It's probable that some other automotive outfit will swoop in and keep the Fremont plant producing cars. Indeed, while it is vehicular production and my bias against cars is crystal clear, I still prefer to see actual manufacturing in our country...I would prefer living in a city where locally produced, high quality items trump the importation of cheap shit 11,000 miles away.
I'm Elk Grovian. To live here mandates car ownership. Indeed, my family owns three. I don't have an aversion to cars per se, my aversion has always been that my America has spent the last seventy years building cities that thrust compulsory ownership to the forefront and that every damn thing you do from buying a pack of gum to having afternoon tea with Grandma requires driving.
Here in Elk Grove we've outlawed the corner store. While this has supposedly prevented adjacent housal unit values from falling, prevented the supposed forty five vagrants from occupying its berms, and prevented the supposed thirty seven child predators from bagging a sure catch, it also forces everyone to drive, say, to the corner clusterfuck at Franklin and Laguna. We smartly placed two supermarkets facing one another, miles from everyone. Competition. One six lane road intersecting another six lane road...a pedestrian's no man's land. No one in their right mind would walk the 2.3 miles to that intersection, navigate the crosswalks and buy their pack of gum.
So everyone drives. Everyone encased in their own steel carapace, with no human interaction with anyone else during that activity, an activity that consumes ever more of our time and resources precisely because of poor urban planning and deference to the automotive gods.
The bus ride home today was filled with active discussion, everyone talking about how tomorrow e-Tran is going to cut four of our buses on our route-- at the same time we stranded two passengers downtown because the bus was chock full. Chock full. Can't imagine what tomorrow will bring. But the point here is that there was actual human/neighbor interaction with one another, something totally void with solo-occupant commuting.
Take away this public option and even more people will suffer socially, less able to interact with others. The more iPods, iPhones, Boysenberries, Blogs and Blueteeth penetrate our society along with more physical separation because of the way we build our "communities," the less we grow as a people and the more apt we are to suffer from the ills of individualism. Just look across your street -- do you even know the names of half the people living near you? If your "neighborhood" is similar to mine then it's also a no man's land, full of people unwilling to interact, drving their rigs into their garages at the end of the day and emerging at dawn to repeat the cycle -- never engaging with one another. Perhaps that's what we want; I'll accept that to a degree but we can't exclusively live in our cocoons, we have to interact. I think we would only become better as a consequence.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Taking In Each Other's Laundry
The Fremont automobile plant will close soon, idling more Californians and ending all vehicular production in our fair state.
Good riddance.
I say this not to mock the five thousand people who will lose their jobs. Every day my Monologues are filled with sarcastic rants about an America losing its way, an America not worth caring about, but at the end of the day I am human; I empathize with many. But come on, we all saw the manufacturing writing on the wall -- California is not the place to be building stuff...it's the place to be consuming stuff; that's our role in our modern globalized world.
What girds my loins about this plant closing can be summarized in this picket line photo:
"Help Save Local Economy." Local jobs. Yep. Thousands of local jobs. Uh-huh. Local...until you understand that 48% of these NUMMI workers commute in from the Central Valley. They live in Tracy, live in Ceres, or live in Stockton because they can't afford to live near their work. They drive 140 miles a day and make the claim that they're losing local jobs.
Over two thousand workers grinding out commutes over the Altamont, grinding past all that "green" wind generation, where a fifth of Altamont's total wind energy output is consumed by just this one factory and this factory's commuters. Plant energy, by the way, that's been subsidized for two decades by the rest of California's ratepayers as a carrot to keep the plant operating in Fremont.
So what we have here are automobile workers working to manufacture vehicles who themselves buy their own manufactured vehicles to commute to the factory to manufacture more vehicles. This reminds me of Browne's taking in each other's laundry, the end game of our service economy where hot dog vendors sell hot dogs in one city and vacation in an adjacent city to buy hot dogs on their days off.
"Without NUMMI, how can we afford to pay our mortgage, our car payments, our health insurance?" asks Marcela Alvarez, a factory worker likely to get put out of work.
Well, Marcela -- how about working the returns counter at the Ross Dress for Less, the satellite anchor for the new strip retail power center that will snatch up that valuable Fremont property? Look to the old GM plant in Van Nuys to see where your job is going, Marcela -- razed in 1998 to build a Home Depot anchored strip mall and movie theater. Or the old Ford plant in Pico Rivera, today housing a Home Depot strip mall of its own. Perhaps, Marcela, you could sell movie tickets and popcorn to Union City movie attendants on their days off; all those fantastic new retail service jobs will most certainly pay your mortgage and your own private health insurance premiums.
Good riddance.
I say this not to mock the five thousand people who will lose their jobs. Every day my Monologues are filled with sarcastic rants about an America losing its way, an America not worth caring about, but at the end of the day I am human; I empathize with many. But come on, we all saw the manufacturing writing on the wall -- California is not the place to be building stuff...it's the place to be consuming stuff; that's our role in our modern globalized world.
What girds my loins about this plant closing can be summarized in this picket line photo:
"Help Save Local Economy." Local jobs. Yep. Thousands of local jobs. Uh-huh. Local...until you understand that 48% of these NUMMI workers commute in from the Central Valley. They live in Tracy, live in Ceres, or live in Stockton because they can't afford to live near their work. They drive 140 miles a day and make the claim that they're losing local jobs.
Over two thousand workers grinding out commutes over the Altamont, grinding past all that "green" wind generation, where a fifth of Altamont's total wind energy output is consumed by just this one factory and this factory's commuters. Plant energy, by the way, that's been subsidized for two decades by the rest of California's ratepayers as a carrot to keep the plant operating in Fremont.
So what we have here are automobile workers working to manufacture vehicles who themselves buy their own manufactured vehicles to commute to the factory to manufacture more vehicles. This reminds me of Browne's taking in each other's laundry, the end game of our service economy where hot dog vendors sell hot dogs in one city and vacation in an adjacent city to buy hot dogs on their days off.
"Without NUMMI, how can we afford to pay our mortgage, our car payments, our health insurance?" asks Marcela Alvarez, a factory worker likely to get put out of work.
Well, Marcela -- how about working the returns counter at the Ross Dress for Less, the satellite anchor for the new strip retail power center that will snatch up that valuable Fremont property? Look to the old GM plant in Van Nuys to see where your job is going, Marcela -- razed in 1998 to build a Home Depot anchored strip mall and movie theater. Or the old Ford plant in Pico Rivera, today housing a Home Depot strip mall of its own. Perhaps, Marcela, you could sell movie tickets and popcorn to Union City movie attendants on their days off; all those fantastic new retail service jobs will most certainly pay your mortgage and your own private health insurance premiums.
God Sent
I spent the better part of last week in Folsom, working to drop a new transmission line into the Western Area Power Administration's Folsom substation. We will bisect a SMUD 230kV line which will provide for two additional electrical paths for Folsom generation to escape and to power the myriad subdivisons and exurban sprawl that define the City of Folsom and surrounding cities. I shouldn't be quite so hard on Folsom, I admit, because it is one of the few cities that actually carries an excellent ratio of jobs to residents, sprawled out or otherwise.
Standing in the switchyard I witnessed tremendous activity underway to build a new spillway and to raise the dam another 7 feet. Good work going on there; flood control along with additional storage capacity. But this activity is proceeding alongside a new bridge that opened in March of last year...a bridge that wouldn't have been built had Osama Bin Laden not been god sent:
The Bureau of Reclamation shut down the dam road to thru-traffic. Shut it down due to fear. The dam road, of course, was nothing but an arterial road for sixteen thousand daily automotive commuters. Thus began the howling screams from thousands of Folsomites as through commuters from Granite Bay and El Dorado Hills clogged their surface streets, destroying the "character" of their little town.
Something had to be done, and bridge building was the result. Truthfully, we must thank Osama because without him think how many more Americans might be unemployed: bridge designers, rendition artists, earth mover drivers, public relations specialists, cement factory laborers, dump truck operators, form assemblers, street lighting designers, aggregate pit miners...not to mention all the administrators for the Department of Homeland Security, the concomitant security jobs, and the tens of thousands of munitions and chemical and arms and MRAP manufacturing jobs. Just like an oil spill creates GDP, so did Bin Laden. Osama was good to them, but it's up to them to decide which God they should thank for sending him.
It's easy to highlight the positives that terrorism or an economic depression would bring. That's what I do -- I like to think about the potential these actions have in creating an America worth living in. I intentionally ignore the obvious bad that accompanies them. What happened to all that national spirit of unity that existed in November of 2001? It died off to keep the ensuing wealth-without-risk economic boom enriching our private lives; it died off fueling a seven year war with current prospects for another seven years. We had opportunities and yet we squandered them. At the same time, many became employed that might not have been otherwise, so it is for this reason I offer my narrow view that 9/11 was a godsend.
For all the things I protest about American and Elk Grovian culture on my Monologues, what do you think could possibly effect a change if not for something really bad to force us to change? Here in Elk Grove we have already decided that we're going to resume mall and sprawl building all the way to the Consumnes river as soon as we get "back on track." Because we've decided already is the reason I ask not to be lumped in with others who cling to hope. My ideas on how we are to going to get there, anywhere, are far different from yours, but the end result is likely the same: a place worth living in filled with people worth living with.
Standing in the switchyard I witnessed tremendous activity underway to build a new spillway and to raise the dam another 7 feet. Good work going on there; flood control along with additional storage capacity. But this activity is proceeding alongside a new bridge that opened in March of last year...a bridge that wouldn't have been built had Osama Bin Laden not been god sent:
The Bureau of Reclamation shut down the dam road to thru-traffic. Shut it down due to fear. The dam road, of course, was nothing but an arterial road for sixteen thousand daily automotive commuters. Thus began the howling screams from thousands of Folsomites as through commuters from Granite Bay and El Dorado Hills clogged their surface streets, destroying the "character" of their little town.
Something had to be done, and bridge building was the result. Truthfully, we must thank Osama because without him think how many more Americans might be unemployed: bridge designers, rendition artists, earth mover drivers, public relations specialists, cement factory laborers, dump truck operators, form assemblers, street lighting designers, aggregate pit miners...not to mention all the administrators for the Department of Homeland Security, the concomitant security jobs, and the tens of thousands of munitions and chemical and arms and MRAP manufacturing jobs. Just like an oil spill creates GDP, so did Bin Laden. Osama was good to them, but it's up to them to decide which God they should thank for sending him.
It's easy to highlight the positives that terrorism or an economic depression would bring. That's what I do -- I like to think about the potential these actions have in creating an America worth living in. I intentionally ignore the obvious bad that accompanies them. What happened to all that national spirit of unity that existed in November of 2001? It died off to keep the ensuing wealth-without-risk economic boom enriching our private lives; it died off fueling a seven year war with current prospects for another seven years. We had opportunities and yet we squandered them. At the same time, many became employed that might not have been otherwise, so it is for this reason I offer my narrow view that 9/11 was a godsend.
For all the things I protest about American and Elk Grovian culture on my Monologues, what do you think could possibly effect a change if not for something really bad to force us to change? Here in Elk Grove we have already decided that we're going to resume mall and sprawl building all the way to the Consumnes river as soon as we get "back on track." Because we've decided already is the reason I ask not to be lumped in with others who cling to hope. My ideas on how we are to going to get there, anywhere, are far different from yours, but the end result is likely the same: a place worth living in filled with people worth living with.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Unfair
It was admittedly fun to get hypnotized on stage by Terry Stokes at the California State Fair last Tuesday. It's pretty amazing to be awake and asleep at the same time. Before the stage show, I visited all the exhibition halls around Cal Expo. Through the lens of the state fair I determined that California culture is largely a product of its residents being both awake and asleep at the same time, too.
That there's been a working monorail on the fairgrounds for thirty years but not a single rail line to the fairground itself is a testament to our sleepwalking into the present. There isn't a plan that I know of that envisions light rail service in the future, either. No, I have no choice but to drive my car there and fork out ten bills for the privilege of parking. Can't take the bus 'cause RT doesn't run bus service beyond 11 PM and I'd have to take two to get home, with one that runs only on the hour. We would have had to leave at 8 PM to get home.
I know that if beer were a reasonable $3.50 - $4.75 I would have patronized the many stands. Through direct retaliation I embargoed their beverages. I also went home [mostly] hungry to avoid the $11 dollar gyro plate. Eleven fucking dollars? Eight dollar beer? Please. I was willing to drop forty+ bucks that night but was so pissed at their overt gouging I enjoyed not spending my money even more. Yes, I enjoyed not spending it even more.
