We raised our kids in a great neighborhood, with some entertaining exceptions. The family next door was a blended, Brady bunch type deal, with six kids. The dad was a classic, blue collar caricature. Kind of guy who lost an amazingly high paying union trucking job, as the union was busted up, and the industry deregulated, but considered Reagan to be a living God. To this day, he still would make a great character on King of the Hill.
Since money was tight, (his job had degraded to paying less than half of peak, and his wife found a low paying lunch lady job), there was no money for kid's college tuition, or much in the way of extra spending. Two daughters were off to their freshman year at state colleges, with a ton of student loan signed. Dad then marches the pair of them to the local Ford dealer, and co-signs five year loans for each of them, as he directs them to pick out a pair of little subcompacts. I was dumbstruck, these two girls could of done fine without any car, or he could of found them a few reasonable cars for a couple grand each. So, his parting gift for each of his children is a mountain of debt and a new car that they didn't need and couldn't afford. The best was yet to come. Once day he stumbles over to our driveway, as I'm washing our built in Ohio Honda Accord, points to the pair of Festivas he just saddled his daughters with, inflates his chest a bit, and says, "My family only buys American".................................. ,I smiled and quietly said to myself, "sorry dumbass, those are rebadged Kias, built in Korea".