I will bet a chicken dinner that not one reader of this blog, who also owns a credit card, received notice from your issuer that you now have the option to opt-out of over-the-limit charges, with instructions on exactly how to opt-out.
Right.
A few of you received notices that your rate was arbitrarily and capriciously raised and that if you didn't accept it you were still screwed; even if you canceled the card you'd still be on the hook for your balance at the new, higher rate. This was all in anticipation of Monday's law that prevents this exact thing, because our Republican representatives in Congress would have killed the bill in committee if an 8-month period between the time Obama signed it and when it became law wasn't inserted into the final bill.
Our friends, the bankers, had a good eight months to find ways to work around all these sets of specific laws, and they did. I don't blame them. No. In fact, they did what any one of us would have done knowing that there's a looming $13 billion loss coming on February 22nd -- they jacked up rates, lowered credit limits to minimize risk, and established new fees and other restrictions to get that $13 billion back. They did what banks are supposed to do...make a small pile of money into a bigger pile of money. And God bless them, too.
Come on, didn't we all do the same thing? When housal unit values were going up 20% per annum ad infinitium we didn't say shit, but as soon as they started dropping we turned into Chicken Littles -- prop up housal values at all costs, $8,000 tax credits with borrowed monies, loan modification programs, first-time buyer credits, on and on.
One of the more interesting arguments the left makes regarding this new law is that it will unfairly restrict hundreds of thousands of Merikans from gaining credit because it's now much tougher to qualify. Well, no shit. Banks are finally lending to those who might, just might, pay them back. We bitched about banks handing out $450,000 NINJA loans (No Income, No Job, No Assets) in 2006, but now we're bitching about banks restricting credit to the creditworthy in 2010. Only in my America.
I love to follow these sorts of things on my Monologues because it highlights the lunacy and stupidity of the American people -- and I'm all for writing about that, 'cause it's fun. We have an interesting culture, full of fantastic potential but completely, totally unable to exercise it. How we elect to manage our personal finances is in lockstep with how we manage our energy use, our foreign policies, our Wars for Freedom. They all go hand in hand, yet we fail to ever put them into the same hand, fail to see them as inter-related. We probably never will.
Back to my first sentence -- take note that you, today, have the right to opt out of over-the-limit fees -- you have the right to deny the point-of-sale if your purchase takes you over your limit, so that you are not subjected to $65 overdraft fees or whatever. Granted, that is as shameful as anything we do in America -- to be DENIED at the check-out counter, with other consumers watching, is as denigrating and demoralizing as anything else imaginable. Hari-Kari is preferable to the SHAME of having your card DENIED in front of others. But, if you're willing to accept that SHAME and opt-out of getting hit with outrageous fees, well, God bless you.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Transformation
I may have mentioned how SMUD is now buying bulk transformers from China. The big multi-million dollar power transformers, mind you. It is my belief that it is only a matter of time before every bulk power transformer manufacturer in the U.S. is gone. Today we have Delta Star, General Electric, and Federal Pacific that build high voltage transformers in the U.S. -- but over the past 5 years my utility has only purchased one domestically built unit. The rest were from South Korea (Hyundai) and most recently, China (JSHP).
(This is a Mitsubishi Japanese transformer, by the way...)
This video shows the manufacturing of JSHP bulk transformers in Jiangsu Province. They are now at the quality and price point where they are competitive with other global manufacturers.
Now, I've bitched incessantly about the terribly quality of Chinese made products here on my Franklin Monologues, but I'll tell you -- I won't take anything away from these Chinese workers. I've ridiculed the quality of everything that ever came out of that country...but to see their bulk transformer installed in midtown Sacramento, feeding the electrical needs of 3,100 customers, well, it's easy to see why we will soon [in my estimation] be losing hundreds of well-paid manufacturing jobs at the Lynchburg, PA Delta Star factory. It is only a matter of time before every resident in Sacramento will flip on their switch and be powered through a foreign transformer shipped in from overseas. Repeat this for a hundred other industries, five hundred times over and you get the bigger picture.
Welders, shot blasters, laminate engineers, painters, steel fabricators...all these jobs will be [or already have been] outsourced. Compare that JSHP factory to these factories in Anytown USA:
A neutral observer might assume that our U.S. led wars for democracy and freedom were actually conducted here, in our own cities. In our own towns. Bombed out by robotic rocket-firing drone aircraft, attack aircraft and heavy bombers, fixed-wing and helicopter gunships, mortars and long range artillery, anti-personnel flechettes, land mines, M-60s and bayonettes.
Here's how I see this all worked over the past decade: we intentionally undercut these working and professional class jobs by shipping them overseas so corporations could profit by paying Chinese and South Korean workers 35% of what they pay American workers, and then sent the finished products back to the U.S and sold them to the former workers with now-downsized jobs. You know, our 'new economy' service jobs like sales associate positions at Costco and Asian foot parlor masseuses. The only way Americans could do this was to take on onerous levels of private debt; when this was still not enough to keep the economy afloat we had our government increase its debt, and in the process we bound all of these now-downsized workers with government debts that they will carry and pay back for the rest of their careers.
