Mary wrote: I would be happy to take public transportation, but there isn't any around here. We have one public bus that runs once an hour. That's it. North American society is not designed the same way it is in Europe. Our public transportation system sucks dead rocks because the government has little interest in subsidizing it and would prefer to see everyone drive their vehicles, because that way, they get more tax dollars out of us. The only city here in southern Ontario that has a subway system is Toronto. That's it. Even a trip to the grocery store has to be done by vehicle because there's no sidewalks between my house and the store (unless you'd like to suggest that I take my life in my hands by walking on the road). This is an all too common theme around here and for someone to suggest that it's the fault of the greedy consumer is just ludicrous.
I never said any consumer was 'greedy', but what I suggest is far, far from ludicrious. You CHOSE to move to a neighborhood where you could not walk to the grocery store. You CHOSE which job you accepted. You CHOSE which car you bought, as well as size, and horsepower which dictate miles per gallon. You CHOSE to live where you live. Why now that because YOUR CHOICES have not worked out so well it's someone else's fault?
My partner/boyfriend and I have gotten down to one car. We sold both of our vehicles last year and bought a 2008 Audi A4. We get 26 mpg in combined driving. We drive just under 250 miles per week on average for the both of us combined. My boyfriend has a full time job, and I have been going to graduate school full-time, and working 4 nights a week on top of this. I think we are pretty typical. But we chose to be near our jobs and school. We use around 42 gallons of fuel per month. At $2.50 a gallon that's $105 a month, $3.50 a gallon is $147, and $4.50 a gallon is $189. Our car doesn't even get that good of mileage. A Honda Civic gets 32 mpg all around, and an Accord gets 28 or 29 mpg. The Toyota Prius gets 45 mpg.
As I said before, if you don't like paying that kind of money for gas, then don't. Move. Take a different job. Walk to work. Take mass transit. Buy a hybrid vehicle. But don't complain that gas is 'too high' while you sit in a full-sized truck/SUV, driving 100 miles round trip to work every day, and refusing to even walk to pick up your daily groceries. You made your choices. Either change, and make new choices. Or pay up. We had oil/gas shocks in the 70's, the 80's and the early 90's, so you can't say you didn't realize it couldn't happen. If your monthly budget and lifestyle blows up over an increase of $50 or $100 extra per month to pay for some gas, you are living beyond your means.