Foodless and beerless, I waddled through the industrial arts expo which used to be one of my favorite stops along with the farm and forest exhibits. The industrial arts displays showed just how far we've fallen from the heady days of real industry and quality workmanship. All the woodworking displays showed no attention to detail, no hand craftsmanship. The tables built by high school students were joined with pocket screws, their surfaces marred by machines. They will graduate to become producers of mass without quality...if our existing cabinet shops won't have already moved to Cambodia or Burma.
The student architectural drawings also revealed an amazing deference to the private realm. Not a single public or multi-use rendition was displayed; their dreams and ideas bore renditions of private oceanside homes or houses on stilts on the cliffs. A generation of youth destined to build cheap cabinetry to fill all those 6,000 sq ft modernist monoliths that will stand in relation to nothing but for themselves. They are sleepwalking into their futures.
Fair attendance was down, presumably due to the economy, and I spent very little because of the fair's economy and my own economic embargo of it. Every year GM prominently displays a selection of fine cars and SUVs near the entrance; I wondered how many would be sold now that the clunker offer is off the table, and I wondered why anyone with a brain would even bother, waiting of course for the next federal, state, or local automotive subsidization program to rear.
It was amazing to be both awake and asleep this year at the California State Fair.
That there's been a working monorail on the fairgrounds for thirty years but not a single rail line to the fairground itself is a testament to our sleepwalking into the present. There isn't a plan that I know of that envisions light rail service in the future, either. No, I have no choice but to drive my car there and fork out ten bills for the privilege of parking. Can't take the bus 'cause RT doesn't run bus service beyond 11 PM and I'd have to take two to get home, with one that runs only on the hour. We would have had to leave at 8 PM to get home.
I know that if beer were a reasonable $3.50 - $4.75 I would have patronized the many stands. Through direct retaliation I embargoed their beverages. I also went home [mostly] hungry to avoid the $11 dollar gyro plate. Eleven fucking dollars? Eight dollar beer? Please. I was willing to drop forty+ bucks that night but was so pissed at their overt gouging I enjoyed not spending my money even more. Yes, I enjoyed not spending it even more.
Foodless and beerless, I waddled through the industrial arts expo which used to be one of my favorite stops along with the farm and forest exhibits. The industrial arts displays showed just how far we've fallen from the heady days of real industry and quality workmanship. All the woodworking displays showed no attention to detail, no hand craftsmanship. The tables built by high school students were joined with pocket screws, their surfaces marred by machines. They will graduate to become producers of mass without quality...if our existing cabinet shops won't have already moved to Cambodia or Burma.
The student architectural drawings also revealed an amazing deference to the private realm. Not a single public or multi-use rendition was displayed; their dreams and ideas bore renditions of private oceanside homes or houses on stilts on the cliffs. A generation of youth destined to build cheap cabinetry to fill all those 6,000 sq ft modernist monoliths that will stand in relation to nothing but for themselves. They are sleepwalking into their futures.
Fair attendance was down, presumably due to the economy, and I spent very little because of the fair's economy and my own economic embargo of it. Every year GM prominently displays a selection of fine cars and SUVs near the entrance; I wondered how many would be sold now that the clunker offer is off the table, and I wondered why anyone with a brain would even bother, waiting of course for the next federal, state, or local automotive subsidization program to rear.
It was amazing to be both awake and asleep this year at the California State Fair.
Four Corners
Paul Krugman wrote the other day that having grown our deficit was a good thing to thwart a depression. His view, as I understand it, is that we should be running even deeper deficits to dig our economy out of the chasm.
If so, then we should be glad to see that the clunker program put 690,114 new car owners (at 3.14 people per family that's 2.17 million Americans) in debt with new car payments. Sure, some paid cash for their new rigs, but come on, most everyone buys on time in our America. We should be glad that a few million more Americans are even more leveraged, even more indebted, because deficit spending is what's saving our ass from deficit spending.
An engineer upstairs where I work bought a new truck last weekend, aided by clunkering his old truck. What was of interest to me is that he rarely drove that old thing "'cause the 4.6 liter engine ate too much gas." Now here was a truck that was used lightly, to haul wood pellets home twice a winter, buying fence boards, hauling the lawnmower to the repair shop, etc. It sat in decent shape and consumed little gas. But now we've destroyed it for the sake of Saving The World, its remaining parts sent to the four corners for minimal salvage value, and in its stead sits a more efficient truck that's now gonna be driven more because it's more efficient.
I read that a telephone interview revealed the remorse that some buyers have, now that they've got car payments through 2015. You already know my response to them: fuck 'em. What I would really be interested in knowing, via telephone interviewing next year, is how many more miles these people are driving because they have new, more efficient cars.
Don't tell me that they're going to be driving less. What's the first thing that every new car buyer does? They drive it to Suzy's, to show her up. They drive it to the in-laws to reinforce the idea that their marriage wasn't a complete sham. They take it out for that Saturday afternoon drive to the small town outside their suburb to escape. They buy steering wheel covers and dash board covers and little chrome caps for the tire tube stems and wash it thrice weekly.
And if the demographics are correct, about one third of these new cars are driven home to a gargage that's also not paid for and also underwater. These Americans stare at their garage door and ponder what the next program will be that will save them from having to pay back their underwater mortgage, while not having any problem whatsoever that their new car is valued thousands less than it was just sitting in the car lot.
If so, then we should be glad to see that the clunker program put 690,114 new car owners (at 3.14 people per family that's 2.17 million Americans) in debt with new car payments. Sure, some paid cash for their new rigs, but come on, most everyone buys on time in our America. We should be glad that a few million more Americans are even more leveraged, even more indebted, because deficit spending is what's saving our ass from deficit spending.
An engineer upstairs where I work bought a new truck last weekend, aided by clunkering his old truck. What was of interest to me is that he rarely drove that old thing "'cause the 4.6 liter engine ate too much gas." Now here was a truck that was used lightly, to haul wood pellets home twice a winter, buying fence boards, hauling the lawnmower to the repair shop, etc. It sat in decent shape and consumed little gas. But now we've destroyed it for the sake of Saving The World, its remaining parts sent to the four corners for minimal salvage value, and in its stead sits a more efficient truck that's now gonna be driven more because it's more efficient.
I read that a telephone interview revealed the remorse that some buyers have, now that they've got car payments through 2015. You already know my response to them: fuck 'em. What I would really be interested in knowing, via telephone interviewing next year, is how many more miles these people are driving because they have new, more efficient cars.
Don't tell me that they're going to be driving less. What's the first thing that every new car buyer does? They drive it to Suzy's, to show her up. They drive it to the in-laws to reinforce the idea that their marriage wasn't a complete sham. They take it out for that Saturday afternoon drive to the small town outside their suburb to escape. They buy steering wheel covers and dash board covers and little chrome caps for the tire tube stems and wash it thrice weekly.
And if the demographics are correct, about one third of these new cars are driven home to a gargage that's also not paid for and also underwater. These Americans stare at their garage door and ponder what the next program will be that will save them from having to pay back their underwater mortgage, while not having any problem whatsoever that their new car is valued thousands less than it was just sitting in the car lot.
Save The World
Last summer I suggested a workable direct deposit plan -- instead of buying me a foreign made piece of shit for my birthday, just buy it yourself, drive it to the landfill, and provide me the receipt for the direct deposit. That's all the birthday gift I could ever want.
Some time last night I thought about applying this to the Cash For Clunkers program. Yeah, the new car will still be bought, but send it straight to the recycler/dismantler. We can thus ensure that hundreds of thousands of domestic manufacturing jobs, making things Americans want, will still be there.
Hire a slew of teenagers to drive them from the new car showroom to the wrecking yard. Nineteen year olds would absolutely love to redline a new engine while dumping in an engine seizeant.
The recycler will take his plastics, steel and rubber and ship them straight back to the car factories, and the cycle will be repeated. "This car manufactured with at least 40% post-consumer content." Wouldn't you feel special about buying a car with that label affixed to the windshield? You'd think you were saving the planet and all.
You would be saving the planet! Think of the carbon offsets that you could sell to others because you aren't buying gasoline. Your purchase is carbon free! Now, other American companies who do produce carbon dioxide can buy your carbon offsets and receive credit for the carbon your car will not be producing.
With the just the right volume of government intervention & incentives, this could work. I would position myself somewhere in the middle of that revenue stream, probably closer to the carbon offset program because I'm a self proclaimed greenhead, perhaps taking profits off the top for brokering the carbon trading between individual car buyers and American factories. My job will be to pool sellers into complex tranches of risk and sell them wholesale to all those icky, icky carbon polluters. This would be a "white-green" collar job instead of a "blue-green" collar job like those teenagers. I could be counted in the green rolls and I'd know that I'd be saving the world...I wouldn't just think about it, I'd be doing something about it. What are you doing to save the world, huh?
Nothing? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Some time last night I thought about applying this to the Cash For Clunkers program. Yeah, the new car will still be bought, but send it straight to the recycler/dismantler. We can thus ensure that hundreds of thousands of domestic manufacturing jobs, making things Americans want, will still be there.
Hire a slew of teenagers to drive them from the new car showroom to the wrecking yard. Nineteen year olds would absolutely love to redline a new engine while dumping in an engine seizeant.
The recycler will take his plastics, steel and rubber and ship them straight back to the car factories, and the cycle will be repeated. "This car manufactured with at least 40% post-consumer content." Wouldn't you feel special about buying a car with that label affixed to the windshield? You'd think you were saving the planet and all.
You would be saving the planet! Think of the carbon offsets that you could sell to others because you aren't buying gasoline. Your purchase is carbon free! Now, other American companies who do produce carbon dioxide can buy your carbon offsets and receive credit for the carbon your car will not be producing.
With the just the right volume of government intervention & incentives, this could work. I would position myself somewhere in the middle of that revenue stream, probably closer to the carbon offset program because I'm a self proclaimed greenhead, perhaps taking profits off the top for brokering the carbon trading between individual car buyers and American factories. My job will be to pool sellers into complex tranches of risk and sell them wholesale to all those icky, icky carbon polluters. This would be a "white-green" collar job instead of a "blue-green" collar job like those teenagers. I could be counted in the green rolls and I'd know that I'd be saving the world...I wouldn't just think about it, I'd be doing something about it. What are you doing to save the world, huh?
Nothing? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Only Nothing
I've been attending Bikram yoga lately. This is some hard shit, let me tell you. It's more strenuous than racquetball, and provides me with another outlet for very nearly hitting my maximum heart rate without risk of blowing out a knee. It is a fantastic compliment to the bicycle commute.
I do want to point out a couple of observations, however, regarding yoga in the U.S.
While it's a practice that requires nothing and can be practiced by someone with nothing, my Bikram yoga class is filled with non-working Elk Grovian housewives driving Mercedes sedans and Lexus SUVs to the studio. I am also amazed -- flipping through any copy of any yoga magazine -- the number of yoga "retreats" that are offered throughout the world; for example, offering 6-12 week uninterrupted yoga seminars at the marvelous base of the Himalayas, spas in Aspen, --stuff like that.
Yoga reeks of wealth. I want to understand why this repulses me; perhaps it shouldn't, but it does. It gets to my personal contempt for public displays of wealth. It usually isn't a function of the people themselves. I can very well find the joy of interacting with any individual regardless of their status, position, wealth, etc., but as they align themselves with the American group mentality of excess consumption and an open display of the latest yoga wear, electronic device, starter mansion, luxury vehicle, what have you...this I detest.
I suppose only in America can we take a 5,000 year old tradition of humility and introspection and fucker it up into an exclusive realm for the pampered and privileged. Even Bikram, a Beverley Hills resident driving Rolls Royces, epitomizes the public display of wealth.
I cannot resolve my personal discontent with this. Why should I give a shit? Why not just let it go? What's not to admire about success -- they would tell you they worked their asses off to get where they are. Is it envy? I revel in Schadenfreude, is this not just the opposite? Am I the one with the problem?
Perhaps not. I think it's because these actions fall to the core of our American ethos of profligate consumption. These are not representative of humility, something I think is too often lacking. And it's in line with other American cultural establishments that I find abominable, such as wealth without risk (foreclosure bailouts), unearned riches (exploding #s of Indian casinos), a degradation of our public realm for the private (walled subdivisions and theme parks, why we're fine with speeding in our private vehicle on a public road)...you get my point. All these lead to a culture I don't want to be a part of, with values that aren't in line with a correct obligation to our environment, our sociology, our species. I believe we won't advance under such a value system.
Let me tell you the one thing, the very most important thing I've discovered about yoga -- during every minute you are engaged in your own practice, all these things are gone -- the stress of work or unemployment, wealth or poverty, young or old, public or private, solar or fossil, blogging, politics, religion -- everything is passed away. There is only nothing, by yourself, and this has value all its own.