Of course, those with the really good jobs in the U.S were involved in the FIRE economy (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) and worked to launder this whole 'economy' through big banks who created nothing, but who took their own slices of that economic pie with every transaction. With big banks too big to fail, the downsized indebted workers were separated from their remaining assets through deferred taxation to pay back TARP, TALF and the $1.2 trillion yearly deficits so that these banks and many of their shareholders didn't suffer any losses on their predatory investments that, somehow, turned up bad.
The Chinese workers? Shit, at 35% of American pay they are doing just fine, thank you very much, and very happy to have good paying jobs. They are sitting atop a mountain of U.S. debt and are becoming serious competitors for the world's dwindling petroleum reserves. Even at 35% they take their paychecks home and salt away about 40% of it, while our downsized American consumers are only willing to store less than 4% for tomorrow. Yet why would they? They are exeptional and entitled. With the Federal Reserve allowing banks to loan unlimited amounts at near zero interest while turning around and re-loaning that money to Americans at 19% on maxed-out credit cards while offering 0.57% interest on a savings account, well, no point in saving it. Besides, we areconsumers Americans...being perpetually hooked on debt is our calling. We are exceptional. We are entitled.
We are exceptional to the point that the operation of our two police stations in the Middle East to ensure the liberal supplies of cheap oil keep flowi...er...to promote democracy in foreign lands is paid for by our future generations of downsized Americans who will clearly benefit from our actions today. They will have to pay for it, yes, but they will also reap the special benefits of a peaceful, globalized alternative-powered world due to the actions we're taking today. We are the one's taking it for the team, so to speak.
The transformation of our manufacturing jobs overseas and the prosecution of two wars today will only benefit our children tomorrow. Don't you see?
(This is a Mitsubishi Japanese transformer, by the way...)
This video shows the manufacturing of JSHP bulk transformers in Jiangsu Province. They are now at the quality and price point where they are competitive with other global manufacturers.
Now, I've bitched incessantly about the terribly quality of Chinese made products here on my Franklin Monologues, but I'll tell you -- I won't take anything away from these Chinese workers. I've ridiculed the quality of everything that ever came out of that country...but to see their bulk transformer installed in midtown Sacramento, feeding the electrical needs of 3,100 customers, well, it's easy to see why we will soon [in my estimation] be losing hundreds of well-paid manufacturing jobs at the Lynchburg, PA Delta Star factory. It is only a matter of time before every resident in Sacramento will flip on their switch and be powered through a foreign transformer shipped in from overseas. Repeat this for a hundred other industries, five hundred times over and you get the bigger picture.
Welders, shot blasters, laminate engineers, painters, steel fabricators...all these jobs will be [or already have been] outsourced. Compare that JSHP factory to these factories in Anytown USA:
A neutral observer might assume that our U.S. led wars for democracy and freedom were actually conducted here, in our own cities. In our own towns. Bombed out by robotic rocket-firing drone aircraft, attack aircraft and heavy bombers, fixed-wing and helicopter gunships, mortars and long range artillery, anti-personnel flechettes, land mines, M-60s and bayonettes.
Here's how I see this all worked over the past decade: we intentionally undercut these working and professional class jobs by shipping them overseas so corporations could profit by paying Chinese and South Korean workers 35% of what they pay American workers, and then sent the finished products back to the U.S and sold them to the former workers with now-downsized jobs. You know, our 'new economy' service jobs like sales associate positions at Costco and Asian foot parlor masseuses. The only way Americans could do this was to take on onerous levels of private debt; when this was still not enough to keep the economy afloat we had our government increase its debt, and in the process we bound all of these now-downsized workers with government debts that they will carry and pay back for the rest of their careers.
Of course, those with the really good jobs in the U.S were involved in the FIRE economy (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) and worked to launder this whole 'economy' through big banks who created nothing, but who took their own slices of that economic pie with every transaction. With big banks too big to fail, the downsized indebted workers were separated from their remaining assets through deferred taxation to pay back TARP, TALF and the $1.2 trillion yearly deficits so that these banks and many of their shareholders didn't suffer any losses on their predatory investments that, somehow, turned up bad.
