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August 22, 2007
Recent studies have found that we Americans prefer big vehicles and - manna to the auto manufacturers - small cars are not as safe as big cars.
Duh.
Of course we prefer big vehicles. Gas, after all, is still very cheap in the U.S. Yes, I know it is now hovering around the $3 a gallon mark, but that is less than half the price that it is in Europe. And when you are paying $8 a gallon, you can be sure that you are not going to drive a gas-guzzling SUV.
Why is gas so expensive in Europe? Because the governments tax the heck out of it. Here such a notion is anathema to a large portion of the body politic - in addition to the auto, oil, steel, rubber and plastics industries - and for a very good reason.
Unlike the Northeast and other urban centers - where small cars do make sense - most Americans live surrounded by vast expanses of space unimaginable in Europe. Small, economic cars don't make a lot of sense in Texas, for example, where the Chevy Suburban was always referred to as the state vehicle when I lived down there in the late 1980s.
And many Americans have rural roots they revere and for them a pickup is the only way to go. Many may use their pickups mostly for driving to and from work in the nearest city, but that is beside the point. The vehicles serve an emotional role, as indeed all vehicles do.
So forget about raising taxes on fuel. It is not going to happen and even if it did it would still be a nominal amount compared to European levels.
And so we will continue to have the best of both worlds, being able to afford to run big cars and SUVs and pickup trucks and, as an added bonus, having bought them, be comforted that we are safer in them.
Only two things cast a shadow on this self-indulgent picture: If you think the price we are paying in the Mideast - the lives of our military personnel, the maiming of thousands of others, the same of countless more Iraqis, the billions of dollars to equip our forces and run the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the billions of dollars in aid we grant to Egypt, Israel, Pakistan and others to keep the peace - if you think all that blood and money is ALL about George W. Bush's war on terror and has NOTHING to do with the supply/price of crude oil and the price of gasoline you pay at the pump, then I would like to know the name of your drug dealer because you are obviously getting good stuff.
Personally, I think all that blood and money is a pretty high tax to pay for our cheap gasoline.
And the other shadow is the nebulous business of global warming which, while blindingly obvious to a simpleton like me, remains a debatable propostion in some quarters of our petro-driven administration.
- Peter C.T. Elsworth
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 11:38 AM to commentary
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