I do want to point out a couple of observations, however, regarding yoga in the U.S.
While it's a practice that requires nothing and can be practiced by someone with nothing, my Bikram yoga class is filled with non-working Elk Grovian housewives driving Mercedes sedans and Lexus SUVs to the studio. I am also amazed -- flipping through any copy of any yoga magazine -- the number of yoga "retreats" that are offered throughout the world; for example, offering 6-12 week uninterrupted yoga seminars at the marvelous base of the Himalayas, spas in Aspen, --stuff like that.
Yoga reeks of wealth. I want to understand why this repulses me; perhaps it shouldn't, but it does. It gets to my personal contempt for public displays of wealth. It usually isn't a function of the people themselves. I can very well find the joy of interacting with any individual regardless of their status, position, wealth, etc., but as they align themselves with the American group mentality of excess consumption and an open display of the latest yoga wear, electronic device, starter mansion, luxury vehicle, what have you...this I detest.
I suppose only in America can we take a 5,000 year old tradition of humility and introspection and fucker it up into an exclusive realm for the pampered and privileged. Even Bikram, a Beverley Hills resident driving Rolls Royces, epitomizes the public display of wealth.
I cannot resolve my personal discontent with this. Why should I give a shit? Why not just let it go? What's not to admire about success -- they would tell you they worked their asses off to get where they are. Is it envy? I revel in Schadenfreude, is this not just the opposite? Am I the one with the problem?
Perhaps not. I think it's because these actions fall to the core of our American ethos of profligate consumption. These are not representative of humility, something I think is too often lacking. And it's in line with other American cultural establishments that I find abominable, such as wealth without risk (foreclosure bailouts), unearned riches (exploding #s of Indian casinos), a degradation of our public realm for the private (walled subdivisions and theme parks, why we're fine with speeding in our private vehicle on a public road)...you get my point. All these lead to a culture I don't want to be a part of, with values that aren't in line with a correct obligation to our environment, our sociology, our species. I believe we won't advance under such a value system.
Let me tell you the one thing, the very most important thing I've discovered about yoga -- during every minute you are engaged in your own practice, all these things are gone -- the stress of work or unemployment, wealth or poverty, young or old, public or private, solar or fossil, blogging, politics, religion -- everything is passed away. There is only nothing, by yourself, and this has value all its own.
Our National Character
I normally ignore all the horseshit reported in the newspapers, on TV, etc., regarding executive compensation. However, I know why America has an insatiable lust for it; we want to focus on things we don't have, on things most of us are unwilling to work hard enough to get. It's an extension of our desire for unearned riches. Because someone else has it instead of us, we deem it to be unearned.
We waste a stupendous quantity of energy thinking about the way in which an auto executive travels from Detroit to Washington, or how much any given Lehman's executive is bringing in. I think we focus on such trivial shit in the same way thirty year old men buy Car & Driver and compare the acceleration times between two high end vehicles that cost more than they'll make in two lifetimes.
The thing that leads a guy to dream about a Ferrari he'll never get is the same thing that leads us to concern ourselves with what the top people make. It's pointless and useless; it gets us nowhere. Tell me, what changes will you make to your own life now that you know the details of a suspicious stock option transaction by Lloyd Blankfein on April 14, 2005? How has this news affected you?
So having said that I normally ignore all this, I just discovered that a few bankrupt auto parts supplier companies are petitioning in bankruptcy court to allow key executives to retain their 2009 bonuses. The argument goes something like "we have to retain the best and the brightest to allow our company to emerge from bankruptcy and to lead us in a more prosperous direction." That is, the bonuses are needed to grow the company beyond bankruptcy...needed to ensure the most important employees don't just jump ship to some other company.
Apparently, having previously run the company into the ground means nothing going forward. It also assumes that any given executive has the option of finding a job anywhere else he wants at the snap of his fingers -- real fucking likely in our current economy.
I think our bankruptcy laws are complete bullshit, ever since having lost money to a niece who stiffed me and filed bankruptcy to prevent having to pay it back. It's the same damn thing as unearned riches -- I don't want to pay you back and now I don't have to pay you back. Why sisters and cousins and nieces and friends and nephews borrow from me but refuse to pay me back is beyond me, but apparently not beyond them. It's an indictment of our national lack of character. Or perhaps I should say it is our national character. This is our national character: inflate our debts to China away; walk away from our underwater houses; let's see the repo man mess with my pit bulls to get my unpaid truck; the Bank of Mom & Pop charges no interest and (wa-hey!) no principal either!; file for bankruptcy but keep the house and the 401(k); accept it when houses go up 20% per year but demand bailouts when they drop; wait for government clunker bailouts to drive new cars.
Unearned.
We waste a stupendous quantity of energy thinking about the way in which an auto executive travels from Detroit to Washington, or how much any given Lehman's executive is bringing in. I think we focus on such trivial shit in the same way thirty year old men buy Car & Driver and compare the acceleration times between two high end vehicles that cost more than they'll make in two lifetimes.
The thing that leads a guy to dream about a Ferrari he'll never get is the same thing that leads us to concern ourselves with what the top people make. It's pointless and useless; it gets us nowhere. Tell me, what changes will you make to your own life now that you know the details of a suspicious stock option transaction by Lloyd Blankfein on April 14, 2005? How has this news affected you?
So having said that I normally ignore all this, I just discovered that a few bankrupt auto parts supplier companies are petitioning in bankruptcy court to allow key executives to retain their 2009 bonuses. The argument goes something like "we have to retain the best and the brightest to allow our company to emerge from bankruptcy and to lead us in a more prosperous direction." That is, the bonuses are needed to grow the company beyond bankruptcy...needed to ensure the most important employees don't just jump ship to some other company.
Apparently, having previously run the company into the ground means nothing going forward. It also assumes that any given executive has the option of finding a job anywhere else he wants at the snap of his fingers -- real fucking likely in our current economy.
I think our bankruptcy laws are complete bullshit, ever since having lost money to a niece who stiffed me and filed bankruptcy to prevent having to pay it back. It's the same damn thing as unearned riches -- I don't want to pay you back and now I don't have to pay you back. Why sisters and cousins and nieces and friends and nephews borrow from me but refuse to pay me back is beyond me, but apparently not beyond them. It's an indictment of our national lack of character. Or perhaps I should say it is our national character. This is our national character: inflate our debts to China away; walk away from our underwater houses; let's see the repo man mess with my pit bulls to get my unpaid truck; the Bank of Mom & Pop charges no interest and (wa-hey!) no principal either!; file for bankruptcy but keep the house and the 401(k); accept it when houses go up 20% per year but demand bailouts when they drop; wait for government clunker bailouts to drive new cars.
Unearned.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Project Foresight
I've always been a huge fan of Carl Sagan -- not so much his old PBS specials, but his written material. The text of Cosmos is so much better than those 1970's vintage episodes. A reader of Sagan and my Monologues might have noticed how my titles reflect his.
He was fond of suggesting that humans, while capable of foresight, are incapable of using it. This concept has only been amplified over the past two decades in American culture:
With Sagan's legacy I am apt to consider the consequences of my actions 400 years from today -- a seemingly ridiculous length of time, isn't it? Think of the year 2409. If you and our other 307,289,958 Americans can't even look forward a half dozen years, why should I ever bother thinking four centuries ahead?
I wonder, as Sagan did, if we won't have destroyed ourselves well before 2409.
He was fond of suggesting that humans, while capable of foresight, are incapable of using it. This concept has only been amplified over the past two decades in American culture:
- Why do you suppose a bank, any bank, would have ever lent a half million dollars to a 46 year old WalMart associate for thirty years?
- Per my last post, why would people cash-out their retirements, not for paying down debt, but purely for short term material goods?
- Why would they have ever used their houses as ATM machines? Did they not expect they would have to pay the original principal back?
- Why do you suppose we are paving over prime farmlands with sprawl? Are we never assuming that any future generation might find local food production essential?
- Why do wealthy pseudo-environmentalists parade around Boulder, Colorado on bikes, wearing yellow and orange geckos on their bicycle jerseys, but don't give a shit if any geckos are still living in the mountain creeks?
- Why is it that we will harvest, legally or otherwise, our green sturgeons until there isn't a single one left on the planet?
With Sagan's legacy I am apt to consider the consequences of my actions 400 years from today -- a seemingly ridiculous length of time, isn't it? Think of the year 2409. If you and our other 307,289,958 Americans can't even look forward a half dozen years, why should I ever bother thinking four centuries ahead?
I wonder, as Sagan did, if we won't have destroyed ourselves well before 2409.
Deferred Gratification
Talk about a downer. Having to defer gratification is as un-American as the Taliban.
We spent the better part of two decades buying stuff we didn't need on time. We bought on time because we never had the money at the moment we wanted the stuff. Houses, boats, vacation airfare, big screens, Polk speakers, cocktail dresses, wireless electronics...on and on.
70% of our economy is buying shit, and when credit was loose we never once had to defer gratification. "There's never been a better time to buy that Yukon," said the salesman in 2003; if you gotta pulse, here's the keys. You didn't have to work a single day beforehand to start driving it. And the salesman was right -- six years later you cashed it in with a government clunker subsidy to buy another one. Here's the keys to your gorgeous new home, too, and you didn't have to work a single day beforehand to start living in it. No down? No problem!
Now here it is in 2009 and I'm suffering from having to defer gratification -- I heard a very convincing argument yesterday not to cash out any retirement to pay off my mortgage. It's financial stupidity. While I though I'd lose perhaps 20%, it's closer to 45-50%. What I need to do is hunker down and live within my means for the next year and a half and pay it off like a grown man, not like an impetuous child demanding a new toy now.
I have seen, literally, scores of people around me cash out their retirements as they leave their old jobs. $4,000 here, $7,000 there...people get into the mindset that you can't retire on $4,000 and it's so damn far away anyway that in the grand scheme of things if it's cashed out now it won't really matter. This is nothing more than an unwillingness to defer gratification. It's a hard thing for me, for sure.
My financial advisor suggested that for a 40 year old to have 300k saved along with virtually no mortgage I shouldn't piss on my last 20 years of frugality just for the one-time junkie-fix of owning my house free and clear. Wait, live correctly, and it will come.
How hard that was to hear! How hard it was on my American ears! I WANT IT NOW. I DESERVE IT NOW. I'M ENTITLED TO IT NOW. I feel like I'm back in third grade again, with Mrs. Wilson scolding me to wait my turn on the swing.
We spent the better part of two decades buying stuff we didn't need on time. We bought on time because we never had the money at the moment we wanted the stuff. Houses, boats, vacation airfare, big screens, Polk speakers, cocktail dresses, wireless electronics...on and on.
70% of our economy is buying shit, and when credit was loose we never once had to defer gratification. "There's never been a better time to buy that Yukon," said the salesman in 2003; if you gotta pulse, here's the keys. You didn't have to work a single day beforehand to start driving it. And the salesman was right -- six years later you cashed it in with a government clunker subsidy to buy another one. Here's the keys to your gorgeous new home, too, and you didn't have to work a single day beforehand to start living in it. No down? No problem!
Now here it is in 2009 and I'm suffering from having to defer gratification -- I heard a very convincing argument yesterday not to cash out any retirement to pay off my mortgage. It's financial stupidity. While I though I'd lose perhaps 20%, it's closer to 45-50%. What I need to do is hunker down and live within my means for the next year and a half and pay it off like a grown man, not like an impetuous child demanding a new toy now.
I have seen, literally, scores of people around me cash out their retirements as they leave their old jobs. $4,000 here, $7,000 there...people get into the mindset that you can't retire on $4,000 and it's so damn far away anyway that in the grand scheme of things if it's cashed out now it won't really matter. This is nothing more than an unwillingness to defer gratification. It's a hard thing for me, for sure.
My financial advisor suggested that for a 40 year old to have 300k saved along with virtually no mortgage I shouldn't piss on my last 20 years of frugality just for the one-time junkie-fix of owning my house free and clear. Wait, live correctly, and it will come.
How hard that was to hear! How hard it was on my American ears! I WANT IT NOW. I DESERVE IT NOW. I'M ENTITLED TO IT NOW. I feel like I'm back in third grade again, with Mrs. Wilson scolding me to wait my turn on the swing.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
EBT
I look at all the people around me; co-workers, family, friends of family...and I am amazed and shocked to find out how many are either on social security disability, trying to apply for social security disability, or are on food stamps. There are a lot. I finally figured out what EBT was two months ago -- the electronic equivalent of food stamps.
