Re: Life after the oil crash

Actually I was responding to "But seriously gas-guzzlers
including 4X4
should be curtailed." And my question was curtailed by
whom? George wants
it to be left up to common sense, but I am too cynical to
believe that there is enough
"common sense" out there to do anything to help avoid the
coming energy crisis.

I agree that economic factors are more effective than
legislation. With the rise in gas prices we have already
seen a drop
in the sales of SUV's. And a consequence of this is lower
profits for the automakers.

I understand the sentiment regarding people buying SUV's
for seemingly frivolous reasons. It seems so wasteful.
 If anything should be curtailed in my opinion, it should
be the production and marketing of the "gas guzzler". Let
the consumer purchase one if they can afford it, and can
afford the gas to run it.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tjalle T Vandergraaf" <ttveiv@mts.net>
To: <drsyme@cablespeed.com>; "'Michael Roberts'"
<michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>; "'Iain Strachan'"
<igd.strachan@gmail.com>; "'Glenn Morton'"
<glenn_morton@yahoo.com>
Cc: "'asa'" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 5:14 PM
Subject: 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 19:43:33 2005