What we call the Spear of Cost is not an examination of all that cars *cost us (which we will undoubtedly go into great detail about in later chapters), but rather strictly an examination of how much one’s budget goes towards automobiles. That is to say, we will not yet be covering the cost of our health, safety, well-being, wellness, etc that comes from driving, or even living in a car-dependent world. Instead, we will be focusing firstly on the huge economic cost of owning a car. Scarier yet, some people may find the economic cost of not owning a car to be even greater.

We choose to write firstly about the economic costs of owning an automobile because we believe that economic situations can end up being quite deterministic for behavior, and certainly, car owners are quite prone to commenting on the economic woes of car ownership. In normal economic situations, when non-luxury goods are not affordable, people tend not to buy them. This would be the case for cars, had they not been ingratiated so deeply into the Greater Cultural Context.

The evidence for this can be easily found by simply listening to an automobile user speak uninterrupted for a short period. With some light probing, you could easily find that they admit, without hyperbole, that the prices of the following are extortionate:

1. The price of a new car.
2. The price of a new car that was just driven off the lot.
3. The price of any of the new car addons.
4. The price of an old car.
5. The price of a rental car.
6. The price of short-term parking.
7. The price of long-term parking.
8. The price of parking tickets.
9. The price of speeding tickets.
10. The price of distracted driving tickets.
11. The price of insurance.
12. The price of gas.
13. The price of winter tires.
14. The price of summer tires.
15. The price of getting their tires rotated.
16. The price of getting their oil changed.
17. The price of the ineffective drive-through car wash.
18. The price of the effective manual car wash.

We could go on indefinitely, but these are all things we regularly hear people complain about in regards to owning a car. So why then is it that people are so eager and willing to be beholden to their ever-deteriorating and fantastically needy automobiles if the price of literally everything associated with them is considered (not hyperbolically) extortionate?

The answer is because of the Greater Cultural Context. We have put cars so centrally into our culture that we build and rebuild our cities around them, at the behest of accessibility, walkability, public transportation, cycling, skateboarding, or anything that would be active or fun. Instead, we have designed a continent of strip malls with more room for cars than the businesses themselves, and the only way to access them is with a car.

Consequently, we condemn the automobile for being economically extortionate because in many suburban developments, it is inconvenient to the point of being practically impossible to visit a store, a friend, an official or a professional without having access to a car. Anyone that is forced to rent or own a car just for the privilege of living, working, and acquiring food, the economic costs of which can be devastatingly high (ask any driver!), is the very definition of someone who is a victim of car culture.

Of course, if you’re not careful, cars could also end up costing you your life.