Driving Miss Crazy

Like anybody, I too am always delighted when my analysis is on the mark.

Let me explain.

A few days ago, in responding to a comment at this post, I wrote:

First, the equation of decreasing car sales with loss of employment. I would rather interpret this way: The hundreds of thousands (or lakhs) of rupees that would have been spent on cars will now be spent on other things, which will generate employment. The "loss" is primarily for those who invested in automobile manufacturing. I have no sympathies for those big investors, who know all too well about the market and profit and loss.
Second, some of us have been hypothesizing that in highly densely populated cities--which is all of India--the cost of car ownership is immense. Car sharing, which has been made possible by the likes of Uber and Ola and others, makes it possible for the upper-middle class to move around in cars without owning them.

As much as I don't care for the likes of Uber, those services are here to stay and will continue to grow.  Therefore, betting on the auto industry to sell more vehicles to a younger generation doesn't seem wise to me.  While I am no investment guru, I interact a lot with young people, and read commentaries, based on which even three years ago I wrote that teenagers perhaps don't dream of cars anymore.

Today, I read in the news that the finance minister of India is blaming millennials and services like Uber for the massive slump in the auto industry in my old country!

To which I have only one response:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Source

The minister made this comment in Chennai for a good reason--it is the Detroit of India, where the auto industry is huge.  But, it is remarkably stupid for a finance minister to blame young people for not buying automobiles.  Seriously?  Is the government now going to mandate that thirty-somethings buy cars, or else?  Next they will frame it as a patriotic duty to buy cars?  Like how my President here tweets and talks about "Patriot Farmers" who are being screwed by his trade wars?

A year ago, when I was in India, an old high school classmate suggested that I use Uber or Ola.  He, like me, is no millennial.  And is a highly affluent fellow.  Even he regularly uses Uber to get to work, he said--better than hiring a driver, and far better than "self-driving."  Another advantage?  He could talk without distractions while on the road--he was, in fact, in an Uber ride when he made that suggestion to me.

I tell ya, if only people listened to me and my analysis of how the world works! ;)