The Chinese workers? Shit, at 35% of American pay they are doing just fine, thank you very much, and very happy to have good paying jobs. They are sitting atop a mountain of U.S. debt and are becoming serious competitors for the world's dwindling petroleum reserves. Even at 35% they take their paychecks home and salt away about 40% of it, while our downsized American consumers are only willing to store less than 4% for tomorrow. Yet why would they? They are exeptional and entitled. With the Federal Reserve allowing banks to loan unlimited amounts at near zero interest while turning around and re-loaning that money to Americans at 19% on maxed-out credit cards while offering 0.57% interest on a savings account, well, no point in saving it. Besides, we are
We are exceptional to the point that the operation of our two police stations in the Middle East to ensure the liberal supplies of cheap oil keep flowi...er...to promote democracy in foreign lands is paid for by our future generations of downsized Americans who will clearly benefit from our actions today. They will have to pay for it, yes, but they will also reap the special benefits of a peaceful, globalized alternative-powered world due to the actions we're taking today. We are the one's taking it for the team, so to speak.
The transformation of our manufacturing jobs overseas and the prosecution of two wars today will only benefit our children tomorrow. Don't you see?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Vagrancy
Well, we are getting word here in Elk Grove of a possible hostile takeover by Simon Properties of GGP, the owers (sic) of the Elk Grove Promenade mall.
Of interest is the Sacramento Bee's reporting that there's the off chance that whoever takes over this property might just decide to convert it into an outlet mall. Wa-hey! A regional outlet mall. I decry all these sorts of projects, to be sure. That it's an outlet mall, a big box power center, or indoor mall is really inconsequential in my view. It is located at the extreme edge of Elk Grovian development and as such will require heroic quantities of petroleum to shuttle its consumers to consume said consumables at the mall.
I, personally, would like to have a small grocery that I could walk to from my housal unit. This wouldn't require anything except some exercise and co-mingling with my neighbors. Wouldn't that be nice! The obvious concern, of course, is that will attract vagrants:
Horrors!
Can't tolerate those vagrants, man! They don't look like us! So let's forbid the development of residential and retail and commercial properties together and spread them out as far as humanly possible from each other in an effort to discourage vagrants from collecting on the sidewalks. As we sprawl, vagrancy becomes a much more difficult entrepreneurial exercise. Far more difficult to panhandle and set fires in barrels when you're in a low-density environment.
Tell me. Doesn't our quarter-finished mall look like it would attract vagrants?
I think it might...and indeed, it might even more so after it's finished.
Of interest is the Sacramento Bee's reporting that there's the off chance that whoever takes over this property might just decide to convert it into an outlet mall. Wa-hey! A regional outlet mall. I decry all these sorts of projects, to be sure. That it's an outlet mall, a big box power center, or indoor mall is really inconsequential in my view. It is located at the extreme edge of Elk Grovian development and as such will require heroic quantities of petroleum to shuttle its consumers to consume said consumables at the mall.
I, personally, would like to have a small grocery that I could walk to from my housal unit. This wouldn't require anything except some exercise and co-mingling with my neighbors. Wouldn't that be nice! The obvious concern, of course, is that will attract vagrants:
Horrors!
Can't tolerate those vagrants, man! They don't look like us! So let's forbid the development of residential and retail and commercial properties together and spread them out as far as humanly possible from each other in an effort to discourage vagrants from collecting on the sidewalks. As we sprawl, vagrancy becomes a much more difficult entrepreneurial exercise. Far more difficult to panhandle and set fires in barrels when you're in a low-density environment.
Tell me. Doesn't our quarter-finished mall look like it would attract vagrants?
I think it might...and indeed, it might even more so after it's finished.
The Townless Highway
That highway to HELOC...boy, if that road wasn't paved with bad intentions. I would like to continue with my analogy.
We used to have highwayless towns. Small towns across America used to have central cores with highways that connected them with other towns, but the highways did not pass through them. To gain access to the town they were required to take on the lower speed geometries of a boulevard, like my own Franklin Boulevard, my blog's namesake.
In exchange, the town didn't grow along the highway. This is quite evident in Western Germany when I visited last year. Towns have retained their "town-ish" qualities of walkability and pedestrian scales, while when you drove on the highway between towns (or took the train) you'd have views of uninterrupted countryside.
Our country, instead, has taken the highway to HELOC approach -- take the freeway and drive it straight through the heart of the city. The clearest example is Highway 99, driven straight through south Sacramento, splitting and eviscerating entire neighborhoods. Those living in Elk Grove and working in Sacramento didn't give a damn about the destruction of that earlier suburban ring caused by the "need" for a eight-lane freeway to support their solo-occupant commuting. That they were predominately brown neighborhoods, well, white Elk Grove couldn't hardly have given a shit in 1962.
At the same time we attached commercial strip properties alongside the freeway...at least where we didn't have to build sound walls to defend the brown neighborhoods from the din of traffic -- U-Stor-It rental shacks, tile showrooms, carpet emporiums, boat storage facilities, and Target stores. All this did was to create more side traffic and the blighting of the countryside in the process. Have you ever considered how Highway 99 from Sacramento to Stockton is one gigantic sprawled out strip mall? Chicken Villa. WalMart. Auto body shops. Motor Vehicle Bureaus. We created a townless highway.