Electronic Benefits Transfer is an apt name -- transferring wealth from people who work to people who don't want to work. I say this without remorse because everyone, everyone! around me who has an EBT card is fully capable of working but, for one reason or another, they don't work...recession or not. This is my observation of a small sample and I'm going to paint with a broad brush and suggest that of the 1 in 9 Merikans receiving EBT, 50% of them don't need it. They simply have no personal responsibility. These are capable people but are lazy as fuck.
Instead of EBT -- how about we simply sell these (1/9th of 310,000,000) 34 million Americans hunger insurance? Make hunger insurance mandatory for all Americans so the premiums from the well-fed will pay the claims made by these 34 million. Don't tell me this is any different from the bullshit we have now; however, there isn't a whole private industry making billions in profits from the hungry...and there should be. This is America, goddamn it! We reserve the right to sell people's basic needs for profit.
"If you like your existing private hunger insurance policy, you won't have to change!" -- The President of the US of A.
Hunger default swaps? You buy a HDS and the hunger insurance company pays you to take the risk of someone who's making their premium payments, but you have to pay if they go hungry.
Of course there will be all sorts of fantastic products -- you could buy an accidental hunger plan for very low premiums, to cover, say, the loss of food due to a truck wreck or a combine harvester accident. But not if you lose your job; that's not covered under a catastrophic plan. Insurance companies might only offer hunger insurance to employers, seeing how group hunger is more profitable. Of course, with job based hunger insurance, the pooled hunger risk is lower (they're employed, duh) so the group savings can be passed on! Lower premiums with your employer based hunger insurance than if you were to buy your own individual policy!
You can (obviously) buy term hunger or whole life hunger, but if you have the means, why not upgrade? That way, if you do file a claim, you will have access to the choicest meats, imported cheeses, and finest Bordeaux (alcohol isn't covered under the government option). You're wealthy enough, why settle for what every other claimant is eating? This is the PPO option instead of the HMO (Hunger Maintenance Organization) option.
In townhalls across America, Republican senior citizens are throwing tantrums saying "Keep your damn government hands off my HungerCare!" "No socialized hunger!" "No food for the illegals!" In backroom lobbying the blue dog Democrats aren't supporting hunger insurance reform. The single feeder option is now off the table to try to sway their vote.
Doesn't sound so far fetched, now, does it?
Electronic Benefits Transfer is an apt name -- transferring wealth from people who work to people who don't want to work. I say this without remorse because everyone, everyone! around me who has an EBT card is fully capable of working but, for one reason or another, they don't work...recession or not. This is my observation of a small sample and I'm going to paint with a broad brush and suggest that of the 1 in 9 Merikans receiving EBT, 50% of them don't need it. They simply have no personal responsibility. These are capable people but are lazy as fuck.
Instead of EBT -- how about we simply sell these (1/9th of 310,000,000) 34 million Americans hunger insurance? Make hunger insurance mandatory for all Americans so the premiums from the well-fed will pay the claims made by these 34 million. Don't tell me this is any different from the bullshit we have now; however, there isn't a whole private industry making billions in profits from the hungry...and there should be. This is America, goddamn it! We reserve the right to sell people's basic needs for profit.
"If you like your existing private hunger insurance policy, you won't have to change!" -- The President of the US of A.
Hunger default swaps? You buy a HDS and the hunger insurance company pays you to take the risk of someone who's making their premium payments, but you have to pay if they go hungry.
Of course there will be all sorts of fantastic products -- you could buy an accidental hunger plan for very low premiums, to cover, say, the loss of food due to a truck wreck or a combine harvester accident. But not if you lose your job; that's not covered under a catastrophic plan. Insurance companies might only offer hunger insurance to employers, seeing how group hunger is more profitable. Of course, with job based hunger insurance, the pooled hunger risk is lower (they're employed, duh) so the group savings can be passed on! Lower premiums with your employer based hunger insurance than if you were to buy your own individual policy!
You can (obviously) buy term hunger or whole life hunger, but if you have the means, why not upgrade? That way, if you do file a claim, you will have access to the choicest meats, imported cheeses, and finest Bordeaux (alcohol isn't covered under the government option). You're wealthy enough, why settle for what every other claimant is eating? This is the PPO option instead of the HMO (Hunger Maintenance Organization) option.
In townhalls across America, Republican senior citizens are throwing tantrums saying "Keep your damn government hands off my HungerCare!" "No socialized hunger!" "No food for the illegals!" In backroom lobbying the blue dog Democrats aren't supporting hunger insurance reform. The single feeder option is now off the table to try to sway their vote.
Doesn't sound so far fetched, now, does it?
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Double the Unit & Time
In college, if I thought a assignment would take me 3 days to complete, I always remembered to double the digit and move to the next increment of time.
A three day project would really take six weeks to complete.
This is no different regarding our health care proposals that are coming. You can be damn well assured that whatever figure Congress comes up with regarding the cost of health care reform, say, 800 billion, it's really gonna cost 1,600 trillion.
A three day project would really take six weeks to complete.
This is no different regarding our health care proposals that are coming. You can be damn well assured that whatever figure Congress comes up with regarding the cost of health care reform, say, 800 billion, it's really gonna cost 1,600 trillion.
Two Days Drunk
My cousin, two months ago, got his second DUI while driving 480 yards from his duplex to a friend's duplex. He had a .29 BAC -- nearly four times the legal limit.
He felt fine driving...so he says. Didn't concern himself with it because when you're so chronically loaded with alcohol you can't tell. Truthfully, someone with a 0.07 but who rarely drinks is likely as much a threat.
It ain't the drunk driving that bugs me...it's the fact that we've put ourselves in such a car dependent mode that all of us are unwilling to fucking walk anymore, unwilling to ride a bike. 480 yards? Please. Where he lives, amongst a cluster of unemployed EBT-carrying chronic-chemical-dependents -- no one walks. Get the old man to drive you to the liquor store for Popov vodka and 211 where $5 can buy you "two days drunk."
I said that drunk driving doesn't bug me, but that's only because I think I do it all the time. I drink regularly and I have no idea what my BAC is at any given time. I'm not one to totally abstain just because I'm driving. I am one to concern myself with it, absolutely, but I don't really know if I'm "legal." But the legality isn't really my concern -- it's whether or not I'm fit to drive. I could just as well be bound up with prescription hydrocodone, be technically legal, but be totally unfit to drive.
This is a seemingly paradoxical position to take considering that as a regular street-riding bicyclist I think about a drunk driver mowing me down all the time. Actually, I think about any distracted driver mowing me down. And I think about the angry pissed off alpha-male asshole who can't share the road with a faggoty white bike rider. And increasingly, I think about the generations of text dependent and phone dependent and GPS dependent drivers who can't manage to turn their fucking toys off while driving.
These are the new drunk drivers.
Millions of Californians have switched from putting their phone up to their ear to keeping it in their lap while driving; now they are completely taking their eyes off the road. While engaging in text wars with their boyfriends we now have hundreds of thousands of highly distracted drivers, ferry boat operators, train conductors, and bus drivers. Tell me something -- why is it not illegal for a trucker to communicate via a hand held CB radio? Why can I still use my 2-meter hand held ham radio while driving?
Every day, we are creating even more hostile environments in our 'public realm,' the roadway. People are more inclined everyday to shelter themselves even more in their automotive cocoons and engage in fake social activities like texting and twittering while driving. I wonder how long it'll take for my local MATT chapter to open up (Mothers Against Texting and Twittering). I should hope my mom won't be a charter member.
He felt fine driving...so he says. Didn't concern himself with it because when you're so chronically loaded with alcohol you can't tell. Truthfully, someone with a 0.07 but who rarely drinks is likely as much a threat.
It ain't the drunk driving that bugs me...it's the fact that we've put ourselves in such a car dependent mode that all of us are unwilling to fucking walk anymore, unwilling to ride a bike. 480 yards? Please. Where he lives, amongst a cluster of unemployed EBT-carrying chronic-chemical-dependents -- no one walks. Get the old man to drive you to the liquor store for Popov vodka and 211 where $5 can buy you "two days drunk."
I said that drunk driving doesn't bug me, but that's only because I think I do it all the time. I drink regularly and I have no idea what my BAC is at any given time. I'm not one to totally abstain just because I'm driving. I am one to concern myself with it, absolutely, but I don't really know if I'm "legal." But the legality isn't really my concern -- it's whether or not I'm fit to drive. I could just as well be bound up with prescription hydrocodone, be technically legal, but be totally unfit to drive.
This is a seemingly paradoxical position to take considering that as a regular street-riding bicyclist I think about a drunk driver mowing me down all the time. Actually, I think about any distracted driver mowing me down. And I think about the angry pissed off alpha-male asshole who can't share the road with a faggoty white bike rider. And increasingly, I think about the generations of text dependent and phone dependent and GPS dependent drivers who can't manage to turn their fucking toys off while driving.
These are the new drunk drivers.
Millions of Californians have switched from putting their phone up to their ear to keeping it in their lap while driving; now they are completely taking their eyes off the road. While engaging in text wars with their boyfriends we now have hundreds of thousands of highly distracted drivers, ferry boat operators, train conductors, and bus drivers. Tell me something -- why is it not illegal for a trucker to communicate via a hand held CB radio? Why can I still use my 2-meter hand held ham radio while driving?
Every day, we are creating even more hostile environments in our 'public realm,' the roadway. People are more inclined everyday to shelter themselves even more in their automotive cocoons and engage in fake social activities like texting and twittering while driving. I wonder how long it'll take for my local MATT chapter to open up (Mothers Against Texting and Twittering). I should hope my mom won't be a charter member.
The White Domain
I was driven to lunch by my Vietnamese co-worker yesterday in his Toyota Sequoia. He had to get gas beforehand, and as he was filling it up he remarked that if GMs Volt comes down to, say, $32,000, he'd get one.
I wasn't stunned. This was the third time I've heard Asian co-workers say they were willing to trade in their SUVs for some "environmentally friendly" car. My Filipino neighbor who considered trading the Yukon for a Prius, and my old boss (from Northern India) who considered trading in his Sequoia for a Nissan Altima hybrid. Neither ever did.
First off, the pattern I see repeated in every setting I've worked is that foreign born American citizens who are educated drive more than most, and drive more expensive vehicles. They might not buy the most expensive houses, but their cars are large in every respect. Yes, this is a stereotype, but I'm not one to shy away from stereotyping -- cars represent a major slice of their identities. Even co-workers who don't drive expensive cars do engage in talk of high end vehicles, of wishing for more.
All their talk is bullshit. When was the last time you've seen a Vietnamese lady drive a Prius, huh? A Bangladeshi man drive one? An Indian family with rooftop PV panels? They don't give a damn about the environment, about continued car dependency, about climate change...only about gas prices. It isn't the car payments that bug them, it's the operating costs. Blowing $650 a month to get that rig, no problem, but $300 a month in gas? Their talk of switching only ever comes in the context of operating costs.
This is why environmentalism is the domain of the white and the wealthy and who've only ever known prosperity, and why environmentalism is doomed to fail. There are four billion others willing to embrace our car dependency and coal burning if they only could. The millions who come to the U.S., Latin America or Europe immediately embrace it with a gusto greater than the original citizens.
I'm convinced the only reason I ride my bicycle to work, why I installed PV, or why I try to buy local is because I'm white. Because I have no reference to a world with less.
I wasn't stunned. This was the third time I've heard Asian co-workers say they were willing to trade in their SUVs for some "environmentally friendly" car. My Filipino neighbor who considered trading the Yukon for a Prius, and my old boss (from Northern India) who considered trading in his Sequoia for a Nissan Altima hybrid. Neither ever did.
First off, the pattern I see repeated in every setting I've worked is that foreign born American citizens who are educated drive more than most, and drive more expensive vehicles. They might not buy the most expensive houses, but their cars are large in every respect. Yes, this is a stereotype, but I'm not one to shy away from stereotyping -- cars represent a major slice of their identities. Even co-workers who don't drive expensive cars do engage in talk of high end vehicles, of wishing for more.
All their talk is bullshit. When was the last time you've seen a Vietnamese lady drive a Prius, huh? A Bangladeshi man drive one? An Indian family with rooftop PV panels? They don't give a damn about the environment, about continued car dependency, about climate change...only about gas prices. It isn't the car payments that bug them, it's the operating costs. Blowing $650 a month to get that rig, no problem, but $300 a month in gas? Their talk of switching only ever comes in the context of operating costs.
