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I'm just not understanding why so many of the city slickers and suburbanites in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area flock to the allure of oversized SUVs for their one child and occasional drive two blocks away to the supermarket. You rural dwellers may need something high-profile to navigate the snow drifts, but what's the excuse for the city slicker from Scranton with one child to be driving an Escalade or a Hummer when they don't haul anything and live in a city where they plow the streets? Can someone explain that to me please?
Unless you are with them 24 hours a day how can you "judge" what they do with their escalade or hummer ?
We have a SUV a 4 runner I use it to "shleep" around 2 greyhounds, scuba equipt, DJ equipt. Not to mention mulch and plants for my garden and wood for my hubbys projects.
Now that we have the new acura he takes the 4 runner to work. He drives all highway where I am local so we save gas over me driving the 4 runner in stop and go.
Should I need it before he gets home we will just switch for the day.
Fine, since I'm being attacked left and right by people, why is it that not one of you has still been able to tell me how your Hummers, Range Rovers, etc. have not contributed to an increase in demand for a scarce resource, therefore hurting MY wallet in the process? If you're all so content on telling me to shut up and mind my own business, then what solutions do you all offer to get these rising gas prices under control so they stop hitting others in the wallet? It's fine to say "Free country; I'll do what I want." However, when enough of you start thinking like that to raise prices for the rest of us, you can bet your derrieres I'm going to be ticked off! I don't toil away incessantly at a job that I hate and attend a college I hate just to pay extra at the pumps so people can "enjoy themselves." If you want to waste gas, then pay for it yourselves by paying extra taxes on your SUV/large pick-up to help offset the $3+/gallon prices everyone must now pay to help accomodate your lifestyle?
Torrey, you claim to have insider information that shows that the current spike in gas prices is unwarranted. If this is the case, then why are people not revolting en masse against this poor excuse for a presidential administration? You can't blame me; I didn't vote for the guy because our ideoligies on just about every issue clashed. If there's some sort of political conspiracy that is driving gas prices through the roof, then why aren't you or any of your co-workers informing the media of this to serve as "whistle-blowers" who will expose this corruption, alleviate the pain at the pumps, and win over the hearts of the American public? Most people on this forum seem to be in the upper-middle-class category and don't really care about these soaring prices. On the other hand, I earned less than $15,000 last year and am struggling to make ends meat while putting myself through college. Paying $35/week for gas hits me a lot harder than it hits a lot of you who are driving up my prices by saying "It's a free country; butt out." If that's the case, then why not reimburse people like me for your gas-hoarding?
Phew! I just had a rough shift, and boy does it feel good to vent this anger!!!
I'm just not understanding why President Bush has now spent $500,000,000,000 to invade and occupy a nation that, as far as we know, had no link to 9/11 while that same cash could have been used on research & development funding to have found alternative, RENEWABLE sources of fuel for our vehicles right now that would burn cleaner (reducing the smog produced by the excess carbon dioxide emissions), would reduce our pain at the pumps (freeing up more disposable income for consumers to pump into the economy), and would lessen our dependency upon foreign nations for fossil fuels (hence lessening our involvement in the Middle-East, which I still don't understand why we're "babysitting").
This past generation left my generation with an awful environmental MESS on our hands. The burden is now on us to strive for a better future to nip global warming in the bud so we can likewise raise children who will not only have a bright future ahead of them, but any future at all! (Okay, so perhaps I've been watching "An Inconvenient Truth" too much as of late, but it's just so sad to see most Americans on this forum have an "I don't care" attitude towards our environment).
I'm on your side Scranton. If you want to buy and drive an SUV you should have to pay a green tax. They do it in Europe and it works well.
You can always rationalize why you "need" an SUV. If you really think about it though, you can haul the kids, the plants, the scuba gear, etc in a sedan just as easily. For the the few rare times when you truly need a truck, you can rent one.
People want SUV's because it's a status symbol in some parts of the country and the perception that they are safer. Go to places places like Texas and Arizona and everyone seems to have one. Personally I think they are terrible to drive, unresponsive, and their handling stinks.
