I’m visiting a rural part of the southern US, and I have noticed that about 2/3 of the houses outside the town have yards full of cars and tractors in various states of disrepair, as well as tons of other miscellaneous stuff. Why is that? Is it kind of a culture of self-reliance and a supply of spare parts? Some other reason?
Many of these folks also watch prices of scrap metal. If it gets high enough, you’ll see lots of that disappear and turn into money in their pocket. Prices for scrap, especially steel is extremely low right now compared to a few years ago. Many of them are waiting on the price to recover to cash in.