The Highway to HELOC. Consider how Highway 99 used to connect with old Elk Grove -- it didn't drive itself right through Old Town but rather it stayed on its periphery. Today, the whole city of Elk Grove is sliced in half by the freeway with the predicable result that interchanges have become so congested we are talking about future bypass highways...right through Sheldon et al. There won't be a neighborhood spared.
And all this, from 1998 to 2008, was fueled by hallucinated property wealth. Higher tax revenues from property taxes fueled the $83,000,000 Highway 99 interchange with Grant Line Rd and the $55,000,000 interchange with Sheldon Rd. And alongside all that development, my neighbors Bob and Joan bought their new Infinity QX4 in 2002 and rolled it into their home re-fi. It immediately became "paid for." Their new SUV was effectively "paid for" by HELOC...even though their $31,000 rig amortized over thirty years will cost them $64,000. Not only were our new roads funded by housal unit equity and the concomitant property tax revenues, the cars we drove on them were funded by housal unit equity. A true highway to hell.
And now, here in 2010, I the fiscally conservative taxpayer get to help homeowners such as Bob and Joan continue to live in their home through federally sponsored loan mods, tax credits for new vehicular units, and bailouts to the banks that lent them the hallucinated money to begin with. What a racket! As home ownership and housal unit values are to be preserved at all costs per Obama's planning, I stop to consider all those people (Bob and Joan and half my other neighbors) who rolled in consumer debt into their housal loans and how I get to help prop up those values through effective taxation. Obama never stopped to considered this. Neither did his predecessor. Propping up home values is nothing more than a subsidy to those who rolled Infinity SUVs into their re-fi's. And you're bitching about subsidizing transit? Please.
I cannot stop this nation's solo occupant driving down the highway to HELOC. We are on our way. I can only take personal efforts to shield myself from the inevitable economic storm I envision coming our way. Stay out of debt. Develop relationships with neighbors and co-workers who can offer value and to whom I can offer value. Gain some control over my basic necessities. Be worth more to my employer than what they pay me. And if I'm wrong about the future, well, I still won't go wrong following these principles.
We used to have highwayless towns. Small towns across America used to have central cores with highways that connected them with other towns, but the highways did not pass through them. To gain access to the town they were required to take on the lower speed geometries of a boulevard, like my own Franklin Boulevard, my blog's namesake.
In exchange, the town didn't grow along the highway. This is quite evident in Western Germany when I visited last year. Towns have retained their "town-ish" qualities of walkability and pedestrian scales, while when you drove on the highway between towns (or took the train) you'd have views of uninterrupted countryside.
Our country, instead, has taken the highway to HELOC approach -- take the freeway and drive it straight through the heart of the city. The clearest example is Highway 99, driven straight through south Sacramento, splitting and eviscerating entire neighborhoods. Those living in Elk Grove and working in Sacramento didn't give a damn about the destruction of that earlier suburban ring caused by the "need" for a eight-lane freeway to support their solo-occupant commuting. That they were predominately brown neighborhoods, well, white Elk Grove couldn't hardly have given a shit in 1962.
At the same time we attached commercial strip properties alongside the freeway...at least where we didn't have to build sound walls to defend the brown neighborhoods from the din of traffic -- U-Stor-It rental shacks, tile showrooms, carpet emporiums, boat storage facilities, and Target stores. All this did was to create more side traffic and the blighting of the countryside in the process. Have you ever considered how Highway 99 from Sacramento to Stockton is one gigantic sprawled out strip mall? Chicken Villa. WalMart. Auto body shops. Motor Vehicle Bureaus. We created a townless highway.
The Highway to HELOC. Consider how Highway 99 used to connect with old Elk Grove -- it didn't drive itself right through Old Town but rather it stayed on its periphery. Today, the whole city of Elk Grove is sliced in half by the freeway with the predicable result that interchanges have become so congested we are talking about future bypass highways...right through Sheldon et al. There won't be a neighborhood spared.
And all this, from 1998 to 2008, was fueled by hallucinated property wealth. Higher tax revenues from property taxes fueled the $83,000,000 Highway 99 interchange with Grant Line Rd and the $55,000,000 interchange with Sheldon Rd. And alongside all that development, my neighbors Bob and Joan bought their new Infinity QX4 in 2002 and rolled it into their home re-fi. It immediately became "paid for." Their new SUV was effectively "paid for" by HELOC...even though their $31,000 rig amortized over thirty years will cost them $64,000. Not only were our new roads funded by housal unit equity and the concomitant property tax revenues, the cars we drove on them were funded by housal unit equity. A true highway to hell.
And now, here in 2010, I the fiscally conservative taxpayer get to help homeowners such as Bob and Joan continue to live in their home through federally sponsored loan mods, tax credits for new vehicular units, and bailouts to the banks that lent them the hallucinated money to begin with. What a racket! As home ownership and housal unit values are to be preserved at all costs per Obama's planning, I stop to consider all those people (Bob and Joan and half my other neighbors) who rolled in consumer debt into their housal loans and how I get to help prop up those values through effective taxation. Obama never stopped to considered this. Neither did his predecessor. Propping up home values is nothing more than a subsidy to those who rolled Infinity SUVs into their re-fi's. And you're bitching about subsidizing transit? Please.
