As we enter the health care debate, many people seem to be extremely naive about the potential for the profit motive to cause extremely destructive long term impacts on a country. We remember how recently, we were reminded of our dependence on foreign oil..
It wasn't always so..
We should spend a little time to familiarize ourselves with the recent history of the automobile's takeover of the United States and how it happened.
(Follow the links below.. you might also want to print them out to share with others!)
Basically, until the 1950s, the United States was well endowed with a network of urban mass transit systems and intercity trains that allowed people to live near their jobs and get to and from work without needing a car.
That all changed as the nation wound down from war production.
The car, oil and gas companies basically remade the nation to make Americans dependent on cars- and them. They did this in a devious manner, by buying up transit systems, allegedly to "improve" them, then they destroyed them intentionally. New suburban towns were built to intentionally make them impossible to walk around.. Walking was then depicted intentionally in the media as old fashioned, something that only poor people did.. The net result was the geography and sprawl we see today, a landscape where people without cars are unwelcome!
The impacts of this change were tremendous and the resultant problems we see today are many, from our health, to our choices in housing (that we often can't afford) Our dependence on cars "insures" that we get far less exercise than Europeans- The legacy of lead in our bones that most older Americans carry, causing inflammatory diseases, the legacy of leaded gasoline.
The cost of buying and maintaining cars, money that many could use to save for rainy days..
The story began during the runup for Warld War II.
All American cities of the time used to have trolley and bus systems. They were an important part of urban life. But the car, oild and tre industries, fat with profits from the ramp up in industrial production that preceded World War II, didn't want the war profits to ever end, even if they resulted in enslavement of an entire nation.
Trolleys were an important part of urban life. But, they were in the way of the automobiles dominance.
Their tracks took up valuable real estate that could be devoted to cars. The car oil and tire companies systematically bought up and destroyed public transit systems across the nation. Now, in some cities, those systems are being rebuilt at HUGE expense..As gas prices rise and urban real estate becomes highly prized again for its proximity to places of employment, I think that most of us realize now that that allowing this to happen to a public resource like mass transit was a huge mistake.
By forsaking public spaces for cars, we become isolated, alone. We lose the ability to meet and interact with different kinds of people. We become enslaved by our ability or lack of it to purchase a car, insurance and gasoline. And increasingly, in congested cities, we end up spending a huge amount of time sitting in traffic, using up gas, when walking would have gotten us places just as quickly!
Its also been shown recently that even low levels of carbon monoxide cause brain damage, especially in infants. Also, the lack of exercise, stress, and lack of time to exercise because of time spent stuck in traffic, makes us less fit and less healthy. We increasingly are seeing a phenomenon called road rage in which people break down in anger due to the stress of driving and being stuck in traffic. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Please take some time to read up a little bit on the incredibly illuminative story of the automobile, oil and tire industries's destruction of the greater part of a national way of life and our vital transportation capacity- and reflect a bit on this thought.. If they can do that to us with cars, and have the government completely ignore it, doesn't it stand to reason that the government will not stop the health insurance industry, no matter what they do? THAT should give us cause for thinking..
Links..