Confessions of a Litigious Mind

The random, irrelevant musings of a law school graduate.

Friday, July 25, 2008

whoever decided that it would be a good idea to give the public access to automobiles was a giant fucking moron

posted by josh @ 7/25/2008 10:32:00 PM

7 Comments:

At 7/28/2008 2:14 PM, Blogger Greg said...

When I lived in RI, I realized that people drive around like they're still discovering the island.

Of course, people everywhere kind of suck at driving.

 
At 7/30/2008 6:56 AM, Blogger Damon said...

RI drivers are the worst in the country on the written test. But more important, pushing the automobile as the transportation solution for everyone is rather stupid when less than 1% of the energy they use goes toward moving the driver!

 
At 7/30/2008 7:17 PM, Blogger Holmes said...

"Pushing the automobile as the transportation solution..." Who is pushing? You mean, like, people's demand for cars?

Americans are never going to buy into the socialist/fascist public transportation schemes as in Europe. And there is a lot of evidence to suggest that public transportation is energy efficient either. http://www.templetons.com/brad/transit-myth.html

Public transportation is a lot like the DC philosophy on banning guns. Step 1: Ban guns because guns are dangerous. Step 2: Have a shitty police force that can't make up for people not having guns to protect themselves.

Basically, the government steps in, we become dependent on their solution (public transportation, public police), and then government sucks. See: Katrina, Hurricane. It wasn't the people with SUV's who got stuck in the Dome.

 
At 8/01/2008 7:04 AM, Blogger Damon said...

Autos are pushed today with subsidies for oil, federal and state spending for roads, and coming soon: rescue of the short sighted US auto industry by the federal government. Autos were pushed in the past when automakers were allowed to buy the transit systems to destroy them.

And you may have noticed that "people's demand for cars" has recently fallen off a cliff while what few transit options we have are seeing increased ridership. Imagine the effect if gas was not subsidized. Of course transit is subsidized too, and I do find it strange that only a handful of the systems in the world actually turn a profit. Then again it's designed to server people and not to make money - socialism oh my!

The efficiency link proves a whole lot of nothing. The author points out factors that weren't taken into account, that the numbers vary by more than 4 times depending on number of riders, and that Europe and Asian do much better.

I don't have anything to say about DC police, but are you suggesting in the last paragraph that you propose not having a "public" police force?

 
At 8/01/2008 6:53 PM, Blogger Holmes said...

Making money=people demand.

In any event, our oil isn't subsidized- it's taxed and regulated out the wazoo. Yes, people are shifting a bit to public, but it's only at the margins and it's only at these extreme prices. It's making alternatives cheaper and I imagine we'll see alternatives to fuel for cars before we see alternatives to cars. Unless people like you get in control and tell us all how to live properly.

 
At 8/01/2008 6:54 PM, Blogger Holmes said...

PS The comment on DC police is more of a commentary on government making people dependent on the things it runs. I could have used a welfare example, but I wouldn't want your head to explode :)

 
At 8/01/2008 6:58 PM, Blogger Holmes said...

pps. I take the Metro train to work everyday. Not only is the transit itself subsidized, but my fare is subsidized by tax dollars. It's the only way I would take it. Again, not opposed to these systems in general, but am definitely opposed to it being foisted upon people.

 

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