This is why environmentalism is the domain of the white and the wealthy and who've only ever known prosperity, and why environmentalism is doomed to fail. There are four billion others willing to embrace our car dependency and coal burning if they only could. The millions who come to the U.S., Latin America or Europe immediately embrace it with a gusto greater than the original citizens.
I'm convinced the only reason I ride my bicycle to work, why I installed PV, or why I try to buy local is because I'm white. Because I have no reference to a world with less.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
To The Death
I am one of "those." I am one of "them."
I enjoy paying my mortgage every month. I enjoy it because that big pot of gold is inching ever closer the more I pay into it. Every month, if I have some extra cash lying about, I throw it to Ditech, my mortgage service provider.
Ditech must love me. Not once, not once, since I refinanced with them in 1999 have I called them, had a question, had a problem, tried some creative payment shit, nothing. I just paid on time every month. Was there any "service" they provided me? No! I paid my bills and that was that.
Never buy into this mendacious bullshit that company B provides superior mortgage servicing than company A. Just pay your fucking bills, slick...and it won't matter.
Remember I was hoping GMAC would fall apart as they are the financing arm of our now bankrupt GM (yes, that GM...the GM who profits more from financial vehicles than motor vehicles). I was hoping for a total collapse so I'd be resolved of ever having to pay back my mortgage. It never happened. I was hoping because I'm American -- I'm entitled to unearned riches and I should be allowed to just walk away from my obligations.
Nonetheless, I think I've decided to end my twelve year long mortgage payment parade once and for all -- I'm going to cash out 1/13th of my IRA and pay it off in September. My financial advisor, who I meet with next week, will likely try to talk me out of it and I know why -- I lose 10% in penalties and I'll have tax consequences of a withdrawal while still employed...I might lose 15-25% off the top to do this. But I'm only talking about $23,000 -- I am willing to risk this.
I'm willing because he has me invested heavily in equities, because he's a long term buy and hold Republican with faith in a market rebound. I, on the other hand, am a doomer who thinks that this last 6-month rally off the bottom is set to drop further...that we ain't anywhere near out of our recession; that earnings based on cost cutting rather than growth isn't going to keep our equity markets up; that jobless claims and mortgage delinquencies haven't slowed or stopped but will continue to arc downward.
I am going to bet a portion of my retirement that we're gonna see another market drop, and if that drop is as much as the penalties and taxes I'll be paying to pull cash out, then I'll be doing good. I am betting that deflation will continue with us for some time and the less debt I carry the better. I only pay $120 a month in mortgage interest so there's no big loss in losing that write off ($40 a month? Please.)
This will be a fascinating experiment! Will my personal desire for the wholesale destruction of our economy force my hand? While I own 19% in precious metals should I risk the remaining 81% to the whims of our stock markets even though I hope they're gonna collapse?
Fascinating!
I enjoy paying my mortgage every month. I enjoy it because that big pot of gold is inching ever closer the more I pay into it. Every month, if I have some extra cash lying about, I throw it to Ditech, my mortgage service provider.
Ditech must love me. Not once, not once, since I refinanced with them in 1999 have I called them, had a question, had a problem, tried some creative payment shit, nothing. I just paid on time every month. Was there any "service" they provided me? No! I paid my bills and that was that.
Never buy into this mendacious bullshit that company B provides superior mortgage servicing than company A. Just pay your fucking bills, slick...and it won't matter.
Remember I was hoping GMAC would fall apart as they are the financing arm of our now bankrupt GM (yes, that GM...the GM who profits more from financial vehicles than motor vehicles). I was hoping for a total collapse so I'd be resolved of ever having to pay back my mortgage. It never happened. I was hoping because I'm American -- I'm entitled to unearned riches and I should be allowed to just walk away from my obligations.
Nonetheless, I think I've decided to end my twelve year long mortgage payment parade once and for all -- I'm going to cash out 1/13th of my IRA and pay it off in September. My financial advisor, who I meet with next week, will likely try to talk me out of it and I know why -- I lose 10% in penalties and I'll have tax consequences of a withdrawal while still employed...I might lose 15-25% off the top to do this. But I'm only talking about $23,000 -- I am willing to risk this.
I'm willing because he has me invested heavily in equities, because he's a long term buy and hold Republican with faith in a market rebound. I, on the other hand, am a doomer who thinks that this last 6-month rally off the bottom is set to drop further...that we ain't anywhere near out of our recession; that earnings based on cost cutting rather than growth isn't going to keep our equity markets up; that jobless claims and mortgage delinquencies haven't slowed or stopped but will continue to arc downward.
I am going to bet a portion of my retirement that we're gonna see another market drop, and if that drop is as much as the penalties and taxes I'll be paying to pull cash out, then I'll be doing good. I am betting that deflation will continue with us for some time and the less debt I carry the better. I only pay $120 a month in mortgage interest so there's no big loss in losing that write off ($40 a month? Please.)
This will be a fascinating experiment! Will my personal desire for the wholesale destruction of our economy force my hand? While I own 19% in precious metals should I risk the remaining 81% to the whims of our stock markets even though I hope they're gonna collapse?
Fascinating!
Ten Grand
In less than a day I blew nearly ten grand on a new furnace/AC system. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to justify the cost based on energy savings; nonetheless, I'm hoping for a 1/3 return while conceding 2/3s for improved comfort.
Man! On a 100 degree day, after no air conditioning until 5:00 PM, this new unit cooled the house down easily easily! three times faster than my old unit. It is much better in the garage, too, as the condenser fan is substantially quieter than my old unit.
I will be making an energy comparison post shortly, to roughly estimate the energy savings (now that I can meter the new unit) and I will make a determination if this was a correct move.
Buy more to save less...is this our American paradox?
Man! On a 100 degree day, after no air conditioning until 5:00 PM, this new unit cooled the house down easily easily! three times faster than my old unit. It is much better in the garage, too, as the condenser fan is substantially quieter than my old unit.
I will be making an energy comparison post shortly, to roughly estimate the energy savings (now that I can meter the new unit) and I will make a determination if this was a correct move.
Buy more to save less...is this our American paradox?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Water Conservation? Please...
I note how high Lake Camanche is this year; how high the water is even in mid-late August. Supposedly, we're in the third year of a Northern Californian drought but you couldn't tell from the reservoir this last weekend. Therefore, I ignore any and all calls for water conservation. It looks plenty high enough to me.
We water users in Central and Northern California don't give a shit about our water usage...it isn't something we've been conditioned to worry about. In particular, I'm referring to my own water usage -- I'm not currently metered, so I could use any amount I want and be billed the same regardless.
There is absolutely no, none, zilch, nada -- no incentive for me to watch my water usage. Sure, the City of Sacramento runs radio ads encouraging conservation, but I'm not in the City. Until I'm metered, I'm going to use as much water as I damn well please.
Seeing how the Elk Grove Water Service has raised rates 185% since I've moved here regardless of how much I use or don't use, I've removed the bricks from my toilet tanks, removed those low flow shower heads, set my sprinkler timers to a good 45 minutes to ensure a sopping wet yard in July, and let the water run in the shower while I do my ironing, to ensure the hottest most comfortable shower possible.
Instead of using a wash basin while rinsing out my beer bottles for homebrewing I just let the water run from the faucet and use fresh rinse water. Very nice, I might say...much easier than trying to conserve and re-use rinse water, and I feel better knowing I get the highest level of sanitation possible.
I just ignore the sprinklers and water the concrete...but I do it at 3:45 AM, so no one sees it, no one monitors it, and I'm asleep so I'm resolved of any direct responsibility. I only fix sprinklers when the lawn browns. Otherwise, I don't care how much might water might not be getting on the surface. If the lawn overall turns dark I just turn the timer up a few minutes to compensate.
Don't want to spend the money to meter me? We'll, take note that I'm an Elk Grovian...that should be all you need to know about my "voluntary" water conservation efforts.
We water users in Central and Northern California don't give a shit about our water usage...it isn't something we've been conditioned to worry about. In particular, I'm referring to my own water usage -- I'm not currently metered, so I could use any amount I want and be billed the same regardless.
There is absolutely no, none, zilch, nada -- no incentive for me to watch my water usage. Sure, the City of Sacramento runs radio ads encouraging conservation, but I'm not in the City. Until I'm metered, I'm going to use as much water as I damn well please.
Seeing how the Elk Grove Water Service has raised rates 185% since I've moved here regardless of how much I use or don't use, I've removed the bricks from my toilet tanks, removed those low flow shower heads, set my sprinkler timers to a good 45 minutes to ensure a sopping wet yard in July, and let the water run in the shower while I do my ironing, to ensure the hottest most comfortable shower possible.
Instead of using a wash basin while rinsing out my beer bottles for homebrewing I just let the water run from the faucet and use fresh rinse water. Very nice, I might say...much easier than trying to conserve and re-use rinse water, and I feel better knowing I get the highest level of sanitation possible.
I just ignore the sprinklers and water the concrete...but I do it at 3:45 AM, so no one sees it, no one monitors it, and I'm asleep so I'm resolved of any direct responsibility. I only fix sprinklers when the lawn browns. Otherwise, I don't care how much might water might not be getting on the surface. If the lawn overall turns dark I just turn the timer up a few minutes to compensate.
Don't want to spend the money to meter me? We'll, take note that I'm an Elk Grovian...that should be all you need to know about my "voluntary" water conservation efforts.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Drive More And Save The World
Well, not even 24 hours following my inquiry about the Chevrolet Volt -- the car that will save GM, save US industry, and save the world -- comes news of its October 2010 release, a $40,000 price tag, and an obligatory $7,500 federal tax credit for buying the thing. Let's see -- spend billions we don't have bailing the auto industry to make them "lean and competitive," then spend billions more in clunker trade-ins and EV subsidies to keep them alive. Don't fret about giving away free money for people to buy cars while throwing temper tantrums in townhalls decrying "free" healthcare...
Now, of course, I sit here having enjoyed the benefit of a federal subsidy to install my solar panels, but I bitch about having to schlep tax dollars to help rich white people buy new cars. Well...yes, I'm going to bitch.
The subsidy for PV installation makes a direct contribution, or should I say reduction, in traditional energy use. It is a renewable energy. Driving a car, any car, ain't renewable; it's merely substitution. Trade a few thousand barrels a day of Angolan oil for a train car of midwestern coal...real fucking green, eh?
The few privileged white owners who'll be buying these, those living in energy intensive houses, driving 19,000 miles a year on freeways around Palo Alto, around San Clemente...they will be the ones the taxpaying transit rider will subsidize, along with energy frugal people who find ways to either live without a car or simply don't drive so goddamn much. They will get to help guilty wealthy non-working white housewives drive new electric cars to their Bikram yoga classes 31 miles away.
Now, of course, I sit here having enjoyed the benefit of a federal subsidy to install my solar panels, but I bitch about having to schlep tax dollars to help rich white people buy new cars. Well...yes, I'm going to bitch.
The subsidy for PV installation makes a direct contribution, or should I say reduction, in traditional energy use. It is a renewable energy. Driving a car, any car, ain't renewable; it's merely substitution. Trade a few thousand barrels a day of Angolan oil for a train car of midwestern coal...real fucking green, eh?
The few privileged white owners who'll be buying these, those living in energy intensive houses, driving 19,000 miles a year on freeways around Palo Alto, around San Clemente...they will be the ones the taxpaying transit rider will subsidize, along with energy frugal people who find ways to either live without a car or simply don't drive so goddamn much. They will get to help guilty wealthy non-working white housewives drive new electric cars to their Bikram yoga classes 31 miles away.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thy Volt
I have not yet heard GMs announcement of their "go-live" date for their Chevy Volt.
I have not yet heard GMs MSRP for this car.
I have not yet heard the dollar amount of our government's mandatory subsidy for this car.
I'm waiting.
I'm interested in following our collective fantasy in converting our vast fossil-fuel fired vehicular fleet into batterized plug-ins. The first timid step into these NiCad waters will be breached sometime next year with the vaunted release of Thy Volt. At the same time I'm having to plan my schedule around transit cuts set to take effect September 1st, Amory Lovins at the hallowed Boulder based RMI is conjuring ways to power our auto-dependent consumers on electrified vehicles, presumably wind and solar powered.
This is total, complete, unadulterated bullshit.
Not sixty miles to the north of this revered institute I stood in awe at the unmitigated sprawlish growth of Greeley, CO, and I asked my dad on our way to one of the last grain mills in the city, "Can you see all this being powered by batteries?" There were eighty seven cars parked outside the Target, miles from everywhere; sixteen stoplights to get you across highway 34 to the other edge of town; not one single new resident works in the city, the city's wealth is predicated on wealth produced elsewhere. Really -- while Lovins fucks around Boulder in a batterized car, two hundred and seventy million other Americans drive gas/diesel vehicles atop oil-derived asphalt eating foods transported 1,200 miles away. You really think all this is going to become batterized? You really think all that battery power will come from wind? From the sun?
