Health and Diet Scottish Recipes Ferret for Ferrets


Re: [pf] CO2 by average Americans and rich Americans. A statistic.
by Molly Williams
29 November 2000 21:59 UTC

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Sharon and others,

Sharon Flesher wrote:
> 
> Molly wrote:

> > They [UCS] answer the question, why do Americans drive so much?, this way:
> > * Driving is affordable
> 
> I would strongly disagree with them on this. Cars' direct internal costs
> consume about 15 to 20 percent of household budgets in the U.S. and Canada
> (Litman, Todd. Transportation Cost Analysis: Techniques, Estimates and
> Implications. www.vtpi.org) Every year, the average U.S. household spends
> more than a sixth of its budget on cars, more than on food and second only
> to housing; poor households spend twice that proportion. Since the 1930s,
> car dependency has helped to at least triple the proportion of personal
> expenditures going to transportation. (U.S. Bureau of Transportation
> Statistic, Pocket Guide to Transportation; Freund and Martin, Ecology of the
> Automobile). In comparison, households in developed countries with better
> transit spend less. European households, for instance, spend only 7 percent
> of their budgets on transport. (Kay, Asphalt Nation).

Their point is that the cost of owning and operating a car is lower in
the US than in most other countries because of efficient markets and
relatively low fuel and import taxes. They also contend that once a car
is purchased, it is "inexpensive to operate. A typical trip of ten miles
costs about one dollar, including expenditures for gas, oil,
maintenance, and tires."

I agree with you, though, that owning and operating a car is damned
expensive, as a percent of a household budget. 

Still, people seem to /accept/ the cost as necessary, a fixed amount
that they have little control over, something that just IS. And I think
perception matters more in this case than reality. Change the
perception, and we'll change the behaviour.

> Here in the north woods, every season has its small motor plague: in the
> summer, our beautiful bay and inland lakes fill with noxious, noisy jet
> skis; in the fall, healthy adults feel they must clear their lawns -- no
> matter how tiny -- with leaf-blowers; in the winter, no cross-country ski
> trail is far removed from the stinking, threatening, ear-splitting drone of
> the dreaded snowmobile and neighborhood residents awake on snowy morns to
> the sound of multiple snowblowers, usually employed by the same healthy
> adults who favor the leafblowers; and finally, in spring, the lawnmower
> resumes its reign. Could we but end these plagues!

Ditto in Maine (except there are not a lot of leaf blowers!). Especially
ATVs, snowmobiles, and jet skis. Ick.
 
> Here in Michigan last winter, there was a program where people could trade
> in their old wood stoves for a new, efficient model and get a big discount.
> Maybe it was a national program. I have some friends who took advantage of
> it.

Here in Maine, there's a program where you can "turn in" your old CAR
and get money towards a new one! The car just has to be able to move on
its own steam (would that it /were/ steam!). It's not a lot of money but
the idea is hopeful.

~ Molly