pollution is other people than Wojtek

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 09:52 AM 9/23/99 +0100, Jim Heartfield wrote:
>In message <3.0.6.32.19990922141856.00d4a890 at jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu>, Wojtek
>Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> writes
>>BTW, the "want-to" argument from a marxist is shocking.  By the same logic,
>>we can argue that there is nothing wrong with capitalism because workers
>>would not be working for their minumum wages if they did not want to.
>
>Wojtek, you yourself argued just a few posts ago that there was no
>material advantage to having a car. You costed it down to the last
>penny, and proved that there was no benefit in having a car as opposed
>to using public transport.
>
>You said 'The car has always been more of a fetish than a practical
>item'.
>
>Of other people you feel confident to say that they are motivated by
>some sexual fetishism and basic consumerist stupidity. And then when it
>comes to you yourself, you say 'I have to have a car, I have no choice
>in the matter'!
>
>What you mean is that the cost-benefit analysis is wrong. The car meets
>your needs more effectively than other forms of transport. You should
>have the generosity of spirit to make the same assumption of others.
>They are not in the grip of perverted car-lust, any more than you are.
>They just made a practical calculation.

Jim, in fact i did that calculation before i bought my current vehicle a
few years ago and decided against buing it.  However, being a single
parent, I faced a factor that was not included in those calculation - a
teenager who needed transportation to and from school (he would not take a
bus for reasons i do not quite understand) and upset about not having a car
for his 16th birthday.  Well, after two months of severe bitching I went
for a compromise - *I* would buy a vehicle, *I* drive him to and from
school as well as to places where he wanted to go with his buddies, but I
would NOT sign his driving permit (I do not think that a 16 year old can
think sufficiently ahead to be a safe driver).  

By now, my son is gone for college, and I am left with a paid for vehicle
which i'm going to use until it is beyind repair - because i'd loose money
selling it, and the margunal cost of driving is lower than the marginal
cost of public transit (if you rerall my calculations, it is the overhead
that makes the difference).  But it is very unlikely that i will buy
another one after that.

wojtek