A trickle of celebrities, wealthy wives, and Coronado call-boys will be driving our nation's first Volts. They will all be white. They will thrust their superior environmentalism in your face every time you're at a stoplight...while you're consuming planet-killing oil idling at the stoplight, they believe even their own exhalations are carbon neutral. Thy Volt is superior to your wretched ride.
I have not yet heard GMs MSRP for this car.
I have not yet heard the dollar amount of our government's mandatory subsidy for this car.
I'm waiting.
I'm interested in following our collective fantasy in converting our vast fossil-fuel fired vehicular fleet into batterized plug-ins. The first timid step into these NiCad waters will be breached sometime next year with the vaunted release of Thy Volt. At the same time I'm having to plan my schedule around transit cuts set to take effect September 1st, Amory Lovins at the hallowed Boulder based RMI is conjuring ways to power our auto-dependent consumers on electrified vehicles, presumably wind and solar powered.
This is total, complete, unadulterated bullshit.
Not sixty miles to the north of this revered institute I stood in awe at the unmitigated sprawlish growth of Greeley, CO, and I asked my dad on our way to one of the last grain mills in the city, "Can you see all this being powered by batteries?" There were eighty seven cars parked outside the Target, miles from everywhere; sixteen stoplights to get you across highway 34 to the other edge of town; not one single new resident works in the city, the city's wealth is predicated on wealth produced elsewhere. Really -- while Lovins fucks around Boulder in a batterized car, two hundred and seventy million other Americans drive gas/diesel vehicles atop oil-derived asphalt eating foods transported 1,200 miles away. You really think all this is going to become batterized? You really think all that battery power will come from wind? From the sun?
A trickle of celebrities, wealthy wives, and Coronado call-boys will be driving our nation's first Volts. They will all be white. They will thrust their superior environmentalism in your face every time you're at a stoplight...while you're consuming planet-killing oil idling at the stoplight, they believe even their own exhalations are carbon neutral. Thy Volt is superior to your wretched ride.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
The Gridiron
My mom intends on attending one of our upcoming town hall meetings during our Congress's (sic) recess.
One thing from my list of 20 good things a depression would bring is that we'd as a people have passion and commitment towards a great many things again...we wouldn't suffer from the wholesale pussification that plagues us today:
We aren't going to get any of that. Instead we sorta moan a little about trillions spent on bank bailouts to get them to lend while they remain tightfisted about lending. We whimper a little about an upcoming healthcare plan that isn't about health but a plan to spend $600 billion ensuring that costs remain on their upward arc to keep particular interests vested while not solving the problem. We will lastly wipe away our collective solitary tear that falls due to our upcoming cap-and-trade program that will by no means have the teeth to make any substantial reduction in GHGs while a handful of interests remain vested.
In all cases, there will be a few winners, and a whole lot of losers. It is your responsibility to choose what side you want to be on. Don't think you'll just watch from the sidelines -- you're on the gridiron, too, motherfucker.
In that regard, I am happy that my mother will be an active player, a small step toward someday reigniting our passion and commitment we once had as a people. In all cases I think we can only become stronger regardless of your position.
One thing from my list of 20 good things a depression would bring is that we'd as a people have passion and commitment towards a great many things again...we wouldn't suffer from the wholesale pussification that plagues us today:
- When 3,000+ people die in a terrorist attack we'd do something more than just buy new cars at 0% interest and stick American flags on the antennas.
- We'd find the wherewithal to have stormed the Pentagon already, demanding wars end.
- To that end, we'd have found the collective balls to have prevented our $2 trillion Wars Of The Indulgent to begin with.
- We'd have already forced California to make the hard decisions to have prevented wholesale financial Armageddon.
- My Elk Grove would take the hint and realize how goddamn idiotic it is to base your economy exclusively on perpetual sprawl, ever more retail, and ever more sales of cars. So would about 97% of all other American cities.
We aren't going to get any of that. Instead we sorta moan a little about trillions spent on bank bailouts to get them to lend while they remain tightfisted about lending. We whimper a little about an upcoming healthcare plan that isn't about health but a plan to spend $600 billion ensuring that costs remain on their upward arc to keep particular interests vested while not solving the problem. We will lastly wipe away our collective solitary tear that falls due to our upcoming cap-and-trade program that will by no means have the teeth to make any substantial reduction in GHGs while a handful of interests remain vested.
In all cases, there will be a few winners, and a whole lot of losers. It is your responsibility to choose what side you want to be on. Don't think you'll just watch from the sidelines -- you're on the gridiron, too, motherfucker.
In that regard, I am happy that my mother will be an active player, a small step toward someday reigniting our passion and commitment we once had as a people. In all cases I think we can only become stronger regardless of your position.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
How Not To Build A City
Our Elk Grovian Mayor was on the news last night against the backdrop of our beloved Jewel 'O The Valley -- the wind swept, sand dirt choked, barren wasteland Elk Grove Promenade mall.
This quarter-finished mall is the perfect example, perfect, of exactly how not to build a city. Spend all your effort and capital to attract suburban development, strip retail development and a mall whose tenants who couldn't give a rat's ass about the community, and then pin your city down by a heroin-like dependence on retail sales taxes ...and of those retail sales, make 30% based on automobile sales. Further pin future retail sales on a mall that ain't gonna get built.
At one point late in 2008, I was seemingly impressed how Elk Grove, relative to Sacramento County, to the State, to the Nation, didn't carry nearly as much debt as every other level of government. I was wrong. From our latest city budget 5-year forecast, we are expecting to carry an annual $4,000,000 deficit going forward...assuming things don't get worse and things improve by 2012 -- both rather bold assumptions, wouldn't you say?
That Elk Grove (or any government, for that matter) didn't plan for a contingency for even the most mildest of recessions is amazing. But you know, our government only mirrors its constituents, all of whom also failed to plan for any possible loss-of-growth. My neighbor's friend, a florist-turned-real estate saleslady, never assumed her $15,000 per month in commissions in 2004 was going to dry up...repossessed was her beautiful, beautiful Mercedes, and repossessed was her beautiful, beautiful 3,800 sq ft Elk Grove starter mansion.
We got what was brung to us.
This quarter-finished mall is the perfect example, perfect, of exactly how not to build a city. Spend all your effort and capital to attract suburban development, strip retail development and a mall whose tenants who couldn't give a rat's ass about the community, and then pin your city down by a heroin-like dependence on retail sales taxes ...and of those retail sales, make 30% based on automobile sales. Further pin future retail sales on a mall that ain't gonna get built.
At one point late in 2008, I was seemingly impressed how Elk Grove, relative to Sacramento County, to the State, to the Nation, didn't carry nearly as much debt as every other level of government. I was wrong. From our latest city budget 5-year forecast, we are expecting to carry an annual $4,000,000 deficit going forward...assuming things don't get worse and things improve by 2012 -- both rather bold assumptions, wouldn't you say?
That Elk Grove (or any government, for that matter) didn't plan for a contingency for even the most mildest of recessions is amazing. But you know, our government only mirrors its constituents, all of whom also failed to plan for any possible loss-of-growth. My neighbor's friend, a florist-turned-real estate saleslady, never assumed her $15,000 per month in commissions in 2004 was going to dry up...repossessed was her beautiful, beautiful Mercedes, and repossessed was her beautiful, beautiful 3,800 sq ft Elk Grove starter mansion.
We got what was brung to us.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Hydrogen Economy -- Dead On Arrival
Remember G.W. and his state speech in 2003, how we're paving the way towards our new economy:
With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.
Well, the SMUD solar powered hydrogen facility, built less than two years ago in partnership withBritish Beyond Petroleum, is now going to be dismantled...a demonstration on how we are going to spend billions billions! in fits and starts and abortions and dead ends and rotten corpses of pie-in-the-sky projects before we get our hallowed "new economy," "smart grid," or what have you.
Bush missed the barn. The broad side. Obama will miss it too, and this isn't an indictment on either -- it's an indictment on us -- on this stupid fucking notion that we can continue our suburban build out ad infinitum while supposing that all our WalMarts and Targets and their 12,000 mile supply lines will all somehow be powered by electric batteries, that tractor trailers full of imported Chinese shit can be distributed by hydrogen trucks, that Greeley, CO will somehow transport all their Denver commuters by magnetic rail...
Goin' back to Bush's comment -- what will a child born today (2003) be driving in 2019? Won't be a bicycle, god forbid. Won't be his own two feet either. A hydrogen powered personal transporter?
Please.
Nothing but a gasoline powered car.
With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.
Well, the SMUD solar powered hydrogen facility, built less than two years ago in partnership with
Bush missed the barn. The broad side. Obama will miss it too, and this isn't an indictment on either -- it's an indictment on us -- on this stupid fucking notion that we can continue our suburban build out ad infinitum while supposing that all our WalMarts and Targets and their 12,000 mile supply lines will all somehow be powered by electric batteries, that tractor trailers full of imported Chinese shit can be distributed by hydrogen trucks, that Greeley, CO will somehow transport all their Denver commuters by magnetic rail...
Goin' back to Bush's comment -- what will a child born today (2003) be driving in 2019? Won't be a bicycle, god forbid. Won't be his own two feet either. A hydrogen powered personal transporter?
Please.
Nothing but a gasoline powered car.
A Nod To The Old School
Environmentally conscientious Southern Californians can nod appreciatively at their Tehachapi and San Gorgonio Pass wind farms; while behind the turbines, just out over their eastern horizon, the cooling towers of nuclear and the 300 meter smokestacks of Navajo and Delta coal keep bright their nights.
Environmentally conscientious San Diegans can drive their Priuses with an aire of superiority; while behind their hybrid engines, a swath of toxic battery fluids manufactured overseas line their oily green hides.
Greenwashing, folks. Expect more of it. Think you're on the cutting edge of environmental stewardship by driving a Prius? Hardly. Your realm is most dependent on old school coal, oil and nuclear.
Environmentally conscientious San Diegans can drive their Priuses with an aire of superiority; while behind their hybrid engines, a swath of toxic battery fluids manufactured overseas line their oily green hides.
Greenwashing, folks. Expect more of it. Think you're on the cutting edge of environmental stewardship by driving a Prius? Hardly. Your realm is most dependent on old school coal, oil and nuclear.
Break Down
I finally broke down. At the same time we are "suffering" from record low high temperatures I finally broke down and will be replacing my AC unit next week.
While I had originally considered getting the most efficient system I could buy, I ended up moving from a 4-ton Carrier unit to 5-ton Ruud and from SEER 10/6 to a SEER 16/13 -- primarily due to economics. There are more efficient units, yes; however, as you run through the house energy calculations against the cost differential, a more efficient system really isn't all that cost effective, particularly as these systems are usually grouped together (condenser to heat exchanger) by whoever is trying to sell them.
Nonetheless, here's my estimated calculations on the energy draw:
My existing 4-ton unit, if allowed to run for 24 hours, would produce the same cooling effect as a four ton block of ice in my living room allowed to cool from ice to liquid. The latent heat of fusion for a ton of ice is 288,000 Btu. So on an hourly basis, divide by 24 and I get 12,000 Btu per ton of ice.
4 ton unit * 12,000Btu/h * 1,000h * $.15kWh / 10Btu/Wh / 1000W/kW = $720 per year...total yearly load -- 4,800kWh.
vs. a 5-ton unit producing equivalent cooling:
5 ton unit * 12,000Btu/h * 800h * $.15kWh / 16Btu/Wh / 1000W/kW = $450 per year....total yearly load -- 3,000 kWh.
So I should use about 1,800 kWh less next year, along with a $270 savings.
As I had mentioned earlier -- 1,800 kWh savings is almost 2/3rds my entire solar PV array output. And truthfully, the increased comfort level in my house is really what's driving my decision here -- our upstairs bedroom is painfully hot during the summer and this should help alleviate that.
Besides, immediately following the upgraded duct work I will get the R34 attic insulation installed which unfortunately isn't quite so easy to calculate the energy savings...but I will measure it in comfort, along with mental perception on how often the AC seems to stay on.
Hope this works for me...
While I had originally considered getting the most efficient system I could buy, I ended up moving from a 4-ton Carrier unit to 5-ton Ruud and from SEER 10/6 to a SEER 16/13 -- primarily due to economics. There are more efficient units, yes; however, as you run through the house energy calculations against the cost differential, a more efficient system really isn't all that cost effective, particularly as these systems are usually grouped together (condenser to heat exchanger) by whoever is trying to sell them.
