As the U.S. Pensions fail, say good bye to the Toyota Tacoma truck

Crazy title to this post isn't it? What does U.S. Pensions have to do with the Toyota Tacoma truck? Well, I will tell you how in this post.

Toyota auto manufacture had great success with their small pick up trucks. One of the world's most popular trucks and great money maker for Toyota was the 1980's Toyota SR5.

Sales went through the roof. The truck had great gas mileage and had an instant successful cult following. After market parts and accessories exploded in the U.S.A. There was nothing that you could not do to your Toyota truck to customize it to your tastes. The trucks had great resale value and were hot items. The only complaint regarding these trucks was the rust potential. Other than that, the trucks were gold mines.

Toyota knew that they had a winner in the small truck market. As time passed, Toyota improved the design and features of the Toyota SR5. Eventually we got the Tacoma. With the increased technology and features, so came a higher price tag. I began to notice a change in who was purchasing the newer Toyota trucks in the mid 1990's. The cheap Toyota 4X4 SR5 had all disappeared. The price tag for the mid to late 1990 trucks were so expensive that only (middle aged) men with higher paying jobs were buying the trucks. The trend really got obvious in the 2000's. The Toyota trucks were reaching high $28,000.00 to now being over $36,000.00. The men buying the trucks were retired customers on pensions.

Yes, the major Toyota truck purchasers were retired men using their pension money to buy these trucks. Sure there are exceptions to this, but in general, the average age of a newer Toyota truck owner is an older male. These men most likely have a paid off house, kids long gone (empty nesters)and receiving a healthy monthly pension. To them a $400.00 to $600.00 truck payments is nothing. Perhaps they even paid cash for it through pension money that they had saved. The days are long gone, for a 19 year old to purchase a new Toyota truck from a dealer with no co signer and working at his local grocery store.

The U.S. pensions are in trouble. A little over 80% of all U.S. pensions are under funded. This includes private and public pensions. One of the financial tsunamis that will sweep this nation is when the pensions go into default. This crisis will lead to other crisis and so on. While this is happening, the fake and phony stock market will continue to hit "all time" highs. We are truly living in Alice in Wonderland. The stock market is artificially disconnected from all reality and is not a true indicator of how our economy is doing.
How is our nest egg doing?

When the pensions start to default (which many already have), the so called comfortable older male with a pension will not be buying his Toyota Tacoma. When the pensions disappear, so will the purchases of the expensive but reliable Toyota truck. The bread and butter customer of Toyota will be in a world of financial hurt. It will take decades, if ever, for an American consumer to ever have enough money to buy such a truck.

The Nation's infrastructure is no longer here to support jobs. The CEO's of the last 30 years have been getting large bonuses to pack up the factories here and move them elsewhere. Those jobs are not coming back. How can we ever have a "financial recovery" if the infrastructure and factories are no longer here to provide employment? It will take decades to build rail roads, factories and training to bring jobs back. Plus, I did not even mention that now we are seeing robots taking over most factory jobs. Now what? What are humans supposed to do for work? This is why the people in the know are talking about having a "Global Universal Income". They know the jobs are not coming back for the general population. The universal income will be meager at best. I can tell you right now, that no one will be buying a $38,000.00 Toyota truck on a universal income.

So in conclusion, I say to all of you older Toyota Tacoma truck owners, enjoy your truck now. When the pensions are gone, good luck in trying to buy another one.