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A headline on Yahoo's front page read "Many American's Can't Afford One Time Staple". The "staple" in question was buying a new car. This feels like a wrong, or at least very unusual, usage for the word "staple". What about you? Do you think "staple" can sensibly be applied to the purchase of a new car? "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | ||
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It sounds fine to me. I looked it up in Dictionary.com, and found this definition that seems to apply: "a basic or principal item, thing, feature, element, or part: Cowboy dramas are a staple on television." | |||
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I'll risk sounding like another English poster, and say it seems to me that many more Americans than British regard a car a necessity of life. It is probably because we have better public transport, but it is certainly possible to exist comfortably without owning a car here. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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It depends on where you live here. Surely in Chicago you don't need a car; neither of my daughters has one. However, if you live in rural areas or in cities, like Los Angeles, with substandard public transportation, a car would be a staple. | |||
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It just sounds wrong to me. Bread is a staple; here in China rice is a staple; I get the "cookery shows are a staple of daytime TV'; I even get "cars are a staple of modern life" but the idea that the purchase of new cars is a staple seems wrong. It makes it sound as if everybody has to regularly buy a new car. Most of my life I owned a car but in my whole life I only ever boought two and only one of of those was new. The staple referred to in the article wasn't "a car" it was "buying a new car". "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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I agree with the British point of view. A NEW car is not a necessity no matter who or where one is. I've owned two new ones, the last having been purchased in 1971. My present one is ten years old. Were I still in Portland, Oregon, I could easily do without one and use a bicycle or public transportation, although public transportation has gotten very expensive there. It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti | |||
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I didn't realize they were only talking about new cars. I totally agree. We haven't bought a new car in years. Buying a car that's a year or two old saves you a bundle, particularly if it's low mileage. | |||
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