It's in all the cool Hummer ads. "Hummer: Like Nothing Else". And all of the Hummer/GM commercials are followed by a space shot of our beautiful Planet Earth. They have to pull back to a picture of Earth from space. Do you know why? Because a close up of any city where a fleet of Hummers rule the streets would show that the city has fallen into chaos and civil unrest. Like Iraq for example.
After the Oil Embargo of 1973, skyrocketing gasoline prices and the beating the American Automobile industry took, you'd think an important lesson would have been learned. When the domestic manufacturers were producing larger and/or more powerful vehicles and the Japanese manufacturers produced smaller, efficient vehicles and began a major shift in the industry did anyone notice?
Why wouldn't someone with an IQ of over 80 learn from that experience? Is it not taught in our MBA programs throughout America? Is it stupidity, an inability to learn from history or something more sinister? Do American auto execs work closely with energy executives to lobby for eased fuel economy standards? This situation is not accidental. It is either complete stupidity or collusion. Either way, "We the People" are too smart for it. Or are we?
When I used to travel around America I would try to observe and perform a quick math calculation in my head. It was not scientific per se, it was an attempt to get a feel for a city or town. I would generate a ratio of libraries to bowling alleys and then try to produce a geographic IQ. Now, before the 9 pound bowling balls I use, or the heavier ones thrown by others are hurled in my general direction, let me say that I enjoy bowling and have occasionally gotten into the triple digits (impressed?) However many years ago it seemed a simple way to see how many people liked to read books versus roll a ball. Of course, one cannot apply that test anymore as so many state and local governments have been placed under such severe economic pressure, they have closed libraries and reduced other "non-essential" services like police and fire protection and public education. So now I am forced to perform what I think of as the 'H' ratio. Yes, it is the Hybrid to Hummer ratio. In the Bay area I am always pleased that the ratio is likely to be 10-1 in favor of the Hybrids. In many other places, the ratio is very depressing.
Why is it depressing? Well if you are a working family in America struggling to make ends meet you are probably not well-prepared to have an essential part of your budget skyrocket. If you are a family of 4 and both parents are driving to work (and possibly farther than you used to because of real estate prices you live farther from your respective jobs) you might be cutting your budget in other low-priority areas, like food or medicine.
In the meantime some idiot pulls up to the gas pump and refills his Hummer every other day, causing more demand for a scarce resource, and causing the price to shoot up more, gives political leadership a receptive audience when talking about "reduced environmental controls for refining" or if they were to be truthful "lets poison our air some more so we can lower fuel prices by ten cents". As Bill Maher approximately said "Just how small does your penis need to be to want to surround it with a Hummer H2?"
And for any of you out there that claim family safety as an issue, my family may be much safer if we're traveling with a fully loaded automatic weapon, but in a civilized society (or even one that perceives itself as civilized) that is probably not a good idea either. So here's an idea. Lets gather up the GM executives that decided to mass-produce the Volkswagen "Thing" on steroids, along with everyone that bought them, lets send them to Iraq to guard the oil pipeline, and bring our troops home.
Just a few thoughts from my over-caffeinated alphabetic mind.
About the Author: Mr. Polisner founded alonovo.com in March of 2005. He has been working in most aspects of Information Technology since 1981 and was an early commercial adopter of the UNIX operating system. Prior to founding alonovo.com earlier this year, George was a Director at Oracle Corporation. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers regarding political and economic policy and often appears as a guest on radio programs. In fact, when it comes to alonovo.com, it's pretty difficult to get him to stop talking.