If you make $40/hour, how many hours do you have to work to pay for a new $30,000 vehicle that depreciates 60% ($18,000) in 5 years?
In gross income terms that's 450 hours, or 11.25 weeks, but after you get worked over by the federal, state, and local tax men, you probably have to work more like 600-700 hours or 15 weeks. I wonder how many people would sign up to work for 15 straight weeks to get a car? If you spread it out over 5 years, 3 weeks a year devoted to paying for a car.
In 1860 a horse cost about $120. A worker made $1-2/day (0.12-0.25/hr), so they'd pay for a horse in 480-960 hours. I wonder if that cost is really true? It probably varied a lot from market to market and horse to horse.
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