...and my car gets 30-35 miles per gallon.
If cars were made even a couple of percent more fuel efficient, the amount of oil they'd save would be way more than could ever be extracted from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And not a drop of gasoline will have its origin from there for the next ten years.
Heard about that Utah oil yet? Think Mormon-Sheiks.
Did you happen to see that article where they figured out you would have to drive 66500 miles per year in a toyota corolla to take advantage of the cost difference of purchasing a prius for the higher sticker price?
Or the one about how the GM truck hybrid electric would have to be driven 205,000 miles before the break-even point of the extra $2500 for the electic-hybrid option?
My truck cost $9500 and I own it free and clear. It has heated leather seats, cruise, sunroof, and hauls 4 adults and 3 dogs in SINFUL comfort.
If you are making payments on your car, how much is the interest costing you? What happens if you are hit by a 5600-lb steel frame Montero?
Here's a funny song:
Sing this to the tune of Elvis Pressley's "In the Ghetto"
At a used car lot on the edge of town
A liberal guy and a liberal gal
Buy a Yugo
And they drive with pride
'Cause if there's one thing that this world needs
It's environmental friends who'll take the lead
In a Yugo
They say, "People don't you understand?
Those Suburbans are ruining the land!"
But they'll wish they had a full-size van one day
They're pointing fingers at you and me
They say we're too blind to see
But do we simply use our heads
And choose a better way
As those small wheels turn
Fifty miles to the gallon and their knees on their chests
They're gonna save a lot of gas for all the rest
In a Yugo
Then one day on the interstate
They suddenly lose control
They swerve to miss a baby duck
And are squashed by an SUV - they're out of luck
But they drove with pride
And as the crowds drive past the little flat car
You know they saved a lot of gas but they didn't get far
In a Yugo
And as they're trapped inside
At a used car lot on the other side of town
A liberal guy and a liberal gal
Buy a Yugo
And they drive with pride
"Sinful comfort." I couldn't think of a better phrase to describe the American Way Of Life that Dubya keeps talking about: the kind of opulence that the rest of the world dreams about... but is ultimately self-destructive. Just wait until the cheap oil runs out, buster.
66500 miles per year in a toyota corolla
This assumes a certain gas price, which is arbitrary (as far as miles are concrete, that is).
People are willing to pay more for hybrids because they want to help out with the whole greenhouse-gas thing. (C'mon, even the Bushies are getting on board this "global warming" bandwagon, albeit a few years late.) And hey... as an ostensible fan of free markets... if people are willing to pay more for an option like this, let them! It's what the Market dictates! Hooray for the Market! I love you, Market!
Aside: I've noticed that mainstream American (and most mainstream Canadian, for that matter) media would rather talk about the high cost of gasoline, interviewing people complaining at the pumps, than examining things like why gasoline is so much cheaper in the US than in Europe, delicate US-Saudi relations, monstruous subsidies for oil companies despite ridiculous profits, and a little thing called global climate change.
But I think if there were "man on the street" interviews with most Americans, my gut instinct tells me most of the responses would be along the lines of your post above: "But it's comfortable, and I like it." And I just shake my head.
Another aside: I had a prof in university whose first car when he moved to Canada from Serbia was a Yugo. I think it reminded him of home. Incidentally, this prof could also drink straight vodka like nobody else I've ever seen. He is also a brilliant physicist.
You are saying that capitalism is self-destructive. After all the failures of variants of socialism I would think that liberals would learn.
People do not strive to be average, do not work hard to be uncomfortable, and do not work if they can chose to have it handed to them. The rest of the world is capable of living like the US under a republic system. My country sacrifices a lot of lives and effort to help those who want to be free.
Ask your Russian professor if he started to enjoy his vodka for its taste or the escape from reality.
As for the Toyota question, I didn't write the article-I think they did it at 2.50/gal. If gas were double the price estimated in that article you would still have to drive 33,000 miles per year to beat the cost difference and the average individual drives less than 15,000. Gas would have to be 4x higher for the Prius to make a difference.
Take the cost difference of buying the more expensive car and donate it to the Nature Conservancy or someone buying land to keep it natural would do more for greenhouse gasses than a Prius vs. a Corolla.
I just want you to stop feeling your opinions and get some Logic in there! That will go a long way toward ending liberalism as it is today.
You are saying that capitalism is self-destructive.
No, I'm saying that resource-thirsty American-style capitalism, the way it is now, is destined to fail. Eventually you're going to run out of space, run out of oil, run out of water. Then what? The Empire comes crashing down... and a hell of a lot faster than the Roman one.
