I was recently at a restaurant and heard an older couple complaining about their 18-year-old granddaughter not being willing to drive. “When I was 18, I’d already done a road trip out to California with my friends!” the older guy said loudly, obviously exasperated.

They aren’t wrong; younger people are driving much less than their predecessors, but the reasons for that aren’t exactly obvious until you begin to go back and look at what caused these problems. 

Let’s go back in time to 2008. The United States was having a terrible economic meltdown, which the government desperately wanted to avoid. To partially stymie the bleeding, they announced the “Cash for Clunkers” program, where people could trade older vehicles in for a $4,500 voucher from the government. This was supposed to be a great program, both giving an indirect stimulus check to people and encouraging the reduction of gas-guzzling, inefficient vehicles.

In total, 677,081 cars were destroyed, and three billion in taxpayer dollars was spent on vouchers. This gigantic program wiped out the used car market, and as a result, prices are higher than ever for cars now. 

Suppose you really do need a car as a young person, you’d better be okay spending big bucks on insurance, which has risen 55% in price since 2020. What’s causing it to go up?

Insurance companies are raising rates because driving is getting more dangerous, and that results in more people driving uninsured, which only causes prices to continue to escalate and the dream of having a car become more and more far-fetched. 

Now, why is driving becoming more dangerous? The rates of car accidents had been going down for decades, but suddenly spiked after the “summer of love” in 2020. On top of broad police budget cuts, 60% of police said they were less likely to pull someone over after the Floyd riots. Suddenly, crime soared and began to affect everything else.

Most cities have since brought back funding to the police, though some cities are opting to further reduce them. It’s pretty clear that all of these factors play into younger people not driving as much. 

So what does all this mean? As Newton said, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Before voting for someone, think about what their policies will actually do long term, and try to think beyond the immediate effects. We’ve seen the results of actions done without deep thought, and it leads to big problems for everyone involved.