I cannot stop this nation's solo occupant driving down the highway to HELOC. We are on our way. I can only take personal efforts to shield myself from the inevitable economic storm I envision coming our way. Stay out of debt. Develop relationships with neighbors and co-workers who can offer value and to whom I can offer value. Gain some control over my basic necessities. Be worth more to my employer than what they pay me. And if I'm wrong about the future, well, I still won't go wrong following these principles.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Highway To HELOC
"I don't ever want to be rich folk, Hank. They ain't never know what it's like to make that last payment."
I stole this from a cartoon on the wall in a bar near home -- a couple writing their last mortgage check on their three-legged dinette. I didn't think much about this until I got to work the next day and mentally tallied up the mortgages of just my co-workers, what they carry on their houses:
Co-worker A: $235,000
Co-worker B: $215,000
Co-worker C: $280,000
Co-worker D: $175,000
Co-worker E: $0
Co-worker F: $0
Worker G: $18,000
Supervisor: $380,000
Now, E and F are both past retirement age and work because they still enjoy it (as I've oft repeated, I'll likely do the same.) A through D and our supervisor average around 40, and all owe, in my opinion, substantial sums. I am worker G. I am acutely aware that those around me who "succeed" and who are "successful" are all up to their eyeballs in debt; neighbors, co-workers, family members, and friends.
To some extent, sure, this is OK because their income can support such indebtedness, but it's very clear to me that the more people make, the more in debt they are, and not just in sheer volume but also as a percentage.
Is this some kind of disease? Affluenza?
Thirty seven percent of all housal units in the U.S. do not carry a mortgage, which is actually an impressive figure. Indeed, it's roughly the same as my little work group survey. But what's even more interesting is that a larger percentage of people with less education own their homes outright. Read: if you're college educated, expect to be paying on that mortgage for a very, very long time.
Of course as a college grad you get to live amongst the granite counter tops, the oak fireplace mantle, and inside your choice of five bedrooms, with one larger than the home you grew up in. The finest Bordeaux, imported cheeses, Italian pasta, 600 count sheets, and seven hundred channels are at your beck and call every night. Without the sheepskin you only get two buck chuck, top ramen and your choice of one of two bedrooms in your little flat at eye-level with the L. So clearly, there is a material difference...but it comes at a substantial cost in my little opinion -- perpetual debt servitude.
I'll leave it to you, my fellow college educated reader, to mire yourself in as much debt as you desire. I'm not one to presume how anyone should live, only the way we live. While I won't anymore aspire for that Garage Majal and his-and-her SUVs, you are free to, and frankly, you are keeping this debt based economy of ours running, for what that's worth. You are the "rich folk" in that cartoon, a solo occupant driver on the highway to HELOC.
I though about a recent NY Times article on Slumburbia my dad suggested I read. I hold virtually all the same opinions as this writer, and, unfortunately, I also see that the apocalyptic future that I wish for won't likely materialize. I say that because I personally feel that the only way we will collectively decide to build better places to live will come from the consequences of a resource shortage or economic depression. There is nothing else that I think will do it. As I look around, aren't we all just sitting around waiting for the "rebound," waiting for the "recovery," to resume suburbia housal unit starts, 20% housal unit growth per year, and the resumption of growth in the industries needed for the the accessorizing of these units and the transporting of their occupants? Yes, we are.
I stole this from a cartoon on the wall in a bar near home -- a couple writing their last mortgage check on their three-legged dinette. I didn't think much about this until I got to work the next day and mentally tallied up the mortgages of just my co-workers, what they carry on their houses:
Co-worker A: $235,000
Co-worker B: $215,000
Co-worker C: $280,000
Co-worker D: $175,000
Co-worker E: $0
Co-worker F: $0
Worker G: $18,000
Supervisor: $380,000
Now, E and F are both past retirement age and work because they still enjoy it (as I've oft repeated, I'll likely do the same.) A through D and our supervisor average around 40, and all owe, in my opinion, substantial sums. I am worker G. I am acutely aware that those around me who "succeed" and who are "successful" are all up to their eyeballs in debt; neighbors, co-workers, family members, and friends.
To some extent, sure, this is OK because their income can support such indebtedness, but it's very clear to me that the more people make, the more in debt they are, and not just in sheer volume but also as a percentage.
Is this some kind of disease? Affluenza?
Thirty seven percent of all housal units in the U.S. do not carry a mortgage, which is actually an impressive figure. Indeed, it's roughly the same as my little work group survey. But what's even more interesting is that a larger percentage of people with less education own their homes outright. Read: if you're college educated, expect to be paying on that mortgage for a very, very long time.