Why all of a sudden to we get a republican president from texas and the fuel prices rise? 1. WAR 2. BIG OIL tells us that the supply is running out or that our reseves are low or that this resource is going away, all reasons to site when they are questioned about the prices, whats changed from Clinton to this mess in production equipment? This a grift to get more money while posting record breaking profits. In 2001 diesel was .99 cents a gallon, what has really happened aftered 9/11 to drive fuel prices so high? Did we all of a sudden have more trucks, or did we all of sudden run out of oil? No we went to war and we have a big oil friendly president, the oil companies are making more money under Bush then they have made in the past and really our demand is not that much higher or at least as high as they would like us to think it is. Now SWB you are whinning about $35 dollars a week in gas right , you are whining about that little. You can go to school and work and do your weekly routine on $35 a week in gas? How much do the photo tours cost you? Maybe if you stayed closer to home you could sabe there? thats a suggestion to help you offset the rising prices stay home more stop driving all over the state to take pics og houses, that would save you a ton. If you never went anywhere but work and school exclusively I might feel alittle sorry for thats what your looking for right? Our federal gov't polutes the enviroment more in one day with toxic nuclear waste then all the cars in this country do in one month. AGAIN COMPLAIN TO THE PRESIDENT NOT ME ABOUT THIS, IT IS HIS FAULT NOT OURS!
SWB, I hear your concerns. I really do, and understand your frustration.
Although I may be satirical at times in wanting to ban the use of SUVs & light trucks in public areas (still sore about the smoking ban here in Ohio), I know that personal choice must win out. It ties into my personal philosophy of "Leading by Example." There is no better argument than living life the way you'd like it to be for everyone. No one feels insulted, and there's no need to put on a condescending air. People can then make up their own minds on what's a better life to lead.
I drive a '97 Honda Civic. Why? Because I like the body style, and it hasn't failed me yet. My father drive a Jeep Commander. Why? Because he likes driving a big car. Does he need it? No, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
As much as I agree SUV and Truck use have limited application in urban areas, if the people want it and can get it, so be it. Not to mention those new green cars need some serious styling changes. Egads they're hideous!
We have a friend who is retired form one of the major oil companies. All we have heard about is how much more he has been making in dividends and profits.
Get mad at the oil companies who instead of showing record profits lower the price of gas.
As for being able to fit the scuba , plants, bags of mulch not to mention 2 70#+ greyhound in sedan tried it doesn't work. I would use more gas making several trips instead of the one. Not to mention if I rented a SUV each time I haul these thing(which is a couple times a week for the plants/ mulch) The extra gas I would use to get to a rental place (15 miles) then the gas to use the rented SUV will equal more than I would of spent driving 2 miles from my house to the nursery.
I wonder what the correlation between the increasing size of people's homes and lawns is between the perception of the size people feel they need their car to be. Being that I live in one bedroom apartment with no lawn, and don't even own a car, I don't think too much about 'hauling', but I do know that my mother loves to garden and has always had an elaborate, but moderate sized garden in her front yard, but somehow manages to maintain it and buy plants, etc with her Pontiac vibe. On the rare occasion my parents ever need a truck (a few times a year), they call up a friend of theirs who is a contractor and as such needs it daily. In thinking about large vehicles and gas consumption, it seems to me it would make more sense, if you are the sort of person who only needs on once in awhile, to just borrow or rent it when you do, and then drive a fuel efficient car the rest of the time (I have a similar sort of relationship with cars, when I want one, I'll rent one, but I only want one about 4 times a year, so I don't really see the point of owning one, paying insurance on it, etc for it to sit in the street for weeks on end). That is what my parents and grandparents always did.
I think most of the problem is regulation of oil. We "can't" build any new refineries and we "can't" drill or expand drilling in our own country. The one thing oil can do, and is doing well, is transporting the stuff.
I saw something on TV a while back about a car that runs on water. It was very interesting. I realize that we will never have any kind of mass produced vehicles that run on alternative fuels because of the lobbiests and special interests that exist in our government, but it sure would be cool if we didn't have to rely on gas and oil to run our vehicles. But some things will never change - there will always be politicians in bed with oil people.
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You rural dwellers may need something high-profile to navigate the snow drifts, but what's the excuse for the city slicker from Scranton with one child to be driving an Escalade or a Hummer when they don't haul anything and live in a city where they plow the streets? 
Can someone explain that to me please?
