I’m not saying that there weren’t many bad decisions made, but this is also misdirecting where blame is owed. Cars have gotten more expensive and if you are a family, there really aren’t any low-cost family hauler options. Yes, people make bad choices, but they are often lead on by sales people and, in the US, they likely have to have a car.
See the latest Climate Town
The density of DVDs makes them less resilient than CDs, but CDs will also suffer the same fate. It’s going to be a very serious conservation problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
You joke, but the modern world has actually really fucked textile hobbies. One example is yarn for crochet/knitting. The major producers all moved their production to new countries in the past decade and, along with it, switched to shorter staple fiber (i.e. the individual fibers they make up the yarn are shorter).
Obviously, this makes goods made with these yarns worse, but there is also a growing, though rare, problem from people inhaling the fibers while knitting. It creates a lung disease similar to what someone who was exposed to asbestos experiences (though asbestos is much worse).
There are still ways to get artisanal yarns, maybe without plastic being one of the primary ingredients, but those are generally very expensive.
The financial literacy in this country is beyond poor. People really don’t understand money and, likely, that’s intentional.
The “right way” to do this is to not finance the car at all (given that it’s a depreciating asset). You save monthly what a payment would be and buy the car outright. Once you’ve done that, you drive it into the ground and save for the next car the entire time.
People don’t have the discipline for that.