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Originally Posted by Elphaba
Thank you, Host, for pointing me back to your original premise. I read it, but obviously did not absorb it. I read with great interest on how Norway manages it's oil economy. While they have many policies to discourage the waste of that resource, we have policies that encourage it for the lucrative gain of some corporations. Do we really need more SUV's and Hummers on the road? I can easily imagine that a forward thinking energy policy could incorporate Norway's policies within our capitalist structure.
The problem that I keep coming back to is that the chance of that happening is slim as long as our politicians continue to be on the money teat of those very same corporations.
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I drive a chevy Tahoe. It’s a gas guzzler. I have no 'need' for a giant SUV, except for once a year, for one week. The other 51 weeks I have no good reason for driving it, except for one reason. I LIKE it. I'm willing to pay $60 a fill up because I can. Its not a evil corporate plan that forces me to drive it, its just me, and if they make more money off me thats ok because I allow it. Economic freedom is as important, and in some ways more important then any other kind of freedom. People whine about freedom of speech, or drug laws yet want the government to mandate what kind of car you drive?
I used to have a good number of friends from Norway. Thanks to the 'controled' economy they drive to Sweden to buy food because its cheaper. Think about that, Sweden, not exactly a low rent nation, was cheaper to buy food. Controlled economies are just that, controlled, devoid of freedom, and punitive.
My Tahoe lease is up in October. I was looking at what sort of vehicle to get and was interested in a hybrid car. Guess what? A hybrid runs 10k more than a regular car of the same make.
So lets pretend a hybrid car used NO gas for ease of calculation. It would take me over
FIVE years of filling my tahoe (fill up about every 1.5 weeks), and thats only if the hybrid had magic free gas, so in reality it would take me close to a decade to break even.
There is little incentive for fuel efficiency, but instead of punishing people, limiting freedom, limiting goods transportation, and hurting the economy with punitive measures like Norway, why not give us a break instead. Give me a 1k tax credit for only driving a hybrid a year and things will even out a bit.