Of course as a college grad you get to live amongst the granite counter tops, the oak fireplace mantle, and inside your choice of five bedrooms, with one larger than the home you grew up in. The finest Bordeaux, imported cheeses, Italian pasta, 600 count sheets, and seven hundred channels are at your beck and call every night. Without the sheepskin you only get two buck chuck, top ramen and your choice of one of two bedrooms in your little flat at eye-level with the L. So clearly, there is a material difference...but it comes at a substantial cost in my little opinion -- perpetual debt servitude.
I'll leave it to you, my fellow college educated reader, to mire yourself in as much debt as you desire. I'm not one to presume how anyone should live, only the way we live. While I won't anymore aspire for that Garage Majal and his-and-her SUVs, you are free to, and frankly, you are keeping this debt based economy of ours running, for what that's worth. You are the "rich folk" in that cartoon, a solo occupant driver on the highway to HELOC.
I though about a recent NY Times article on Slumburbia my dad suggested I read. I hold virtually all the same opinions as this writer, and, unfortunately, I also see that the apocalyptic future that I wish for won't likely materialize. I say that because I personally feel that the only way we will collectively decide to build better places to live will come from the consequences of a resource shortage or economic depression. There is nothing else that I think will do it. As I look around, aren't we all just sitting around waiting for the "rebound," waiting for the "recovery," to resume suburbia housal unit starts, 20% housal unit growth per year, and the resumption of growth in the industries needed for the the accessorizing of these units and the transporting of their occupants? Yes, we are.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Eighteen MPH
Every day I ride the bicycle home I cross Highway 99 on the 41st avenue over crossing. Today, Tuesday at 4:55 PM -- there's stop and go traffic down below. From that vantage point I'm able to calculate the speed of the wave of stopped cars, the wave that moves backwards...and by my estimate it's traveling backwards at 18 MPH. Interestingly, this wave is independent of the average speed of the freeway in the forward direction. Every time I sit there and calculate it the wave of stopped cars moves backwards at about the same rate. I enjoy standing on my bike, looking down at the stalled traffic. It makes me feel SUPERIOR. Not only am I getting home in about the same time when there's an accident, I do so while keeping in shape and as a side benefit my car(s) are dormant for a while. I also get to criticize you as the consumeristic, energy hog-like planet killer that you are, without all that bothersome guilt.
I would someday like to ride my bicycle on the median of highway 99 in the wrong direction during rush hour alongside that backwards moving wave. I think that I could ride at a sustained 18 MPH and just as I passed every car they would at that moment be stopped. If I passed a cop, well, she'd be stopped, too...and would have to change direction against stopped traffic to chase me down. I'm pretty sure I could reach the next on-ramp (that is, my off-ramp) well before she'd be able to call me in. This would 1) verify my calculation that it is indeed moving at 18MPH as I have a speedometer on the bike, and 2) ride on one of only five roads in Sacramento where it's illegal to do so just to do it, to be a rebel, to say I've did it. Again, I would feel SUPERIOR.
Here's how I'll do it: I'll drive my truck down the freeway with my bike in the back and create a fake 'stalled' or 'out-of-gas' truck scene. In a "panic," as broken down motorists are wont to do, I'll mount my bike with a one gallon gas can on the rear rack and head in the wrong direction, under the assumption that the nearest gas station is behind me. Remember...I'm panicking. This also creates a stop and go wave simply due to the presence of my "stalled" truck, sitting there all by it's lonesome. It creates a bit of friction to all those bored commuters -- "Hey, look! Something other than the ass end of the car in front of me or a sound wall to look at!" Then I'll begin my experiment.
Here's a question: If it's illegal to simply be on the highway on a bicycle, do you think the fine would be more for bicycling the wrong way? Do you think the CHP is prepared to make that distinction? I think not.
I would someday like to ride my bicycle on the median of highway 99 in the wrong direction during rush hour alongside that backwards moving wave. I think that I could ride at a sustained 18 MPH and just as I passed every car they would at that moment be stopped. If I passed a cop, well, she'd be stopped, too...and would have to change direction against stopped traffic to chase me down. I'm pretty sure I could reach the next on-ramp (that is, my off-ramp) well before she'd be able to call me in. This would 1) verify my calculation that it is indeed moving at 18MPH as I have a speedometer on the bike, and 2) ride on one of only five roads in Sacramento where it's illegal to do so just to do it, to be a rebel, to say I've did it. Again, I would feel SUPERIOR.
Here's how I'll do it: I'll drive my truck down the freeway with my bike in the back and create a fake 'stalled' or 'out-of-gas' truck scene. In a "panic," as broken down motorists are wont to do, I'll mount my bike with a one gallon gas can on the rear rack and head in the wrong direction, under the assumption that the nearest gas station is behind me. Remember...I'm panicking. This also creates a stop and go wave simply due to the presence of my "stalled" truck, sitting there all by it's lonesome. It creates a bit of friction to all those bored commuters -- "Hey, look! Something other than the ass end of the car in front of me or a sound wall to look at!" Then I'll begin my experiment.
