The automobile has destroyed our country. (page 3)

Satanus

Don't know or talk to your nieghbors? Why not? I'm not super sociable, but i do talk to my nieghbors. Ok, there are some that aren't into talking. That's fine. I don't mind that. Some are a pain in the a$$. A few are ok, though. Actually, you can have the best of both worlds, friends near and far ;) I think tv does more to damage society, than does the car.

S, the friendly nieghbor

heathen

not me I love having the freedom of going where I want in any sort of weather , I think people in small towns are just as miserable for lack of being able to escape people they don't like. I don't think you'll find a mayberry anywhere.

hillbilly

Most of the technical advances during the 19th and 20th century filled an artificial need. The car and it's associated stuff ... like the gas business and so many other things were not really needed and I have to wonder... have they really made life better.

In my opinion... we could have stopped "improving" things about 1930.

~Hill

dawg

Satanus, no one said they don't talk or know their neighbors, I said I know of folks that don't know their neighbors. I know my neighbors and they all hang out here on the weekends. Here's how I'd like to live... I'd like to walk to work which lasts 4 days of 10 hours, then I'd like to have a day that I farm a small 1 acre parchment (subsistence farm), have money to buy things I don't have time to make for myself... and grow enough corn and barley to make some really good sour mash whiskey like my grandfathers did... a little moonshine. Saturday and Sunday would be for whatever... but my kids (which I'd have to make as I have none now) would be there for me to help raise. But as for technology, I like having a car, and would use one only for essential travel. And I love travel, so I'd use the car for that maybe two weeks out of the year...

PrimateDave

Has the automobile destroyed our country? Yes, no, and maybe.

No, there is nothing wrong with the automobile. It is just another form of transportation.

What may be a problem for our country is that we have developed this form of personal transportation, heavily subsidizing it, almost to the exclusion of all other kinds. Every community should have bicycle and pedestrian paths. Every community should be connected by some form of passenger rail transportation.

Then you have the mentality of drivers who think that the road belongs to them, to the exclusion of pedestrians and bicyclists. "Hello!? Just because you own a Hummer, doesn't mean you own the asphalt, too!" Since we don't have a system of pedestrian and bicycle paths, motorists must share the road, but they don't want to.

We have developed Suburbia, "the biggest misallocation of resources in human history," to quote author James H. Kunstler, because for a time we could. All of the factors came together; technology, cheap energy, and a growing economic system; to enable us to do what we wanted to do. We wanted the freedom that the automobile offered, even if it meant sacrificing other important things to get it.

The problem with technology isn't the technology itself. It is our dependence on it to the point we simply cannot live without it. That is dangerous. Nothing in the Universe guarantees us that Tomorrow will be anything like Today. It is probable that the cheap energy we have relied upon in the past will be more in demand globally and increasingly in shorter supply in the future. If you don't like high prices, wait until the shortages come.

If you think that there will be a technological fix for this, you don't understand the equation: Technology does not equal Energy. If history has taught us anything, it is that Technology enables increasing energy usage. Sure, you can increase efficiency, but you cannot overcome the law of diminishing returns. Add to that an economy that simply HAS to Grow, and any gains from improved efficiency are quickly consumed by growing demand.

I don't think we will see any rational plan for our predicament because our leaders are pretty much disconnected from the realities on the ground for now, and their Economists are the priests of the religion of Unlimited Economic Growth. The only living thing that doesn't want to stop growing is a cancer, and we know what that does to a body.

LouBelle

Hey Lo-Ru - I hear you girl! We have a lovely part in our Country Calle the Natal Midlands - beautiful farm land with stunning views. I'd like to have my cow, a couple of chickens, grow my veggies, and enjoy the peaceful, wholesome life.

With the way the world has gone we've lots a lot of that home wholesomeness. I've never really lived in a close knit community.

The automobile has destroyed our country.