This BBC article points out that 200,000 fewer people took driving tests last year compared with 5 years ago. It then goes on to quote a 20-year old who “can’t afford lessons” and so is finding it “a lot harder to get a job”. Echoes of that American learner I mentioned a few days ago.

We need to put things into perspective here. There’s a recession on, and there are a lot of things that a lot of people can’t afford anymore. Now, that doesn’t mean that all those people can’t afford all of the same things – they each have different priorities.

But the learner they are quoting – Emma Radwanski – says:

…she can’t afford driving lessons.

“It makes it a lot harder to get a job,” [s]he said.

“It makes it harder to go and see my friends.

“It makes it harder just to go and do anything like the cinema, or shopping or just to go out.”

It sounds to me like she wants to have her cake and eat it. Standard practice used to be that when you wanted something badly, then you cut back on other things so you could save up and afford it. If you couldn’t do that, you went without.

But todays teenagers want everything. There’s no such thing as going without or – heaven forbid – waiting. They want it now. And if they can’t have it, then it must be someone else’s fault.

The BBC plays right into her hands by saying:

The cost of getting a licence and taking the theory and practical driving tests is £143.

That is a relatively small amount compared to the rising cost of lessons, fuel, MoT and insurance.

Lesson prices are NOT RISING. Whoever wrote that is a complete prat. They are falling to stupid levels because of all the idiot cheapos doing their level best to bankrupt themselves. And insurance is rising precisely because of the “I want it now” attitude many teenagers exude. MSN doesn’t make the same amateurish mistakes as the BBC in its version of the same news (minus Radwanski), but even it refers to lesson prices without engaging its brain.

I can tell both MSN and the BBC that back in 2005 I was charging the top end going rate, which was £22 an hour. Today – in 2012 – I am charging £23 an hour (also the top end going rate in my area). That’s a rise of 5%. Lord knows where they get their figures from.

Radwanski is then quoted in the BBC article:

…having to rely on friends and relatives leaves her feeling guilty and has given up trying to get a licence.

She said: “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get a licence or save enough money to do lessons, to buy a car, to afford lessons, to pay insurance or to pay tax.

“That makes me feel awful.”

So even if she had a driving licence she couldn’t afford to buy a car, insure it, tax it, or run it? It would be hard to find any more things she (or the BBC) could blame in one short article.

I think Radwanski needs to grow up a little before she’s allowed anywhere near a car. After all, I had to when I learnt to drive. I couldn’t afford a car for over a year after I passed, and running it in the early days was a huge struggle.

Only a total loser writes off their entire life at 20. Everyone else finds a way forward.