For years I have (rather self-righteously) sneered at those who drive SUVs. “What are you going to do when global warming kicks in? Turn up the air conditioning?!?” Although I admit I thought Hummers were cool. A car that can inflate its own tires and drive places that would bring a Jeep to its knees?
It seems that only now are people who never cared before (like those who drive SUVs/giant trucks and really do not need) trying to get rid of their vehicular monstrosities and purchasing smaller cars with much better fuel efficiency. (Such as hybrids although just switching to a compact makes a big difference.) Why are they doing the right thing? Why are they suddenly thinking about how much gas they use and changing their behavior? Because they can no longer afford not to.
Thomas Friedman for the New York Times writes:
But the message going forward to every car buyer and carmaker would be this: The price of gasoline is never going back down. Therefore, if you buy a big gas guzzler today, you are locking yourself into perpetually high gasoline bills. You are buying a pig that will eat you out of house and home. At the same time, if you, a manufacturer, continue building fleets of nonhybrid gas guzzlers, you are condemning yourself, your employees and shareholders to oblivion.
(Read the whole thing here. You may need to register.) Note I do not necessarily agree with Friedman’s solutions – although I certainly agree with his diagnosis of the problem.
Here is what troubles me.
For years I have wished people would do the “right thing” and conserve energy more. Smaller cars. Less unnecessary travel. More energy efficient homes. Recycle like crazy. Encourage alternative energy technologies. And so on. (For the sake of fairness I confess I could do much better myself.)
And for years I have opposed the idea that the government should make people do this by taxing the living daylights out of the “wrong thing”. Like heavy taxes on gasoline or large vehicles. Why make something artificially expensive? Heavy taxes on gasoline would punish everyone not just those who drive unnecessarily large fuel-inefficient vehicles but also people who drive small(er) cars. Heck – people who own hybrids would also get socked (although much less).
And the poor? How many poor families can afford new fuel efficient cars? Let alone a hybrid? I wish I had a hybrid – but they are out of our price range and because we finally own our cars we are taking advantage of the chance to save up some money (for college and so on). For someone who makes more than a hundred thousand dollars per year higher gas prices are annoying. For someone who earns minimum wage higher gas prices are devastating.
But you know? Even if I am right and it is just… bad… to force people to do the right thing through heavy taxes… it seems that many Americans are in fact changing their behavior because financially they feel forced to. I wish people did not have to be forced (economically) to make wiser choices. But that is in fact what appears to be happening. Alas that moral suasion is not and has not been enough.