The rest of the world is capable of living like the US under a republic system.
Yeah, Iraq's going great these days, innit?
My professor was Serbian, not Russian. Hell of a nice guy, but I bombed my Mathematical Physics 2 exam. Stupid complex integration.
About the 66,000 miles bit... plenty of people have over that many miles on their car. I do; my 2000 Pontiac Shitbox has almost 128,000 km on it. That means if I'd purchased a hybrid back then (assuming they were available, which they weren't), I'd be saving money out the wazoo now. And when more people buy hybrids -- which they are -- the price difference will come down.
I'll be looking to get another car in a year or so, and maybe hold onto that for four or five years, job-and-school situation pending. After that, in about 2011-ish, if hybrids are plentiful and their problems well-understood, I'd have no qualms buying one.
get some Logic in there!
I have lots of logic, thanks. It's just that it's different than yours. Doesn't mean it's not there, pal.
your overwhelming pessimism is, well, typically leftist in perspective-
As for the mileage to break even in costs, that was PER YEAR, not over lifetime...
As for your logic, you assert that socialism is better for the individual than capitalism. There is no greater absence of logic than in that way of thinking.
You call it "pessimism," I call it "not just plugging your ears and saying 'we're awesome, we're awesome' and hoping the naysayers go away".
As far as the math goes on hybrids... it's like someone who's fifty saying, "When I was young, computers filled a room and took ten minutes to calculate 2+2." True at the time, but technology changes so rapidly that, hey, who knows, maybe in ten years they'll be the same price as gasoline-only cars.
As far as my "assertion" that socialism is better for the individual than capitalism... nowhere here have I come out and directly said it, because I don't believe it's directly true. Example:
Let's say I really like the taste of ducks. (I've had it once; not bad, but a bit greasy. Good in small quantities.) In a completely "free market" -- if we take "markets" to include nature, which is in a lot of right-wing think tanks' wet dreams -- I should be able to pay whoever owns the land that ducks are on, shoot any and all of them, and feast to my liking.
Theoretically, assuming I had the money, I could go to every piece of property in the world, shoot the ducks, eat them, and have one kickass meal after another. Truly free markets. Ayn Rand would cream in her jeans.
But... what about ecosystems? What about other people who like ducks? What about the manufacturers of duck-calling devices who are now out of business? They all want to keep ducks around... but if I got the cash, I'm gonna put 'em all in my belly.
As such, any infringement on my right to shoot and eat ducks is "worse for the individual;" i.e., me. So I, as a member of a society that values things like ducks (for not only their deliciousness, but their role in their respective ecosystems), enter into an agreement essentially saying, "Alright, I won't shoot them all." This ensures there will be ducks for years to come.
Did I "take one for the team"? Sure I did.
Does it make me a hippie Commie who burns incense? I don't think so. It just means that there's a line we collectively draw where "beyond this, we'll call it socialism". This line is shifting all the time; you and I have different opinions on which way it's sliding, obviously.
But, in good postmodernist form... I'll suggest that where the line ends up is our collective decision.
(continued)
I fully realize the above example is absurd in its content. But I don't think it's absurd in its spirit; your right to drive as large and as thirsty a vehicle ends where my right to have polar ice caps and breatheable air begin, just like the hypothetical person's taste for ducks could be curtailed by his or her recognition that ducks have a vital role in the biosphere.
And in the end... the person who chooses to leave a few ducks around will actually have a healthier world, with more biodiversity and all that jazz. So it works out for everyone, really.
OK, personally, Duck is Yuck. As in tastes yuck, and my wife likes it- go figure.
As for the Duck hunter, well you picked a very good critter example for me: DUCKS UNLIMITED. An Organization of DUCK hunters banded together to preserve habitats and species of duck. Heck, I was watching some PBS Globetrekker or some other show where a duck hunter in southern CA goes out into crops pre-harvest and scares up the ducks so he can save the eggs. He brings the eggs to a hatchery and raises the ducklings (?) so they aren't destroyed by havesting equipment.
If you had a federal program where ducks were supposed to be saved before harvest this guy would never have done this. He did it of his own initative.
Initative is the difference!
As for my truck: 1) it is CA emissions certified. Short of running on water it is as stringent as they come-even more so than your country's I would dare guess.
2) prove your ice cap is melting because of my truck?
As for the world: all I can say is that if you can get China to clean up its act then we might think about the "damage" the USA is doing.
Just because China isn't party to the Kyoto accord doesn't mean you can't clean up your own act.
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