs. The only difference is that all of these people either have 2-4 years of work experience or a 2-4-year degree. Unless you have both a degree and experience, promotions are unlikely, if not impossible. Ultimately, The Trap is a monetary ploy to get people into school in order to trap them in financial insecurity for a third of an entire generation's life.

Allow me to recap what has just transpired in The Trap. A 12-year-old grew up, learned that savings will never suffice for what he or she needs to succeed, and is still driving a car that was already a beater when he or she turned 16. At the age of 23, it is very reasonable for this very beater to still be the car of necessity for this individual who is too busy paying for college at the job they have to take in order to pay back those loans. Success is a rare fact, based on networking with family and friends, not job experience, college major, or a job placement agency. The Trap is money, education, and the social rules our parents follow, thinking that they are doing a good job.

The sad truth is that we've paid our dues, eventually getting out of The Trap just in time for our children to be 12 years old, asking for money, and wanting a new pair of jeans, and we, just having paid off our college loans, will tell them to get a job in order to pay for what they want. It's cyclical, and we are so worn out from getting out of our trap that we forget that we're putting our children through about 30 years of debt, frustration, miserable work, and financial insecurity.