Is it worth it to buy a home or car in the US? What to do?

[lovelybunny]

I mean, mortgages and car loans cost A LOT OF MONEY, and it's part of the debt system to get everyone to work till death and then make a few CEOs rich. Thus, would you buy a home or car in America? Is it not a better alternative to just work, make money & share an apartment/home with someone, carpool, then leave for abroad & live there? If you can't car pool, why not take the trains or buses(if possible)? No matter what you say, your home or car does NOT belong to you. If you fall back on its payments they confiscate them within a few months. In other countries, you own them, for the most part, and the government doesn't easily take these things away that fast, because they see it as stealing. Why give away money for taxes, mortgages, car insurance and inspections, and go in debt just to make a few CEOs rich?

[lovelybunny]

Why waste away your money and years in the US on a home or car?

[ladislav]

In Akron, OH I have no choice but to lease a car. The bus service here is slow and infrequent and it's not safe to be waiting for it every day. I can of course rent a car but it's more expensive.

I have no home. If I ever get a house and use mortgage for it, it's got to be a duplex so that the tenants would pay it. The interest is also tax deductible; rent is not.

[Taco]

Houses and cars are conspicuous consumption, generally speaking you don't really need to own one to survive. Houses prices went up in the US from about 1940 until 2008. The widely held belief was buying a house is a good investment, this is no longer true. Over the long term housing prices are declining in most states which means houses are now depreciating assets. Also, most people believe that the housing market crash in Detroit($100 houses) will not spread to the rest of the country, I'm not one of those people.