[lbo-talk] Re: polled while driving?

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Andy F.
> A trope you don't hear so much outside of urban
> planning circles is how much gummint intervention is
> involved in pushing cars.  The interstate system
> is/was a massive federal program that bulldozed many
> an urban neighborhood.  Even now I doubt there are
> many states whose gas tax and permit revenues cover
> more than half of road expenditures -- I'd have to
> fact-check this, but I know it's true in a number of
> states.  That's without getting into federal money,
> environmental damage, ongoing maintenance of empire,
> etc. etc.
> 
> I agree that irrational car use goes hand in hand with
> US-specific cultural pathologies, but the perverse
> economic incentives that favor car use here are huge.
> I think it meshes well with a theme that comes up
> often on the list -- how much elites encourage
> atomization and alienation in the US.
> 

  I agree.  I just did not want to overlook the cultural/individual
pathologies and focus only on structural factors.

Wojtek