This post is mainly in response to the comments in “I wish I could write this off.”
A few days ago I made a comment on Kaptiano’s site. Where I said that I had an expectation of life that probably could not be met outside the Anglosphere. What I mean by that is that I love the American lifestyle that can arguably said that is fast, free flowing, cheap, materialistic, excessive, privleged, etc. Relatively speaking, I live a life that is many times more easier than most of the people in the world. So I did have a certain reservation about making the previous post.
Compared to all the other western and industrialized nations, the price for my gas is quite a deal. I’m very much aware of that. However, I also know that the reality of American living is that alternative sources of transportation is almost none existent. There is no public transportation where I live. Well, that’s slightly inaccurate. There is a county dial-a-ride but I’ll get to that in a minute. So, when gas prices and various automotive taxes, fees, and surcharges increase, we as consumers have no choice but to take it. Doing a quick calculation, my transportation costs take up about 1/5 of my take home pay at a minimum. So I do feel the squeeze.
Public transportation in America is not available for I’d guess about half the population. And for those who do have access to it, it’s pretty damn shitty. You’d have to live in the highly urbanized centers of places like New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and the like to get anything that comes close to being reliable and cost competitive with personal automobiles. Where I live, the public transportation option is a joke. It would cost me more in terms of time, frustration, and money to use the county dial-a-ride than to own my own vehicle. The actual purpose of that transportation is provide subsidized assistance to disabled, poor, and elderly people. To be frank, putting in place a larger public transport (and it could only be a dial-a-ride program) would not be cost-effective. It’s not cost-effective now. Destinations are too sprawled out over large areas, there are not enough people who’d utilize the system, and it would cost too much to implement and maintain.
I don’t feel too badly about complaining about the rise in the cost of living. In the Philippines, families are worried about the rising price of rice and how they may not be able to afford it. But, I’m not an idealist and I judge everything by how it affects me. Granted, I don’t show it enough but I am grateful for the life I live. Am I going to go to a protest about the price of gas? Of course not. This kind of stuff is normal. The markets roll along in cycles of bulls and bears. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do anything about it. Rather, I’m saying that we all need to have some perspective. Know why you are where you are and come up with solutions . The price of gas is rising as is food. I’ll moan about it while I’m also cutting back on other spending and remain watchful for a better paying job.
Something odd I learned today: The Philippines imports rice from the United States. I never would have guessed.
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2 comments:
You have a point. Even with the recent skyrocket in food and energy prices, we in the United States have it far easier than many, I daresay most, in the world.
However, I think we're getting to a point where there will have to be some real changes. As you also noted, public transportation in the U.S., outside of a few major urban locations, is cumbersome at best. Part of this is because Americans for so long have relied on our cars. Part of it, though, is also because of the nature of our society.
The American dilemma has always been the need for individuality in conflict with the need for human companionship. We need our "space" while at the same time we need to know that if we want to see friends or family, they're only a car ride/plane flight away at most. Over the years, our infrastructure has been built with this in mind. Many civic public transportation systems are a joke because it's just not possible to have efficient and effective ones such as in New York because of the way the city itself is designed.
For example, here in Kansas City, not only do we span the Kansas/Missouri state line, which causes all sorts of civic transportation issues, but our main airport is around 30 miles to the north of the city proper. You have the richer suburbs on both the Kansas and Missouri side commuting to the downtown area for business (and with recent development projects, hopefully for entertainment) but the sheer amount of real estate those suburbs cover make it hard to set up an effective bus system on either side of the state line as there's just too much land to cover.
For years now, this sort of splatter city design effect has been promoted by cheap gas prices. As those prices climb, though, not only will people start cutting back on their discretionary spending and non-essential driving, but they'll also stop seeing themselves as members of a greater community. What socializing they do they will largely do in their own suburbs, what jobs they seek will be limited by how far they can travel and when the Kansas City government tries to spark civic improvements metro-wide, people will wonder, "Why should I be paying for something that I'll probably never use?"
This is in the microscale. I am growing more and more concerned that we're heading to a point where we'll see this on a macroscale; where our expansive country becomes more and more internally isolated because of geography and the prohibitive price of travel. This could lead to questions being asked about the efficiency of remaining in the United States. Maybe not in the next few years, but things are already starting to trend this way.
The federal government had better figure out damn fast some way to act to avert what could potentially be the most divisive effect on our country since slavery and the civil war.
I think that one of the amazing things about the American experience is the individual drive and the need to get out there and do our own thing is still part of our psyche. Personally, I’d love to live in downtown Chicago—for a year or two maybe. After that, I know I’ll want my own home, car,--bathroom.
I don’t believe that we are in danger of the U.S. segmenting into little zones of populations. I actually believe that it is going the other way. Gas prices are on their way up but I believe that sooner or later, an alternative fuel or a more efficient way to use the fuel we have will become available. Hopefully we won’t be handing over our first borns before that happens, but it will happen. What I see for the long term future of the United States is a strengthening of regional ties similar to what has happened in Europe. With China and other nations such as India, and Brazil on the way up, the U.S. is going to have to have to rely on political and economical ties with Canada and even Mexico to balance out power.
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