RE: Life after the oil crash

I guess it's in evitable that a response like this to Michael's suggestion
would come.

Note that Michael wrote, "most people here who have 4x4 could just as well
with a car ..." Note the words "most" and "could."

I sympathize with the writer in that he (she?) is put on the defensive for
the simple reason of having a large family. Western society has "evolved"
to the point that anything more than the 2.1 children per family is frowned
upon.

However, in a sense, we are already telling people what they can and what
they cannot drive. I cannot own/drive a Toyota MR2 Spyder in Canada because
the car is not certified in Canada (I can own and drive one in 15 years when
it is designated as an "antique" and that's why we now see right-hand drive
pre-1990 Toyota MR2's, imported from Japan, here). We are telling people
that it's OK to drive a Hummer because we allow them to be produced and
sold.

Society generally does not tell people where they can live but lets economic
factors take care of that. If I choose to live 150 km from my place of
work, I do so because I like the location where I live, the place where I
work and I can afford to commute. If the price of gasoline doubles, I may
have to review the situation and move, change jobs, or successfully ask for
a salary increase to cover my increased commuting costs.

Telling people what they can and cannot do is a bit distasteful and,
somehow, is more acceptable if we do it in a roundabout way by setting
economic factors so that the goal is achieved.

Chuck Vandergraaf

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of drsyme@cablespeed.com
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 2:41 PM
To: Michael Roberts; Iain Strachan; Glenn Morton
Cc: asa
Subject: Re: Life after the oil crash

>
> But seriously gas-guzzlers including 4X4 should be
>curtailed. Most people here who have 4x4 could do just as
>well with a car which would use 50 to 66% of the fuel.
>

But seriously who would decide which people are allowed to
drive an SUV and who are not?

I have six kids, all but two are still in carseats or
boosters. I need a vehicle that will carry 8 adults
essentially. Cars cant carry my family. Most mini vans
are also too small, I could either put everyone in one gas
guzzler, or we could split up in two cars whenever the
entire family needs to go somewhere.

And I am sure that some people require SUV's for other
legitimate reasons, such as for the towing capacity. They
may only need to tow something like a camping trailer once
a year, and the rest of the year they drive around in a
"gas guzzler" that is not necessary most of the time.

If we are going to tell people what they can and cant
drive. Why dont we just start telling them how many kids
they can have, and require them to work within 10 miles of
where they live, etc, etc, etc. ?
Received on Thu Oct 27 17:17:24 2005