Nonetheless, here's my estimated calculations on the energy draw:
My existing 4-ton unit, if allowed to run for 24 hours, would produce the same cooling effect as a four ton block of ice in my living room allowed to cool from ice to liquid. The latent heat of fusion for a ton of ice is 288,000 Btu. So on an hourly basis, divide by 24 and I get 12,000 Btu per ton of ice.
4 ton unit * 12,000Btu/h * 1,000h * $.15kWh / 10Btu/Wh / 1000W/kW = $720 per year...total yearly load -- 4,800kWh.
vs. a 5-ton unit producing equivalent cooling:
5 ton unit * 12,000Btu/h * 800h * $.15kWh / 16Btu/Wh / 1000W/kW = $450 per year....total yearly load -- 3,000 kWh.
So I should use about 1,800 kWh less next year, along with a $270 savings.
As I had mentioned earlier -- 1,800 kWh savings is almost 2/3rds my entire solar PV array output. And truthfully, the increased comfort level in my house is really what's driving my decision here -- our upstairs bedroom is painfully hot during the summer and this should help alleviate that.
Besides, immediately following the upgraded duct work I will get the R34 attic insulation installed which unfortunately isn't quite so easy to calculate the energy savings...but I will measure it in comfort, along with mental perception on how often the AC seems to stay on.
Hope this works for me...
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Way Uv Life
I still can't understand our collective abhorrence towards underwater mortgages. There were a few news reports today regarding how the end isn't near, how by 2011 there will be more underwater than today.
I can't understand it as we intentionally drive Americans further into debt with this stupid fucking Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009.
Do you suppose, for a minute, that each of these "consumers" who were rewarded $4500 for making a bad purchase in the past paid cash for their new cars? No! They used the $4500 as a down payment and financed the rest! And the second they drove it off the lot last Saturday they were immediately underwater...even after posting $4500 down.
We accept being underwater on all our "vehicular investments" but somehow can't tolerate being underwater on our housal units. And if we are, Mother of God...we gotta build a federal program to subsidize these shitheads to modify their terms, decrease their principal, what have you...
I have noticed an increase in my vulgar language as of late. I suppose it's the only way I know to provide written emphasis on the things that I find wrong with my America. And there isn't a shortage of things that piss me off. Truthfully, I enjoy blogging about our wretched environments, our lack of culture, our shitty architecture, our idolatry towards technology, and our wrecked urban layouts...and I'm smart enough to know that I don't have any power to change all you who just mindlessly go about consuming, go about commuting. But I'm OK with that. This blog is my outlet for expressing myself; I enjoy the hell out of it, and I know I'm right 96% of the time.
I will enjoy watching you all fall to pieces; perhaps just a small piece at a time like what's going down with this recession, but I do expect much worse, and I am cheering it on like a pig-tailed pep-squad teenage girl. I wake up each morning with an expectation that I'm going to have a good day, going to be happy regardless, and I won't be any happier watching our Way Uv Life turn to liquid shit once resource scarcity occurs, or once other nations fail to continue to support our debt-based hyper-consumptive non-producing lifestyles. Our fall might be quick and sudden, or long and obvious; but trust me...on our current trajectory...we will fall.
I can't understand it as we intentionally drive Americans further into debt with this stupid fucking Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009.
Do you suppose, for a minute, that each of these "consumers" who were rewarded $4500 for making a bad purchase in the past paid cash for their new cars? No! They used the $4500 as a down payment and financed the rest! And the second they drove it off the lot last Saturday they were immediately underwater...even after posting $4500 down.
We accept being underwater on all our "vehicular investments" but somehow can't tolerate being underwater on our housal units. And if we are, Mother of God...we gotta build a federal program to subsidize these shitheads to modify their terms, decrease their principal, what have you...
I have noticed an increase in my vulgar language as of late. I suppose it's the only way I know to provide written emphasis on the things that I find wrong with my America. And there isn't a shortage of things that piss me off. Truthfully, I enjoy blogging about our wretched environments, our lack of culture, our shitty architecture, our idolatry towards technology, and our wrecked urban layouts...and I'm smart enough to know that I don't have any power to change all you who just mindlessly go about consuming, go about commuting. But I'm OK with that. This blog is my outlet for expressing myself; I enjoy the hell out of it, and I know I'm right 96% of the time.
I will enjoy watching you all fall to pieces; perhaps just a small piece at a time like what's going down with this recession, but I do expect much worse, and I am cheering it on like a pig-tailed pep-squad teenage girl. I wake up each morning with an expectation that I'm going to have a good day, going to be happy regardless, and I won't be any happier watching our Way Uv Life turn to liquid shit once resource scarcity occurs, or once other nations fail to continue to support our debt-based hyper-consumptive non-producing lifestyles. Our fall might be quick and sudden, or long and obvious; but trust me...on our current trajectory...we will fall.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Grateful For Being Diabetic
Note that our Great Nation decided to engage in two wars at roughly the same time we were peaking in our personal prosperity.
2001 - 2003. We were doing well. The future was bright; broadcasted over any time horizon you could imagine, it was bright. Energy was cheap. Unemployment was low. On the whole, we were doing well.
So under that prosperity we decided we could engage in a coupla wars...with expectations that they'd quickly run their course, the invaded nations would capitulate easily, and they'd open several hundred WalMarts & McDonalds in a few years' time and we'd never have to bomb/invade them ever again. Note that my Merika has never once invaded a nation with a McDonalds franchise.
Just suppose that Osama decided to launch his attacks in 2008 instead of 2001. What would you suppose our actions would have been?
I like to think about these straw proposals because what it does is highlight the lunacy of American culture. Do you think for a minute that we would now be considering a raid on Iraq had we been mired neck to nuts in a debt-based recession? No. We'd have taken a different approach, an approach I obviously can only speculate what might have been. But my guess is that that approach wouldn't have been 4,000+ soldiers lost, 75,000+ Iraqi's lost, and $2 trillion dollars pissed away enriching a handful of defense contractors and others of that ilk while lessening U.S. standing elsewheres.
So, in some sense, I view our current recession as the best damn thing to come along in a long time because if it hadn't, what other nation(s) would we have invaded to spread our ideals offreedom debt-based consumption? How many other nations' citizens would have died so that we could save a nickel on a gallon of gas?
This, coming from a former West Point cadet...a former Army officer. I no longer tow the line I was instructed to believe in, instructed to follow, instructed to indoctrinate others to follow. While our supposed God struck me down with juvenile diabetes, he also gave cause for the Army to discharge me...and while I don't wish this disease on anyone I am personally grateful to have contracted it because otherwise the last eight years of my life would have been engaged in one or both of these stupid fucking wars. Diabetes was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to me.
Remember, I am cheering on a full scale depression, not for the bad that would invariably occur, but for the good that would come following it. We'd be a nation unwilling and unable to engage in wars of the affluent, and I think we would become a better people for it.
2001 - 2003. We were doing well. The future was bright; broadcasted over any time horizon you could imagine, it was bright. Energy was cheap. Unemployment was low. On the whole, we were doing well.
So under that prosperity we decided we could engage in a coupla wars...with expectations that they'd quickly run their course, the invaded nations would capitulate easily, and they'd open several hundred WalMarts & McDonalds in a few years' time and we'd never have to bomb/invade them ever again. Note that my Merika has never once invaded a nation with a McDonalds franchise.
Just suppose that Osama decided to launch his attacks in 2008 instead of 2001. What would you suppose our actions would have been?
I like to think about these straw proposals because what it does is highlight the lunacy of American culture. Do you think for a minute that we would now be considering a raid on Iraq had we been mired neck to nuts in a debt-based recession? No. We'd have taken a different approach, an approach I obviously can only speculate what might have been. But my guess is that that approach wouldn't have been 4,000+ soldiers lost, 75,000+ Iraqi's lost, and $2 trillion dollars pissed away enriching a handful of defense contractors and others of that ilk while lessening U.S. standing elsewheres.
So, in some sense, I view our current recession as the best damn thing to come along in a long time because if it hadn't, what other nation(s) would we have invaded to spread our ideals of
This, coming from a former West Point cadet...a former Army officer. I no longer tow the line I was instructed to believe in, instructed to follow, instructed to indoctrinate others to follow. While our supposed God struck me down with juvenile diabetes, he also gave cause for the Army to discharge me...and while I don't wish this disease on anyone I am personally grateful to have contracted it because otherwise the last eight years of my life would have been engaged in one or both of these stupid fucking wars. Diabetes was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to me.
Remember, I am cheering on a full scale depression, not for the bad that would invariably occur, but for the good that would come following it. We'd be a nation unwilling and unable to engage in wars of the affluent, and I think we would become a better people for it.
Boom And Bust
It's pretty easy to blog about solar subsidies, poor urban design, bad American culture...pretty easy when times are good. Back in 2004, at the height of American culture, we couldn't give a rat's ass about health care for all, climate change, public transportation; we were happy enough with our electric grid, wind and solar were still decades away, life was good on a debt-fueled binge of ever increasing home values and cheap gasoline.
Now we are wondering -- how are each of us gonna pay back the $80,000, more or less, that the federal government has snatched to keep this economic house of cards standing, to fund all future unfunded liabilities...on top of the $9,300 of perpetual individual debt that each Merikan already owes forever?
In that regard, my bitching about how SMUD pays my excess solar generation seems trivial, to say the least.
At what point will we collectively say "no to universal health care, we can't afford it." Or "no to climate change, we can't afford it." Or "no to renewables, they're too expensive?" We might be at that point now, only a few short months into ourdepression economic downturn.
Bad times or good, we will have to push through mandates for renewable energies. We ought to find a better solution (whatever that might be) to our health care system. These aren't things that can be pursued only during boom times. we have to push through now.
This is an impossible task in my Merika, methinks. The biggest obstacle, in my humble opinion, is that we are going to attempt to sustain the unsustainable at all costs. That's exactly why we have Cash for Clunkers. That's exactly why we are throwing billions to stem foreclosures to stop housal unit prices from falling further. Why a massive chunk of our stimulus is to build more fucking roads. Fundamentally, we haven't had any Change to Believe In. We are doing all we can to keep an unsustainable Way Of Life. All we're wishing for is for our "consumers" to start consuming consumables once again, and once we do that then we're back on the unsustainable track again.
Now we are wondering -- how are each of us gonna pay back the $80,000, more or less, that the federal government has snatched to keep this economic house of cards standing, to fund all future unfunded liabilities...on top of the $9,300 of perpetual individual debt that each Merikan already owes forever?
In that regard, my bitching about how SMUD pays my excess solar generation seems trivial, to say the least.
At what point will we collectively say "no to universal health care, we can't afford it." Or "no to climate change, we can't afford it." Or "no to renewables, they're too expensive?" We might be at that point now, only a few short months into our
Bad times or good, we will have to push through mandates for renewable energies. We ought to find a better solution (whatever that might be) to our health care system. These aren't things that can be pursued only during boom times. we have to push through now.
This is an impossible task in my Merika, methinks. The biggest obstacle, in my humble opinion, is that we are going to attempt to sustain the unsustainable at all costs. That's exactly why we have Cash for Clunkers. That's exactly why we are throwing billions to stem foreclosures to stop housal unit prices from falling further. Why a massive chunk of our stimulus is to build more fucking roads. Fundamentally, we haven't had any Change to Believe In. We are doing all we can to keep an unsustainable Way Of Life. All we're wishing for is for our "consumers" to start consuming consumables once again, and once we do that then we're back on the unsustainable track again.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Feed-Out
SMUD announced recently they will become one of the first utilities to offer a feed-in tariff to PV (and other renewable) generators, beginning in 2010. That is, they will not be net metered; rather, the entire array output is offered to SMUD and SMUD is obliged to pay at a specified rate for a long time frame; 10, 15, perhaps 20 years.
This is, more or less, the best method I can think of to spur additional PV installation. At a minimum, someone should be able to sit down with a calculator, determine the up front installation costs and determine the return from SMUD based on the feed-in rate. This is a long term guarantee for renewable energy. It's been something I've blogged for for two years, and I'm glad we're going forward with this.
But I'll be damned that it's not going to offered to me...I was too early an entrant; I received a SMUD rebate for my installation, and the thing that I will bitch about until my array spits out its last watt is that my payment for excess energy is determined on how much energy I use; the more I conserve, the less I get paid for it. Feed in won't be applicable to most home solar installations, because SMUD intends on going after larger PV providers with little load behind the meter; that is, they want PV farms.
