# Society changing into a Rental Society **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809 "2015-06-18T00:33:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/21 "2015-06-18T03:32:51Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > But maybe this generation won’t need an ugly 3500 sq ft McMansion to store all this useless junk. Like their parents do. And what is wrong with a McMansion? I have a smaller version of one and it is far better than any apartment I had ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/22 "2015-06-18T03:34:29Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > That’s quite a facile view. When I was living in Boston, fresh out of college: > > 1. I couldn’t afford even $1500 up front without financing. > 2. I did not have enough spare cash to handle the regular $$$ repairs a car like this needs. > 3. I definitely would not be able to pay for a few thousand for a major repair and emergency replacement transportation. > 4. I couldn’t even afford to rent an apartment that came with a parking space, which would cost an extra few hundred per month. Let alone multiple parking spaces so you can work on one junker in your spare time, with $$$ tools, while you still have a place to park the replacement transportation. > 5. Registration and excise tax added up to $$$ per year, and even minimal insurance rates are far higher than $100 per year. > > But I didn’t need a car that frequently, so Zipcar met my needs for weekend shopping trips and such. (Actually, I found that a $5-20 cab ride made a lot of sense in many cases where I just needed to get a trunk full of shopping from the store to my apartment.) Wanting a “shiny ride” didn’t even enter into my calculations. > > Obviously a big part of those expenses was Boston. In, say, rural Ohio where anyone can fill their yard with junkers and be golden as long as one mostly works, it’s another matter. Understandably, but I never thought Boston was all that attractive to live in. Visit - yes, Live - No ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/23 "2015-06-18T03:39:39Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > Of course they do. Zip and Enterprise both have maintenance crews that come by late at night and clean the cars. When the engine or change oil or whatever notice comes up, whoever has it at the time reports it to the company and they get it taken care of. The Enterprise CarShare cars I use are newer, cleaner and better maintained than many friends and coworkers cars, that’s for sure. Plus if I want to take an electric car for a spin, I can. If I need a cargo van, SUV, or just small around-town for the grocery store car, I have access to all those. And yes, my phone is leased. I get a new one every year. > > Both of these options save me hundreds to thousands of dollars a year. Buying would never be the cheaper option in either of these cases. I would not want to be on the maintenance crew on some of these cars and remember that these rental cars are abused more than what you think ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/24 "2015-06-18T03:43:53Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > And what is wrong with a McMansion? I have a smaller version of one and it is far better than any apartment I had It’s vastly larger than you need to house your family and to meet your needs. It tries to act like a hotel (that’s what those guest rooms and extra bathrooms are for), a gym (bigger mcmansions have a room just for exercise equipment), a movie theatre, a bar, a restaurant, a swimming pool, etc. The problems with this are : a. Having all this excess stuff doesn’t make most people any happier. A lot of McMansions (the ones near my parents house that I personally saw over the years, for instance) are shoddily built and require a neverending slog of repairs and maintenance. b. Most actual people don’t use most of the features almost all of the time. Most of the extra rooms (dining rooms, etc) never are entered, no one ever swims in the pools pretty much universally (for one because most Americans are too fat too look good in a swimsuit, for another because McMansion pools are too small for real swimming, they are basically just a water sucking status symbol) c. Going out and about to use community owned versions of the above functions is probably better for your social health than to stay inside using the McMansion version d. It’s much, much, much cheaper to just rent the above facilities when you need access to them and to purchase a home that only acts as a home and not a shoddy version of all those things I mentioned. Plus, when your parents come to visit, wouldn’t you rather they stayed in a nearby hotel than in the guest room? ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/25 "2015-06-18T03:47:37Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > It’s vastly larger than you need to house your family and to meet your needs. It tries to act like a hotel (that’s what those guest rooms and extra bathrooms are for), a gym (bigger mcmansions have a room just for exercise equipment), a movie theatre, a bar, a restaurant, a swimming pool, etc. The problems with this are : > > a. Having all this excess stuff doesn’t make most people any happier. A lot of McMansions (the ones near my parents house that I personally saw over the years, for instance) are shoddily built and require a neverending slog of repairs and maintenance. > > b. Most actual people don’t use most of the features almost all of the time. Most of the extra rooms (dining rooms, etc) never are entered, no one ever swims in the pools pretty much universally (for one because most Americans are too fat too look good in a swimsuit, for another because McMansion pools are too small for real swimming, they are basically just a water sucking status symbol) > > c. Going out and about to use community owned versions of the above functions is probably better for your social health than to stay inside using the McMansion version > > d. It’s much, much, much cheaper to just rent the above facilities when you need access to them and to purchase a home that only acts as a home and not a shoddy version of all those things I mentioned. Plus, when your parents come to visit, wouldn’t you rather they stayed in a nearby hotel than in the guest room? The McMansions that you are describing are a lot bigger than what I have and yes they seem to be overkill certainly ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/26 "2015-06-18T03:49:56Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > It’s vastly larger than you need to house your family and to meet your needs. It tries to act like a hotel (that’s what those guest rooms and extra bathrooms are for), a gym (bigger mcmansions have a room just for exercise equipment), a movie theatre, a bar, a restaurant, a swimming pool, etc. The problems with this are : > > a. Having all this excess stuff doesn’t make most people any happier. A lot of McMansions (the ones near my parents house that I personally saw over the years, for instance) are shoddily built and require a neverending slog of repairs and maintenance. > > b. Most actual people don’t use most of the features almost all of the time. Most of the extra rooms (dining rooms, etc) never are entered, no one ever swims in the pools pretty much universally (for one because most Americans are too fat too look good in a swimsuit, for another because McMansion pools are too small for real swimming, they are basically just a water sucking status symbol) > > c. Going out and about to use community owned versions of the above functions is probably better for your social health than to stay inside using the McMansion version > > d. It’s much, much, much cheaper to just rent the above facilities when you need access to them and to purchase a home that only acts as a home and not a shoddy version of all those things I mentioned. Plus, when your parents come to visit, wouldn’t you rather they stayed in a nearby hotel than in the guest room? Actually, I would rather have them visit me in my place rather than having them stay in a hotel nearby. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/27 "2015-06-18T04:18:03Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > I would not want to be on the maintenance crew on some of these cars and remember that these rental cars are abused more than what you think Says the dude who has never used a car share car. Members who leave a mess get fined - Enterprise/ZipCar knows exactly who used the car last. I won’t say it doesn’t happen, but it’s rare and minor when it does. I’ve had the excruciating inconvenience of someone leaving their CD in the player once, and someone else leaving their parking slip on the dash. Oh, there was a gum wrapper on the floor once, too. Just disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/28 "2015-06-18T04:36:10Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > Says the dude who has never used a car share car. > Members who leave a mess get fined - Enterprise/ZipCar knows exactly who used the car last. I won’t say it doesn’t happen, but it’s rare and minor when it does. I’ve had the excruciating inconvenience of someone leaving their CD in the player once, and someone else leaving their parking slip on the dash. Oh, there was a gum wrapper on the floor once, too. Just disgusting. You had better luck than what I have had. One thing about rentals. Whenever I had a rental vehicle, I put it through some abuse. As one of my previous co-workers said - What gets to places that no 4 X 4 would even attempt - Rental vehicles ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/29 "2015-06-18T04:38:25Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > You had better luck than what I have had. > > One thing about rentals. Whenever I had a rental vehicle, I put it through some abuse. As one of my previous co-workers said - What gets to places that no 4 X 4 would even attempt - Rental vehicles Not really a rental, but we used to have several community vehicles at work. They were the worst vehicles in terms of maintenance or just general upkeep as they were not assigned to any one person. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/30 "2015-06-18T04:47:26Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > I see this as far more relevant for entertainment. > > I bought the music I wanted (on LPs, then tapes, then CD’s). > I bought VHS tapes & DVDs. > I bought books & magazines. And newspapers. > I bought computer operating systems & word processing programs. > > Now this generation has been trained to just rent those things, and to pay over & over for them. No wonder they are always broke! I’m not a huge consumer of those things so maybe I’m ignorant, but I’ve never heard of renting music, books, magazines, software or newspapers. Newspaper rental? Is that a thing? I guess some of those have gone to subscription models, but I’m drawing a blank on how rentals would work. I’ve heard of renting VHS/DVDs. There used to be a store on every street corner that did precisely that. I don’t understand how spending $25 on a DVD makes you smarter than those fools that rent it for a couple bucks though. When it comes to music, I’m more familiar with people having an ITunes library of purchased music that far surpasses anything the previous generation had. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/31 "2015-06-18T04:53:43Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > But maybe this generation won’t need an ugly 3500 sq ft McMansion to store all this useless junk. Like their parents do. Drop the mic, son! Maybe we Millennials don’t feel the need (insecurity? ;)) to keep buying tons of crap so other people think we’re successful. Maybe we’ve seen our parents do exactly that and end up with a ridiculous amount of debt. Maybe a bunch of us saw our parents lose their job(s) during the Great Recession and struggle to find a new one as an older worker who doesn’t have the skills for the changing job market.\* Maybe we saw how scarier that debt was to them then. And maybe we saw how conspicuous consumption didn’t actually make our parents happier. - and competes against just out of college kids also desperate for jobs and willing to work for peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/32 "2015-06-18T05:00:44Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Drop the mic, son! > > Maybe we Millennials don’t feel the need (insecurity? ;)) to keep buying tons of crap so other people think we’re successful. Maybe we’ve seen our parents do exactly that and end up with a ridiculous amount of debt. Maybe a bunch of us saw our parents lose their job(s) during the Great Recession and struggle to find a new one as an older worker who doesn’t have the skills for the changing job market.\* Maybe we saw how scarier that debt was to them then. > > And maybe we saw how conspicuous consumption didn’t actually make our parents happier. > > - and competes against just out of college kids also desperate for jobs and willing to work for peanuts. In my experience, I never bought anything on credit. Every toy or whatever luxury I bought, what bought on the one payment plan And I bought all of these toys for my usage, not to impress someone else ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/33 "2015-06-18T05:07:31Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Drop the mic, son! > > And maybe we saw how conspicuous consumption didn’t actually make our parents happier. > > - and competes against just out of college kids also desperate for jobs and willing to work for peanuts. Let me add on : 1. Commuting an hour each way to work so you can live out in the suburbs where there is room for your McMansion is a shitty way to live 2. Living in your castle and stuffing your face with beef every night isn’t that amazing. There’s a lot more fun things to do in life than that. 3. Those damn McMansions and the trucks in your driveway eat up such a huge chunk of disposable income that there isn’t much left. And then you whine about taxes.:smack: 4. You have to be perpetually in fear of getting fired or laid off since you need a flood of money coming in every month to pay all the bills 5. Every McMansion resident fears all their neighbors because despite living in an upper middle class white/asian neighborhood where crime is nonexistent, the news says that predators are around every corner. So everyone just hides in their houses and many of them purchase guns which of course can result in worse things than the crimes people are most afraid of. 6. Despite having a mcmansion, a driveway full of trucks, etc, everyone is generally fat and ugly and so are their wives. What a great, enviable life. