> helps you climb the social ladder- you're perceived

As a parent of kids a bit younger, I aspire to help them avoid this sort of thing entirely

Cargo bikes don’t have to be expensive (Yuba Komba is 999€) except that they are, in the long tail format, 50 to 100% more steel, and because of the weight, drivetrain and brakes have to be good as well. A 250€ cargo bike would be an injury waiting to happen

As it happens, the bike I linked is a nice Chromoly frame, disc brakes, hub gears etc. If you look at other bikes with similar components you’d be hard pressed to beat the price.

I just noticed your scarecrow price tag of 2500€, which is probably for electric cargo bike. Those are limited to 250W usually, which I don’t find worth the price considering it’s comparable to what you can put out with your legs alone. (But I can tolerate sweating on the way to work..)