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The US, starting from the post WWII era, embarked on a auto dependent, sprawl building frenzy. Then the oil crises of the 70s hit, making it abundantly clear that mode of living was not sustainable. Did Americans reverse course on car dependent sprawl? Of course not! They doubled down on building even more of it. Then the price of oil skyrocketed to $150/B in 2008, again crippling the auto-dependent suburban sprawl American mode of living. Again, Americans did not learn their lesson and once more went back to the sprawl building frenzy when the price of oil went back down.
Incredibly foolish complacency. We're now staring down the barrel (no pun intended) of another oil supply crisis and price shock. This time, there will likely be no relief. We will have to pay severely for our foolish hyper-complacency. I recently lived in Colorado Springs, CO, and often times when driving through the place, I'd think about how extremely difficult it would be to live in a place like this without a car. I think places such as CO Springs will become mostly uninhabitable in the coming years and decades.
Go back even farther in time. If you believe that big automakers along with oil and rubber companies, bought and tore down all the street/trolly cars that ran in almost every larger city in the U.S., to put the average American behind the driver's seat in a car.
lmao. tell that to the millions of people who get electric from nuclear power plants.
these days, solar panels are more viable than ever.
stop making excuses.
going all electric requires bigger investment in larger infrastructure too, duh.
Nuclear and mass solar panel production are dependent on abundant oil/fossil fuels. How do you think the uranium and 'rare earth metals' are mined? Heavy diesel equipment. How do you think the parts are manufactured! In fossil fuel powered factories. How are they transported? By kerosene powered planes and diesel powered vehicles. You get my point.
Go back even farther in time. If you believe that big automakers along with oil and rubber companies, bought and tore down all the street/trolly cars that ran in almost every larger city in the U.S., to put the average American behind the driver's seat in a car.
And Americans themselves were utterly complicit in this.
I don't live in suburbia, so I fail to see what your point is.
There's nothing "free or independent" about being forced to rely on a car to make any sort of living.
I'd rather be dependent on my car (something I have control over) and know I can go anywhere I want to go then be dependent on a government subsidized mass transit that will take my where (and when) THEY want me to go.
Because the American dream is NOT to live in cramped urban apartments with elephants thumping above you. We want to have a place of our own. We want to live in places where people smile at you, where we can walk without looking over our shoulder at night.
We want our own car, too, which allows us to go where we want when we want. If the gas is expensive, we'll skip some trips if needed. This is freedom, vs. the leftist urban utopia.
I'd rather be dependent on my car (something I have control over) and know I can go anywhere I want to go then be dependent on a government subsidized mass transit that will take my where(and when) THEY want me to go.
Are you not aware that car infrastructure is highly government subsidized? The mass motoring paradigm could genuinely not exist without massive government socialism so-called "conservatives" claim to hate so much.
Mass motoring is just about the most wasteful and inefficient way possible to move people around.
The "oil crisis" of the 70s was caused by being too dependent on foreign sources for crude oil. Mostly from mid east OPEC members.
It was NOT caused because we were running out of oil. It was totally caused by our leaders wanting to buy most of our crude from OPEC nations and those that hate us.
It's amazing to me how these people think we are running out of oil. AND we have natural gas now.
Status:
"Peace sells...but who's buying?"
(set 22 days ago)
Location: South of Heaven
8,223 posts, read 3,681,013 times
Reputation: 12073
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1200RT
Most people have zero desire to live on top of one another in small apartments.
The existence of rap music makes apartment living untenable for me. There's always that one guy in every building, unless you're in a really bad neighborhood then there are usually a bunch of those guys.
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