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/34 "2015-06-18T05:07:42Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > You had better luck than what I have had. > > One thing about rentals. Whenever I had a rental vehicle, I put it through some abuse. As one of my previous co-workers said - What gets to places that no 4 X 4 would even attempt - Rental vehicles I think you’re conflating your experience with **car sharing** , which in the context of your OP is more accurate than the one-off renting that’s been around for decades. When you’re going to use the same car again next week, you tend to mind how you treat it, and when the company you’re paying membership to fines you for leaving a mess for the next user, you tend not to. [https://www.enterprisecarshare.com/us/en/home.html](https://www.enterprisecarshare.com/us/en/home.html) ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/35 "2015-06-18T05:12:30Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Let me add on : > > 1. Commuting an hour each way to work so you can live out in the suburbs where there is room for your McMansion is a shitty way to live > 2. Living in your castle and stuffing your face with beef every night isn’t that amazing. There’s a lot more fun things to do in life than that. > 3. Those damn McMansions and the trucks in your driveway eat up such a huge chunk of disposable income that there isn’t much left. And then you whine about taxes.:smack: > 4. You have to be perpetually in fear of getting fired or laid off since you need a flood of money coming in every month to pay all the bills > 5. Every McMansion resident fears all their neighbors because despite living in an upper middle class white/asian neighborhood where crime is nonexistent, the news says that predators are around every corner. So everyone just hides in their houses and many of them purchase guns which of course can result in worse things than the crimes people are most afraid of. > 6. Despite having a mcmansion, a driveway full of trucks, etc, everyone is generally fat and ugly and so are their wives. What a great, enviable life. You sound a little bitter.😃 ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/36 "2015-06-18T05:14:34Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > I think you’re conflating your experience with **car sharing** , which in the context of your OP is more accurate than the one-off renting that’s been around for decades. When you’re going to use the same car again next week, you tend to mind how you treat it, and when the company you’re paying membership to fines you for leaving a mess for the next user, you tend not to. > > [https://www.enterprisecarshare.com/us/en/home.html](https://www.enterprisecarshare.com/us/en/home.html) Remind me never to use this car share ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/37 "2015-06-18T05:18:48Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > I’m not a huge consumer of those things so maybe I’m ignorant, but I’ve never heard of renting music, books, magazines, software or newspapers. Newspaper rental? Is that a thing? I guess some of those have gone to subscription models, but I’m drawing a blank on how rentals would work. > > I’ve heard of renting VHS/DVDs. There used to be a store on every street corner that did precisely that. I don’t understand how spending $25 on a DVD makes you smarter than those fools that rent it for a couple bucks though. When it comes to music, I’m more familiar with people having an ITunes library of purchased music that far surpasses anything the previous generation had. Not rental as much as electronic subscription service for mags/newspapers. Software, books, CD’s DVD’s and now ebooks can all be had at the library, some in the past and have evolved to other electronic platforms. As for music, subscription service for that, too. I’ve had a Napster-now-Rhapsody account for about a decade. $10 a month for all the music I can handle. That’s less than a CD a month if I were to buy all the music, I have thousands of artists and their albums in my library, I could never afford if I had to buy it all. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/38 "2015-06-18T05:20:26Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > Remind me never to use this car share …Because you treat other people’s stuff like shit? ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/39 "2015-06-18T05:32:21Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > …Because you treat other people’s stuff like shit? No I don’t. But when there is no ownership of something, there is a tendency to be a little more careless with it When I had a rental, there is a natural tendency to be a little harder on it than something that you own. I am not taking about outright abuse but there is that potential of hard use ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809/40 "2015-06-18T05:45:27Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > No I don’t. But when there is no ownership of something, there is a tendency to be a little more careless with it > > When I had a rental, there is a natural tendency to be a little harder on it than something that you own. I am not taking about outright abuse but there is that potential of hard use Cripes. Well then so what? Something goes wrong with the car, they fix it or replace it. Something happens on the road, they bring me another car. These are not jalopies, they get regular maintenance and are new up to a couple years old. Like I said, they’re SHARED vehicles, people tend to not mess them up as they are accountable, and because they’re going to need that car again. What are you not grasping here? Did you not even look at the site I linked? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-changing-into-a-rental-society/722809.md?page=3)