This makes sense in my opinion, even though I'm personally pissed I don't have the feed-in option. SMUD and everyone else realizes how insignificant and trivial 2kW to 4kW home PV retrofits are in the grand scheme of things. We don't necessarily need all these small insignificant systems, we need soccer-stadium sized installations, and the only way you're going to get anyone to invest in something of that scale is to offer some degree of future revenue guarantee.
Therefore, the weight of the future of Sacramento PV rests on a handful of SMUD rate designers to come up with a feed-in rate that will spur additional generation. Make it too complicated with several dozen schedules and hundreds of variable rates depending on time of generation, time of year, length of contract, etc., then it becomes a fiasco to figure out the future revenue stream. Make it too cheap, and you're not going to get a sufficient level of PV growth that's worth a shit. The question is, will it be sufficient to drive new generation production at more than the current trickle of a few MW per year...will they design it correctly?
And by correctly, I really mean to ask, "will it be subsidized by all electric ratepayers?" because PV is expensive energy and the only way to make it work in our world is to subsidize it. I sincerely hope we do. I personally think we ought to tariff a full $0.02-0.03 per kWh consumed from non renewable energy both to reduce overall consumption and to use that to subsidize the installation of thousands and thousands of PV systems. If you don't want to pay it, either don't use so damn much power, buy into a solar share farm, or install your own system. We're collectively pussyfooting here -- a 2kW installation here, a 3kW system there -- come on, start charging significantly more for conventional power. We have renewable portfolio standards to meet, yes? Los Angeles supposedly needs to replace 2,600 MW of out of state coal-fired generation in less than eleven years. 2kW homeowner hack-jobs like mine won't cut it.
My gut feeling is that SMUD won't build enough into their feed-in tariff to encourage significant PV generation. Which is too bad, really. Too beholden to too many interests that don't lie in the renewable energy spectrum. But I've not come to expect anything different in my America. I am 200% sure that LA will fail to meet their non-coal mandate...not because they couldn't, but because they won't have the courage to raise rates enough both to reduce fossil fuel consumption and force renewables to a significant level. My SMUD will fall into that same tar-pit.
If we don't make the hard decisions today, they are only going to be many times harder tomorrow. A lesson lost on the California Legislature, by the way. We collectively know we are moving to a renewable energy future...but we're approaching it like most Christians vying for heaven; we all know what we need to do to get there, but almost no one is doing what's needed right now.
This is, more or less, the best method I can think of to spur additional PV installation. At a minimum, someone should be able to sit down with a calculator, determine the up front installation costs and determine the return from SMUD based on the feed-in rate. This is a long term guarantee for renewable energy. It's been something I've blogged for for two years, and I'm glad we're going forward with this.
But I'll be damned that it's not going to offered to me...I was too early an entrant; I received a SMUD rebate for my installation, and the thing that I will bitch about until my array spits out its last watt is that my payment for excess energy is determined on how much energy I use; the more I conserve, the less I get paid for it. Feed in won't be applicable to most home solar installations, because SMUD intends on going after larger PV providers with little load behind the meter; that is, they want PV farms.
This makes sense in my opinion, even though I'm personally pissed I don't have the feed-in option. SMUD and everyone else realizes how insignificant and trivial 2kW to 4kW home PV retrofits are in the grand scheme of things. We don't necessarily need all these small insignificant systems, we need soccer-stadium sized installations, and the only way you're going to get anyone to invest in something of that scale is to offer some degree of future revenue guarantee.
Therefore, the weight of the future of Sacramento PV rests on a handful of SMUD rate designers to come up with a feed-in rate that will spur additional generation. Make it too complicated with several dozen schedules and hundreds of variable rates depending on time of generation, time of year, length of contract, etc., then it becomes a fiasco to figure out the future revenue stream. Make it too cheap, and you're not going to get a sufficient level of PV growth that's worth a shit. The question is, will it be sufficient to drive new generation production at more than the current trickle of a few MW per year...will they design it correctly?
And by correctly, I really mean to ask, "will it be subsidized by all electric ratepayers?" because PV is expensive energy and the only way to make it work in our world is to subsidize it. I sincerely hope we do. I personally think we ought to tariff a full $0.02-0.03 per kWh consumed from non renewable energy both to reduce overall consumption and to use that to subsidize the installation of thousands and thousands of PV systems. If you don't want to pay it, either don't use so damn much power, buy into a solar share farm, or install your own system. We're collectively pussyfooting here -- a 2kW installation here, a 3kW system there -- come on, start charging significantly more for conventional power. We have renewable portfolio standards to meet, yes? Los Angeles supposedly needs to replace 2,600 MW of out of state coal-fired generation in less than eleven years. 2kW homeowner hack-jobs like mine won't cut it.
My gut feeling is that SMUD won't build enough into their feed-in tariff to encourage significant PV generation. Which is too bad, really. Too beholden to too many interests that don't lie in the renewable energy spectrum. But I've not come to expect anything different in my America. I am 200% sure that LA will fail to meet their non-coal mandate...not because they couldn't, but because they won't have the courage to raise rates enough both to reduce fossil fuel consumption and force renewables to a significant level. My SMUD will fall into that same tar-pit.
If we don't make the hard decisions today, they are only going to be many times harder tomorrow. A lesson lost on the California Legislature, by the way. We collectively know we are moving to a renewable energy future...but we're approaching it like most Christians vying for heaven; we all know what we need to do to get there, but almost no one is doing what's needed right now.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Consume More Act of 2009
Nissan is developing the "Leaf," an all electric car, supposedly available just after this decade is over.
I'm curious about the name Leaf. What will Mitsubishi's electric car be called?
The Mitsubishi Twig
The Kia Petal (a clever double pun, don't you think?)
The Suzuki Stamen
The Chrysler Cotyledon
The greener the name, the greener the car, eh? That's greenwashing for you.
Paying a premium today for an all-electric or a hybrid only makes sense if you drive over 15,000 miles a year to help defray the premium...but how green is that? Live 45 minutes from work as a choice, then declare yourself a greenie 'cause you drive a 2011 Chrysler Cotyledon.
When did we decide that the choice of rig is all that distinguishes you from an Earth Destroyer or a Planet Lover? In my opinion, all choices are equal. Doesn't matter if you're driving an H3 or a Prius -- the effects of your choice are not materially different. Is the guy driving his Prius 23,000 miles each year back and forth between San Francisco and San Diego (Prius capitals of America) a better environmental steward that an H3 Hummer driver who takes his rig out only on Sunday for breakfast? No.
Again referring to this stupid Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act -- why did they accept only a 2mpg difference as the qualifier for assistance? Is an additional 2 mpg on a quarter million vehicles going to save the planet?
The thing that everyone, everyone! outright ignores is the energy consumed to build the damn car in the first place. There have been multiple calculations regarding front-end energy vs. operating energy and all studies indicate that at least 15% of all energy from cradle to grave of any vehicle can be attributed to the manufacturing -- 15% of the total energy is used to smelt the iron ore, to build the steel, plastic, rubber...to assemble the car.
So the idea that a 2 mpg improvement is sufficient to warrant outright replacement of a vehicle, sufficient to earn a taxpayer subsidized payment...ignores the fact that you have to first overcome the 15% immediately lost in the manufacturing of the new vehicle. Unless you can get at least 15% improvement in the operating energy (i.e., gasoline) you are subsidizing the use of more energy, not less.
That's why this Act's name is pure horseshit. Save? No, it's Take. Recycle? No, it's use more resources.
The Dumb Fucking Merikan Consumer Drive More and Consume More Act of 2009.
I'm curious about the name Leaf. What will Mitsubishi's electric car be called?
The Mitsubishi Twig
The Kia Petal (a clever double pun, don't you think?)
The Suzuki Stamen
The Chrysler Cotyledon
The greener the name, the greener the car, eh? That's greenwashing for you.
Paying a premium today for an all-electric or a hybrid only makes sense if you drive over 15,000 miles a year to help defray the premium...but how green is that? Live 45 minutes from work as a choice, then declare yourself a greenie 'cause you drive a 2011 Chrysler Cotyledon.
When did we decide that the choice of rig is all that distinguishes you from an Earth Destroyer or a Planet Lover? In my opinion, all choices are equal. Doesn't matter if you're driving an H3 or a Prius -- the effects of your choice are not materially different. Is the guy driving his Prius 23,000 miles each year back and forth between San Francisco and San Diego (Prius capitals of America) a better environmental steward that an H3 Hummer driver who takes his rig out only on Sunday for breakfast? No.
Again referring to this stupid Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act -- why did they accept only a 2mpg difference as the qualifier for assistance? Is an additional 2 mpg on a quarter million vehicles going to save the planet?
The thing that everyone, everyone! outright ignores is the energy consumed to build the damn car in the first place. There have been multiple calculations regarding front-end energy vs. operating energy and all studies indicate that at least 15% of all energy from cradle to grave of any vehicle can be attributed to the manufacturing -- 15% of the total energy is used to smelt the iron ore, to build the steel, plastic, rubber...to assemble the car.
So the idea that a 2 mpg improvement is sufficient to warrant outright replacement of a vehicle, sufficient to earn a taxpayer subsidized payment...ignores the fact that you have to first overcome the 15% immediately lost in the manufacturing of the new vehicle. Unless you can get at least 15% improvement in the operating energy (i.e., gasoline) you are subsidizing the use of more energy, not less.
That's why this Act's name is pure horseshit. Save? No, it's Take. Recycle? No, it's use more resources.
The Dumb Fucking Merikan Consumer Drive More and Consume More Act of 2009.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Just Two Miles More
I mentioned earlier about how technology doesn't equal energy. It may enable it, allow us to use it differently, better, more efficiently, what have you...but technology doesn't create energy. It's so easy to look around and see that the more efficiently we build shit, the more shit we build...and the more energy we use.
I had no idea that this concept has been around for over 150 years. It's formulated into what's known as Jevons paradox. This guy Jevons saw it as soon as the first engines were supplanted by the second generation engines -- more efficient, yes...but that only spurred more engine building and more coal use.
Now look at the billions billions! we're blowing to subsidize more car purchases with this goddamned Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act. Reward those who made poor fuel economy choices in the past with rebates to consume more.
Remember how, in 2006, I had asked the Dodge salesman what the mpg rating was on a Stratus, and he had no idea; so much so, he didn't even know where to look for it. This was the state of the Merikan Consumer not three years ago; no consideration for these things. Now today we're rewarding those same shitheads who bought without regard to efficiency (buying for bling) to go out and even if you upgrade just 2 mpg more, here's a bucket of money.
Don't think for a second this nation is going to magically, overnight, reduce it's consumption of non-renewable resources as a consequence of this ridiculous act. It isn't about reducing energy and it never has been; it's only about selling more cars. A guy trading in his 97 Yukon with 334,000 miles (28,000 miles per year) for a Jetta? If there's a business need to be driving a SUV but it can be performed by a Jetta -- why the fuck was he driving a Yukon in the first place? And now I, the guy buying the Civic from the start and who drives it less than 2,000 miles a year, I get to fund his new car purchase?
I sincerely hope, call it Schadenfreude if you like, that each of these buyers remain in perpetual automotive debt. Permanently.
This is madness, and another reason I hope this whole economy comes crashing down around you.
I had no idea that this concept has been around for over 150 years. It's formulated into what's known as Jevons paradox. This guy Jevons saw it as soon as the first engines were supplanted by the second generation engines -- more efficient, yes...but that only spurred more engine building and more coal use.
Now look at the billions billions! we're blowing to subsidize more car purchases with this goddamned Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act. Reward those who made poor fuel economy choices in the past with rebates to consume more.
Remember how, in 2006, I had asked the Dodge salesman what the mpg rating was on a Stratus, and he had no idea; so much so, he didn't even know where to look for it. This was the state of the Merikan Consumer not three years ago; no consideration for these things. Now today we're rewarding those same shitheads who bought without regard to efficiency (buying for bling) to go out and even if you upgrade just 2 mpg more, here's a bucket of money.
Don't think for a second this nation is going to magically, overnight, reduce it's consumption of non-renewable resources as a consequence of this ridiculous act. It isn't about reducing energy and it never has been; it's only about selling more cars. A guy trading in his 97 Yukon with 334,000 miles (28,000 miles per year) for a Jetta? If there's a business need to be driving a SUV but it can be performed by a Jetta -- why the fuck was he driving a Yukon in the first place? And now I, the guy buying the Civic from the start and who drives it less than 2,000 miles a year, I get to fund his new car purchase?
I sincerely hope, call it Schadenfreude if you like, that each of these buyers remain in perpetual automotive debt. Permanently.
This is madness, and another reason I hope this whole economy comes crashing down around you.
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