Here's a bullet point paper by the American Dream Coalition (thanks to Matt Wingard for bringing my attention to this).
HOW AUTOMOBILES MADE AMERICA
By Randal O'Toole
The automobile has been widely criticized for its social costs, including accidents, pollution, and changes to urban form. But few of the critics consider the many benefits that the auto has produced for the average American. This new paper from the American Dream Coalition fills that gap, showing that the automobile has played a large or dominant role in:
Increasing personal incomes by seven times;
Increasing personal mobility by six to eight times’
Increasing home ownership rates by nearly 50%
Reducing the cost of consumer goods and increasing the variety of such goods by up to 100 times or more;
Enabling the civil rights and women’s liberation movements;
Making outdoor sports and numerous other recreational and social opportunities available to the average person;
Reforesting 80 million acres of deforested horse pasture lands and converting 40 million acres of other pastures to higher value croplands;
Providing rapid access to fire and other emergency services and swift escape from natural disasters.
Because of these benefits, it is reasonable to call the mass produced automobile the greatest invention in the 230 years since the American republic was founded. Those who seek to reduce the amount of driving people do by imposing disincentives to the auto or allowing traffic congestion to increase risk killing, or at least limiting, the automotive goose that laid the golden egg of American prosperity.
9 comments:
And some of us make an honest living repairing them !!!
Most of us who say "cut back on auto usage" mean walking to the corner store to buy a gallon of milk instead of driving. There may be some who advocate going back to the horse and carriage days, but that's not most of us. For the record.
Suppose we did the following:
- Force vehicle manfaucturers to make cars utilize less fuel and create less pollution. This will raise the cost of the vehicles, and likely decrease profits.
- Require the companies which sell carbon fuels to own and maintain enough plant life, to take care of all the carbon dioxide likely to be produced by the consumption of all the fuel they sell.
The Democrat-Socialists want (DEMAND) that people get out of their cars. AND GET INTO UNIONIZED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Hey _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ Socialists. Drive your Hummer to the corner store, tick off all the Socialists. Yes the car is one of the greatest inventions of the last 100 plus years.Its FREEDOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Ps Don't let socialists ever control your daily life by forcing you out of your car.
Dear Whatever,
Cars are more efficient now than in any time since they were created.
We need to drill in ANWR.
Victoria
According to your headline, the car is the greatest invention since the founding. That is very likely true except in Portland where Metro, TriMet, the City Council, The Girls of Hawthorne, Taliban Tommy, and Vera Katz-enjammer think that light rail is the greatest invention since the founding and sliced bread.
Therefore, Victoria, it seems you must alter your thoughts about the car.
To all you libs and lefties: That last sentence was not meant to be taken seriously.
Scottiebill,
Isn't it about time we began hearing about the wonderful things cars have brought us?
Victoria
Cars may be more efficient than they have ever been in the past, but they could be more efficient if we were willing to pay more for them (and give up some of our other luxuries in life to do so).
I know this, because the CEO of one of the companies which makes SUVs stated so on the news. I don't remember which CEO or even the date of the news cast, but it stuck in my mind, because it made me sort of angry. He stated that he could make the SUVs more fuel efficient, but then they would cost more, and the company would not make as much profit.
I realize that not all vehicles are SUVs and some are more efficient than others.
I don't own a motor vehicle. I use mass transit.
I am guilty of accepting rides from people, when giving me a ride requires that they drive where they would not have otherwise driven.
I am not for abolishing motor vehicles. I am for changes which cause people to pay the full cost (including costs of clean up) of owning and operating motor vehicles.
I don't claim to know how to exactly measure all of the costs. But there are things we do know, about the costs, which we do not require people to pay for.
Whatever, why be in business if not to make a profit? Porfitless businesses can't seem to last very long, for some reason. Go figure.
As for efficient cars, Victoria is right. They are more fuel efficient and run cleaner than ever before.
As for your CEO quote, nearly every car manufacturer makes SUVs and other vehicles to satisfy the varied public demand. Smaller SUVs are becoming more popular, but the larger ones still sell. Auto manufacturers just build what the public demands by their purchases.
Even the Japanese, noted for small fuel efficient tin cans a few years ago, have opted to offering larger vehicles to the American market.
Electric vehicles aren't as feasible as some think, yet. Massive batteries and the elctricity needed to recharge them just transfers the source of pollution. In the meantime, alternate fuel sources are being researched, years late and long over due, in my opinion.
Still, in the meantime, we are a mobile society and do use a lot of fuel. We need the oil discovered within our own nation to satisfy our energy needs (not only the car) and stop being dependant on foreign oil.
Personally, I like the thought of hydrogen, myself and advocate using more coal, provided the factory pays for needed upgrades to their smokestacks to trap harmful pollutants. Coal can be used in other ways to help our energy needs and used cleanly as well.
If you choose not to own a car or drive, good for you, that's your choice. Others choose differently and as long as they can pay for the fuel, good for them, I say.
It is called freedom to choose, a cornerstone of our society.
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