Editor’s letter

Last weekend, I decided it was time to upgrade my wheels. For the past few years I’ve been driving a 1998 Honda Accord, a wonderfully reliable machine that my family has named Betty (because she’s white). But on a trip to upstate New York, Betty made clear her objection to climbing mountain roads, and so my wife and I agreed that we should give in and join the SUV club. Because New York City—home to pothole-pocked roads that resemble the surface of the moon and truck drivers who joyfully scrape past parked vehicles—is no place for a new car, I went hunting for a used CR-V or RAV4. I got nowhere. Every dealer I spoke with had sold out of decent and affordable used autos. This isn’t just a New York problem; there’s a nationwide shortage of used cars. That’s partly because the pandemic has slowed the production of new cars, and so buyers are being pushed to the pre-owned market. But it’s also because a significant chunk of the population has managed to save money during the pandemic, and some of the cash they might have splashed on vacations or restaurant meals is instead going toward a new ride.

What’s happening on dealership lots is just one sign of our strange split-screen economy. With unemployment stuck above 10 percent, a record number of Americans are falling behind on their auto loans even as many drivers upgrade. Nearly a third of households are now in arrears on their mortgage or rent, and evictions will soon skyrocket. Yet those who’ve managed to hold on to their jobs are splurging on home improvement. Home Depot notched $38.1 billion in sales in the second quarter of 2020, up 23 percent from the same period last year. It’s estimated that 54 million Americans will struggle to put food on the table this year, yet the S&P 500 just hit a new high, and so people with stock portfolios are enjoying record returns. The U.S. has long been a land of extreme inequality; the pandemic has merely exacerbated that pre-existing condition.

Managing editor