No Horse and Buggy Men On This Farm

I have started reading a book called "The Fat of the Land: the Story of an American Farm" by John Williams Streeter, copyrighted 1904. A physician was dismissed from his job after his skills became obsolete (sound familiar in modern times?). He decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning land and creating a valuable farm. I'm reading a very interesting section about the hiring of field hands. In a chapter called, "The Horse and Buggy Man", a young man insists that all the young men in the community need horses and buggies for week-end fun, and "horse keep" is expected as part of their pay. Translate this into modern times with a car or truck, and multiply the liabilities several times over, and add the worker expecting to siphon off gasoline from the farm tank, as you read the following quote:
"See here young man, this is another specimen of farm economics, and the worst in the lot. Let me do a small example in mental arithmetic for you. The interest on $280 [cost of horse and buggy] is $14; the yearly depreciation of your property, without accidents, is at least $40; horse-shoeing and repairs, $20; loss of wages (for no man will keep your horse for less than $4 a month), $48. In addition to this, you will be tempted to spend at least $5 a month more with a horse than without one; that is $60 more. You are throwing away $182 a year without adding $1 to your value as an employee, one ounce to the dignity of your employment, or one foot of gain in your social position, no matter from what point you view it.
Taking it for granted that you receive $25 a month for every month of the year (and this is admitting too much), you waste more than half on that blessed rig, and you can make no provision for the future, for sickness, or for old age...Recreation is all right, but find it in ways less expensive. Read, study, cultivate the best of your kind, plan for the future and save for it, and you will not lack fr recreation. Sell your horse and buggy for $200, if you cannot get more, put that money at interest, save $200 out of your wages, and by the end of the year you will be worth over $400 in hard cash and much more in self-respect. You can easily add $200 a year to your savings, without missing out on anything worthwhile; and it will not be long before you can buy a farm, marry a wife, and make an independent position. I'll have no horse and buggy men on my farm."
Now that's how we ought to teach young people.