Ted Davis wrote:
> The problem we Americans have is our rock-solid belief that "freedom"
> includes the "right" to build your house wherever you want, come hell or
> high water. This extreme selfishness is a deep form of sin, IMO, and we
> will pay a terrible price for this someday when the oil does run out.
>
> I would be unelectable in this country, for if I ran for office we'd be
> paying at least twice as much for gasoline, with the difference being a tax
> that *must* be used *only* for building rail transit systems powered by
> electricity. No more airports, no more highways, just rail. I'd want
> greatly to reduce our use of cars, esp SUVs (Sinful and Ugly Vehicles) and
> provide powerful economic incentives for people not to build more
> subdivisions and suburbs around cars, but to do what the Brits do. We'd
> still be paying a bit more than half what the Brits pay for gas on this
> proposal, but the howls would be tenfold what they hear. We're just
> gutless, as a people, on this issue.
>
> I just see no way to change the public mindset on this, however. When we
> run out of oil, I really do fear the worst.
I add just an echo to Ted's comment. As Americans we have little sense
of community, something that shows itself from ecclesiology to our attitudes
toward mass transit. We are also not very good at perservering with any
project that takes more than about 2 years (outside) to complete - which
probably has something to do with a U.S. representative's term!
Shalom,
George
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Sep 25 2000 - 09:28:47 EDT