What does America's car culture say about American culture?
What does your car say about you?I know many people whom live in the dumpiest apartment, yet they drive a Lexus or some huge gas-guzzling SUV. When their car payments and insurance are combined, these people are paying half a monthly mortgage on a car lease. Not only will these people probably never own a house, a recent study I read says they will probably die in poverty.
Then there are issues such as foreign oil dependency, pollution, smog and global warming that significant numbers of Americans seem to completely ignore.
Automobiles are an important part of American culture. Still, shouldn't automobiles say something about the substance of America - the vision of America? What do today's automobiles say about America?
Labels: Foreign Oil Dependency, global warming
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:34 AM
2 Comments:
Dahcredyns,
The American consumer needs to make a real inquiry into values. I agree that the automobile (and I would argue the home as well) are highly visible signs of consumerism crossing a dangerous threshold. Americans are bearing increasing amounts of debt for longer and longer portions of their lives. Without rehashing the recent studies, it seems apparent that all of this consumption is doing little for us. Owning things, especially things that are legitimately beyond one’s means, should not be formative of the self-image.
-erd
erd-
I couldn't agree more.
Yet, it seems our society is pushing hard to head further down this path, faster and faster.
Has America always been this way?
Did something change, or has our evolution basically been heading down the this path, well, forever? Is this America's manifest destiny?
I think about health care.
Yes, there are problems with the health care system. Yet, the biggest problem is the patients. The problem is us, the people.
We eat food - lots of it - that's basically killing us, without any exercise, and we get mad that the health care system can't cheaply help us maintain and extend our self-destroying habits.
It's like, "Yes, I'm trying to kill myself, but it tastes good and I'd like to do it for as long as possible, please. Thank you."
We complain about the war in Iraq, yet we guzzle gas like there's no connection.
What's up with us?
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