WS:
Max, but what is it exactly what makes them preferable, if not the lack of
alternatives which were purposefully destroyed, and sex appeal?
>>>>>>>>
mbs: Sex appeal in a Chevy Lumina? Oh please. As for alternatives -- which I'm for -- it's not obvious to me that more ample and free public transit would clear the roads. There is also research on this (i.e., Downs).
>>WS:
As far as the dead squirrels are concerned, if I were to choose, ceteris
paribus, between junking a car and killing a squirrel, i'd most likely opt
for the former. And that is a rational, not just a sentimental, choice.
Ceteris paribus, there is a greater harm resulting from killing a squirrel
than junking a car, except that this harm is externalized and thus not
counted in most cost-benefit calculations. Cars do not feel pain,
squirrels do. >>>
MBS: How about an unborn squirrel? Or is that merely like a squirrel appendix? But seriously, folks, if we are willing to eat animals -- as I certainly am -- then running them over on occasion isn't much to worry about. I've got a pretty good record, amidst hordes of squirrels I've only nicked one with my car. When they ate a wheel on my lawnmower, however, I needed to drive them out of my woodshed. I started trapping them in my $30 "Hav-a-Heart" squirrel trap and deporting them to a squirrel resettlement camp; unfortunately, two or three expired in the trap. Now I just buy new lawnmower wheels.
>The only way to penalize car use is to make it more expensive --
gas tax, license, etc. If car costs are regressive, so too would
WS: This is not the matter of penalizing but ending public subsidies. The US is the only developed country that publicly subsidizes private cars - in all other countries users pay for this luxury (mostly through gasoline taxes). >>
MBS: Lower the subsidy or raise the tax, which I'm for, it's all the same distributionally. Also, "luxury" is a little odd as a description of a mass-consumption item.
>>WS:
. . . Coupling that with ending the automobile welfare
state and requiring car users to pay the full cost of their luxury
(including the cost of building, maintaining, and policing roads and
highways, cleaning environmental pollution, and operating the registration
system) would definitely tip the cost/benefit balance toward public transit.
>>>
MBS: I'm for it, but you presume that voters do not actually like auto-welfare, or could be persuaded to dislike it. I've got my doubts.
>>>Jim, since I value most of what you post to this list, I wonder if you
are
serious when you write such bullshit. People deciding for themselves????
Gimme a break. Have you tried to drive a car to New York City or
Washington DC during a business day? It's hell! >>
mbs: Do it every day, from beyond the Beltway. It's not hell, except when Michael Bolton comes on over the radio.
>>WS:
It is precisely because of the freedom of movement why I usually pay $130
for the train instead of driving for about $40 (including tolls) to New
York. Aside the fact that the train trip takes about 2 hrs and 40 minutes
which I can use for reading or relaxing, instead of 3.5 hrs (or more if
traffic is bad) I must spend on nothing but driving, the lack of a car in
New York gives me the following freedoms:
MBS Travel Tips:
WS:- the freedom from worrying how to avoid gridlocks and jams on bridges, tunnels and streets;>>
MBS: travel off-peak
WS: - the freedom from worrying about damaging my car on potholes (e.g. $60 for wheel alignment, $200 for the replacement of the exhaust system);
MBS: stay off the West Side Highway, and be careful getting off the GW bridge.
WS: - the freedom from having to find a parking space in the reasonable distance form my destination (in fact, the cost of parking in NYC or Washington DC can be twice the minimum hourly wage); - the freedom from worrying about my car being towed or ticketed (tickets run about $50 a piece, towing is about $200-$250 per incident);
MBS: Pay New York parking tickets? Hah! Just stay out of towaway zones.
WS: - the freedom from worrying about my car being broken into, vandalized, or stolen (e.g. the cost of side window is about $100-$150, the windshield or rear window, much more)
MBS: buy a Chevy Lumina. buy insurance. Don't park in Park Slope.
WS: - the freedom to party and get "under the influence" without worrying how i will be able to drive.
MBS: oh there's nothing lovelier than a long train ride with drunks.
WS: Another aspect of car ownership is restriction on constitutional freedoms and rights. In the US, having a car is basically tantamount to renouncing your basic constitutional rights and freedoms: the right to a jury trial, the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to a due process. If you drive a car, any cop can stop it, demand that you take a sobriety test, search the car without a warrant, and confiscate it if he "finds" drugs in it. And that is perfectly legal, according to a Supreme Court's ruling. Even if you are later aquitted on drug possession charges, you cannot get your confiscated property back.
MBS: don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Driving while black is a problem, but walking while black can be worse in some places.
WS: Moreover, automobilie redefines your "freedom of movement" from a right to a government-granted privilege. Driving is a privilege that government grants to you and can revoke it at any time - not just for your traffic violations, but for nonpayment of certain fees as well. So if you get drunk and try to return home - which is legal - but get caught driving - you loose your driving privilege and effectively, your right to domestic travel is severely restricted.
This is the same principle as in x-USSR where domestic travel was subject to government approaval. In x-USSR you could not travel wihtout a government-issued pass, in the US you cannot use the most common and often only available) means of transportation without government permission. Although the means differ, the effects are the same - restrictions on domestic travel.
MBS: whomever's been selling you those passes to drive from Baltimore to Towson, stop paying the SOB.