The first thing that comes to my mind when I see American consumerism at its worst is on the roadways and transit systems.

One of the most abundant vehicles on the highways is the SUV. For anybody who doesn't know what 'SUV' stands for, it means "Stupid-looking and Ultraheavy Vehicle." The American suburbanite on average has 2 kids per family. So why is it required for an American to buy vehicle that is 3 feet higher than most vehicles and long enough to be a bus? The extra 3 feet doesn't make it very easy for children to pile into the space of the vehicle. So the "well we need to get a big vehicle for the family" argument doesn't work.

The part that erks me the most about SUV's is the type of person who drives them. It is either a soccer/grocery mom or an office yuppy with his cell phone in hand. The worst of these two is the soccer mom. When house moms get behind the wheel of a vehicle that is two times to large for them, disaster is looming on the horizon.

So, that leads me to believe that Americans pretty much get off on the size of the vehicle. They somehow get a thrill from driving a vehicle that is two times too large for any need they could have. Their otherwise meaningless life leaves them with hole large enough that they shove an entire SUV into to fill.

The highways in America are branched from urban cities out to smaller cities. This means that people need to travel quite a ways from their home cities into the inner city for the malls and the fine food restaurants. But to do this, they put two people in a 6-8 person vehicle and expend 10-13 miles per gallon driving to this place.

Now, if they had a vehicle that is more oriented to the 2 kid family of suburban america, they would only need a vehicle that is 4-5 seats. The Honda Civic Hybrid fortunately is just that vehicle. People say, "Yeah but those new hybrid cars are so funny lookin." The new Civic Hybrid has 56mi/gallon and it has the looks of any other sedan class vehicle already in production. Nobody would be able to tell the difference between a Civic and another American made car like a Cavalier. So why don't Americans buy hybrids?

Well I think it is just tradition that Americans like having wasteful products that pollute the environment yet satisfy there power needs. Bigger is definately not better and SUV's are about as bad as American consumerism gets.

I drive a Dodge Intrepid right now and it gets apprx. 21mi/gallon and I need to gas up once a week. If I were driving a Civic Hybrid, I could gas up once every three weeks instead and conserve Earth's natural resources all that much longer. The Civic Hybrid isn't a "plug in" car either. It stores energy from stopping and starting and uses that to move the engine forward.

The Ford Excursion or Chevy Suburban on the other hand is much more common and so are idiots in our nation.

Tell me what you think about the idiots in the states.


Hey
You're a crazy bitch
But you fuck so good, I'm on top of it
When I dream, I'm doing you all night
Scratches all down my back to keep me right on

This message last edited by MrFarstrider on 1/28/2003 at 1:13:29 PM.

• Edit 1: 1/28/2003 1:12:04 PM
• Edit 2: 1/28/2003 1:13:29 PM