Here's a question: If it's illegal to simply be on the highway on a bicycle, do you think the fine would be more for bicycling the wrong way? Do you think the CHP is prepared to make that distinction? I think not.
Friday, February 12, 2010
God Bless The T.S.A.
I earlier recounted the case of a TSA worker slipping in a baggie of white powder into a woman's bag prior to "the inspection," only to claim it's a joke -- a practical joke. Although a marginal case, this highlights the lunacy of airport security and how this whole security theater is only played out to make white people feel safe.
I just happened to fly on September 11, 2002 on American Airlines from Sacramento to Dallas, for a conference on standards for the electric power industry. Even I was a bit cautious, as I had gone to the Folsom Blvd. flea market the week before and found a copy of George Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God. I carried this aboard that flight, but I used a brown paper bag slip cover over it.
Why did I do that? I don't know. I am never one to bring attention to myself. I thought it was prudent to cover the book as I didn't need some Bible-Belter from Lawton to get the wrong idea and freak out to the attendants that some guy, sitting in the window seat all by his lonesome, had a book deemed as contraband to 95% of the population on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Today, I wouldn't hardly concern myself. Today, I'd welcome the attention and see just how far I could push the system. I mean, a kid with a fresh haircut who looks different from his license photo is today considered a possible "radicalized" suspect. If a haircut and Arabic/English flash cards are enough to cuff a student for an hour, imagine the response a 40-year-old loner like myself, boarding a plane with a book on atheism, would illicit.
Indeed, the TSA earlier assumed I was a threat with my 4,5 and 6 mm hex wrenches and bicycle chain tool. For shits and giggles, I will next time bring aboard some Arabic flash cards alongside an old set of hex wrenches (which, if under 7", are perfectly legal.) These flash cards will have the English translations for hotel, please, thank you, bread, water, taxi, water closet...and of course jihad, infidel, fatwa, ayatollah, and Sharia. I will shave my goat, save for the moustache, and be cleanly shaven atop. My copy of Atheism will be displayed. I usually travel without checked baggage anyway. I will let my insulin infusion sets dangle out of my backpack -- nothing like a little dangling loose tubing. I get awfully cold on board, so a thick, oversized XXXL wool sweater will feel good. Three ounces each of hummus and baba ganoujj -- hey, I like 'em.
Of course, if I end up pissing off exactly the wrong TSA representative, he might just sneak in some incriminating evidence into my carry-on...just a practical joke.
I just happened to fly on September 11, 2002 on American Airlines from Sacramento to Dallas, for a conference on standards for the electric power industry. Even I was a bit cautious, as I had gone to the Folsom Blvd. flea market the week before and found a copy of George Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God. I carried this aboard that flight, but I used a brown paper bag slip cover over it.
Why did I do that? I don't know. I am never one to bring attention to myself. I thought it was prudent to cover the book as I didn't need some Bible-Belter from Lawton to get the wrong idea and freak out to the attendants that some guy, sitting in the window seat all by his lonesome, had a book deemed as contraband to 95% of the population on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Today, I wouldn't hardly concern myself. Today, I'd welcome the attention and see just how far I could push the system. I mean, a kid with a fresh haircut who looks different from his license photo is today considered a possible "radicalized" suspect. If a haircut and Arabic/English flash cards are enough to cuff a student for an hour, imagine the response a 40-year-old loner like myself, boarding a plane with a book on atheism, would illicit.
Indeed, the TSA earlier assumed I was a threat with my 4,5 and 6 mm hex wrenches and bicycle chain tool. For shits and giggles, I will next time bring aboard some Arabic flash cards alongside an old set of hex wrenches (which, if under 7", are perfectly legal.) These flash cards will have the English translations for hotel, please, thank you, bread, water, taxi, water closet...and of course jihad, infidel, fatwa, ayatollah, and Sharia. I will shave my goat, save for the moustache, and be cleanly shaven atop. My copy of Atheism will be displayed. I usually travel without checked baggage anyway. I will let my insulin infusion sets dangle out of my backpack -- nothing like a little dangling loose tubing. I get awfully cold on board, so a thick, oversized XXXL wool sweater will feel good. Three ounces each of hummus and baba ganoujj -- hey, I like 'em.
Of course, if I end up pissing off exactly the wrong TSA representative, he might just sneak in some incriminating evidence into my carry-on...just a practical joke.
Death on Franklin
This morning I rode the bicycle past my first Franklin Blvd. death. At the corner of Franklin and 46th a 91 year old lady was killed at 5:30 this morning while crossing the road. It's hard to say which direction she was crossing, but it matters little. She was the victim of a hit and run.
