Monday, August 08, 2005

Transportation costs--a necessary evil?

Well, its time for what is sure to be the occasional post ranting about transportation costs. More and more cars these days are upwards of $20,000 to buy new. That is quite a chunk of change. Gasoline prices are inching up frighteningly close to $3.00 a gallon. And, for some incomprehensible reason, SUVs and the like are still out there blocking everyone's view of the road and keeping the oil companies in business.

Did we learn nothing from the 1970's...or even the 1940's for that matter? Does no one "of a certain age" remember gasoline lines or gas rationing? Isn't anyone else tired of paying for oil that we increasingly import from abroad? What about the great disparity in gas prices? I make a point to buy my gas in rural PA whenever I can and avoid the upper class MD neighborhoods where I work, because gas is sometimes 20-50 cents a gallon more expensive in the higher-end neighborhoods.

I have always envied other countries who have good, reliable public transit systems. While I would still love to see that happen here, the recent terrorism in England makes me turn my thoughts once again to alternative methods of powering our cars.

America is a geographically large nation. We love our independence and we love our automobiles. Unfortunately, we seemed addicted to gasoline to power them. Perhaps we need to put the entire country on a 12 step program to address this unnatural obsession with fossil fuels. We need a renewable, cheap power source--one that doesn't depend on mortaging our future just to get from here to work and back each day.

Or, are high transportation costs, as the title of this post suggests, a necessary evil?

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"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark

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