As someone who isn't really good at mechanical things, this never really occurred to me but damn if that doesn't really fit the "insightful" upvote. Although I gotta say, I replaced my starter and while it took way longer than it would a mechanic, it also saved me $300 and that's still a wise use of my time. The time involved in earning that $300 would have been more considerable.

We had a Nissan Sentra I couldn't get at the starter. Even with every extension I had I just couldn't reach a bolt. Besides that one damn bolt. If I knew how often that starter was going to go I would have bought the damn tool. That car is the reason we will never buy a Nissan again. Not just the starter, but a whole host of problems. Real POS car. One day it got towed and we didn't care to go get it.

If you spent the time that it takes you to learn those hundreds of skills, used the money that it cost you to get all those tools, and used them to become a professional at something you end up being far more productive, and far more wealthy.

Time is money. Except people usually misapply the concept. That time spent learning and doing things isn't cutting into your money making potential for most people. It's free time I'd otherwise be drinking a beer and shit posting on forums. Where I'd lose time overall in my above example is bc that $300 might take days to earn to pay a mechanic but just part of a day to actually do it.

I do agree the tool costs are not always worth it, and as per my story again, you don't know whether you'll need that tool just once or a dozen times. So you can't always know if it'll work out. My bud used to rent tools a lot, or make liberal use of return policies. Or there's always the Chinesium at Harbor Freight.

a lot of things I have that they just can't afford to pay for.

I think that often when I see full bar parking lots. That's a lot of fucking overhead on my drinking.