Punitive taxes on things they don't like don't help their fuel economy, it just weakens the position of the citizenry.
Or strengthens. If the citizenry cannot afford suburbs, they don't economically suffer when the cost of fuel makes their homes unaffordable.
Technological progress is a good thing.
Shades of grey, actually. Some progress is a good thing. The US, though, has used a powerful technology (cheap transportation) to divide itself into ever-growing class differences and unsustainable communities. This the addiction thing I mentioned; when the fuel is no longer cheap, these lifestyles are no longer possible, and that becomes a problem.
Before you jump all over my mention of "class differences," consider what happens when people who grew up with a strong racial and social divide—whites with lots of money living in the gated 'burbs, blacks and others in the cities, the poor where ever they can eek out a living—suddenly find themselves forced to live as their ancestors once did, side by side with the racial and social minorities they don't really like. It could be a good thing, true; it could also be explosive.
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Date: 8/9/13 18:18 (UTC)Or strengthens. If the citizenry cannot afford suburbs, they don't economically suffer when the cost of fuel makes their homes unaffordable.
Technological progress is a good thing.
Shades of grey, actually. Some progress is a good thing. The US, though, has used a powerful technology (cheap transportation) to divide itself into ever-growing class differences and unsustainable communities. This the addiction thing I mentioned; when the fuel is no longer cheap, these lifestyles are no longer possible, and that becomes a problem.
Before you jump all over my mention of "class differences," consider what happens when people who grew up with a strong racial and social divide—whites with lots of money living in the gated 'burbs, blacks and others in the cities, the poor where ever they can eek out a living—suddenly find themselves forced to live as their ancestors once did, side by side with the racial and social minorities they don't really like. It could be a good thing, true; it could also be explosive.