“Cars are over. Cheap energy is over. Cheap food is over. We have a choice, though. We can continue to perpetuate the myth we’ve created by pretending like a $30,000 35-mpg hybrid is some revolution in a car industry that produces great gas vehicles that perform slightly less effectively right now. It’s possible to rape the biosphere for about $75-a-bbl with more filthy, black coal under the pretension that fixing the black-lung problems fixes the carbon problems. Or we can consume less at higher prices, acknowledging our participation in an international human society of resource-hogs racing toward 7 billion strong. We can ignore the lies we’re being told and instead make the choice to live more frugal lives. Then, perhaps, industry will move forward with public transportation, denser living spaces, and more efficient uses of technology we already possess.”
I especially liked this part but you should read the whole thing. Why are we trying to go back to the way things were? The way things were got us here. Obama’s new “Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers” sounds wrong. “Recovery” says to me “go backward to the way things were.” That didn’t and won’t work. We need transition. We need to be honest with ourselves. Your point about the “expectations bubble” is exactly right. Our old way of looking at the world (e.g., the American Dream) needs to change and the longer it takes, the more pain we have.
