The widely accepted appellation "me generation" defines one of the effects of the blindly narcissistic political economy and venal philosophy that has dominated the popular culture and has expanded its influence and footprint since the era of Ronald Reagan. The most egregious and omnipresent artifact of the me generation is the automobile, a machine that is an extension of the self and of private property and individualism; the massive overproduction of which, and overinvestment in, stupidly and arrogantly squandered the labor and material resources of an entire generation.
A nation's wealth in material resources and labor takes form in its products and artifacts; a people's philosophy and culture is demonstrated in its behavior. In the US - the preponderance of the wealth and labor of a generation is trapped in cars - yesterday's and tomorrow's junk, millions of portable coffins that promote and sustain the illusory semblance of autonomy and power.
Together with the suburban home, that puerile dream of a personal kingdom, and the television (more on that in another diary); the automobile - the self-mobile - is a form of governance; governance by me over you, by my wants and needs, by what I watch but do not do, by what I do without you (any you - the Other). By these perverse and autonomous mechanisms we are governed, and govern each other - without intelligence or engagement.
There is nothing new in this argument or storyline. The pattern and it outcome was a predictable disaster - the only thing new for Americans to consider is the opportunity to change the trajectory of this auto-propelled political economy at a time when the massive capital accumulation that supports it can no longer sustain it.
Beside the pleasant outcome of self-determination in transport, the automobile industry has these effects: it is a killer of over 40,000 people per year in the US alone (a death rate roughly twice as high as the murder rate, a death rate as high as the murder rate in the world's most dangerous cities), it creates a drain of over $200 billion in accident-related damage, it is a major source of the damage to the enviroment that will result in climate change, it is an enabler of an artificially autonomous and isolated society, and it is a driver of global conflict over oil. The automobile industry is the primary actor in an experiment in social engineering that has produced a kind of spectacular, randomly directed economic expansion - in short, a beautiful cancer.
Barring total and universal destruction of infrastructure and culture, it is not possible to replace the automobile in this generation or probably the next. It may be possible within a generation to replace fossil fuels with electricity, to replace the science of combustion with a science of light - but oh well - at the least, by taking advantage of the wreckage of Detroit's alleged missteps it should be possible to modify the automobile economy in significant ways. And why not? How can Americana stop squandering our wealth in cars? And why should Americans who care about such things continue to let the rest of the population go on wasting all the labor and materials, capital and education on cars?
Billions and and billions of dollars are tied up in this single product - without a commonly held thought to what else those billions, and the labor and materials that the billions are spent on - could do.
Discussion is merited on draconian steps:
- Expand massive federal and state spending on mass transit solutions including a national network of rail. Let the automobile industry and its shareholders be as bankrupt as they really are. To avoid catastrophic losses and the social disruption from loss of perceived wealth and labor, institute share exchanges where shares in automobile companies become shares in mass transit and alternative energy firms.
- In cities where automobile factories are no longer viable and must be closed, create and enforce industrial policy to provide tax incentives and grants/loans for worker relocation, worker re-education and green industry. Let the trade unions participate in the design and governance of these programs. (The ARRA is headed in this direction.)
- Introduce a schedule of federal sales tax on non-hybrid combustion engine automobiles above $20,000, starting at 10% and increasing by .1% for every 1,000 dollars; (A car with a baseline cost of 50k would pay a federal sales tax of $6500) For hybrids start the tax schedule at 30,000, and for electric vehicles - no federal sales tax until combustion engines are retired. Make combustion engines as wrong and anachronistic as uranium illuminated watches.
- Demand a national dialogue on zoning to halt expansion of single-family home suburban development and automobile-centric commercial corridors and malls. (The Middle Class Task Force cannot merely protect the status quo - it must propose new and creative standards for development.)
- Task the Secretary of Transportation and the Department of Transportation with the radical redesign of conurbations created by the automobile. Demand a timeline and a project the scale of the Manhattan Project. Tens of trillions of dollars were spent to design spectactularly destructive devices - spend the equivalent on designs for spectactularly creative living spaces.
In recognition and celebration of the decline and fall of the cyclops-like manufacturing giants of Detroit, as a matter of public policy and common wisdom, the me generation must be declared at an end. And as its selfish and unprepared men and women lapse into old age, at least let the workers and managers and families who have spent their lives sustaining the system that it created, turn to sharing and community as the means by which their lives can be redeemed.