Don't know whether the red pickup was at fault or if the lady was, or maybe a combination of both. Far, far too many fatalities result from bicyclist or pedestrian ignorance or willful breaking of the traffic rules. When you build destinations miles apart from one another, and build crosswalks miles apart from one another, and build curb radii so goddamn wide that pedestrian crossing distance is doubled while car speeds are tripled, there are all sorts of incentives for people to willingly disregard their own safety and cross anywhere they can.
While the CHP and SAC PD were doing their thing to process the scene, I couldn't help but consider how just fifty feet away Vicki's roach coach was parked, and how all her patrons park illegally on Franklin, forcing me into the traffic lane while ordering their morning burritos. It would have been rather imprudent, I told myself, to bother the CHP with this. They were clearly more focused on managing this accident after the fact. To bother them at this time, to bother them in an attempt to prevent the next fatality, well, that most certainly would have been inappropriate.
Honestly, I can't believe a 91 year old Vietnamese lady would have been bolting across Franklin Blvd. in the dark. My own guess is that she was walking legally across 46th at Franklin (with no crosswalk markings) and was hit by that red truck that was either turning from Franklin onto 46th or from 46th onto Franklin. People routinely take that at excessive speed, and in the dark...well, the consequences are obvious.
There are all sorts of reasons why people will flee an accident, and my contempt for society at large is borne from such people and such reasons. Uninsured, unregistered, intoxicated, scared, frightened, callous, on parole, a stolen truck, or maybe they just didn't want the point on their record and the increased insurance premium...for any of these and for other reasons we will just never know, people flee the scene because they can.
It is built into our national ethos to hold no personal responsibility for anything while embracing unearned riches -- it's the bankers, not us, who caused the economic shitstorm. Sue the ladder manufacturer, sue for the hot coffee in the lap, medical malpractice, lottery money for "education," my diabetes prevents me from exercising, I should resolve all my debts through debt management services. And I didn't see her, I tried to stop, but I...
Don't know whether the red pickup was at fault or if the lady was, or maybe a combination of both. Far, far too many fatalities result from bicyclist or pedestrian ignorance or willful breaking of the traffic rules. When you build destinations miles apart from one another, and build crosswalks miles apart from one another, and build curb radii so goddamn wide that pedestrian crossing distance is doubled while car speeds are tripled, there are all sorts of incentives for people to willingly disregard their own safety and cross anywhere they can.
While the CHP and SAC PD were doing their thing to process the scene, I couldn't help but consider how just fifty feet away Vicki's roach coach was parked, and how all her patrons park illegally on Franklin, forcing me into the traffic lane while ordering their morning burritos. It would have been rather imprudent, I told myself, to bother the CHP with this. They were clearly more focused on managing this accident after the fact. To bother them at this time, to bother them in an attempt to prevent the next fatality, well, that most certainly would have been inappropriate.
Honestly, I can't believe a 91 year old Vietnamese lady would have been bolting across Franklin Blvd. in the dark. My own guess is that she was walking legally across 46th at Franklin (with no crosswalk markings) and was hit by that red truck that was either turning from Franklin onto 46th or from 46th onto Franklin. People routinely take that at excessive speed, and in the dark...well, the consequences are obvious.
There are all sorts of reasons why people will flee an accident, and my contempt for society at large is borne from such people and such reasons. Uninsured, unregistered, intoxicated, scared, frightened, callous, on parole, a stolen truck, or maybe they just didn't want the point on their record and the increased insurance premium...for any of these and for other reasons we will just never know, people flee the scene because they can.
It is built into our national ethos to hold no personal responsibility for anything while embracing unearned riches -- it's the bankers, not us, who caused the economic shitstorm. Sue the ladder manufacturer, sue for the hot coffee in the lap, medical malpractice, lottery money for "education," my diabetes prevents me from exercising, I should resolve all my debts through debt management services. And I didn't see her, I tried to stop, but I...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Vehicularization
It's amazing how much effort we're expending on the news and the reporting of Toyota's sticky pedals...all for the prevention of a few dozen deaths, tops. Tops! I find it amazing because at the same time I routinely watch all my Elk Grovian neighbors speeding through our neighborhood streets as if every pedal was stuck to the floorboard. It is highly likely that you are one of them, simply based on the numbers.
We'll spend tens of millions in full page newspaperapologies advertisements and lost stock values and feigned CEO caterwauling and mechanic's overtime pay addressing this "safety" issue, and then, when your Toyota is finally fixed you'll go out and drive it like a complete shithead. You'll speed along our collector roads and a few of you will find yourselves involved in pedestrian fatalities or will have taken the curve too fast and will wrap yourself around a tree, into a garage door, or into a living room. You'll accelerate your beautiful Toyota vehicle quickly, increasing your gas consumption, while braking excessively, increasing your brake wear.
Indeed, far, far more of us will lose our lives to the way we drive than the problems with what we drive, yet we focus our attentions on these [mostly] trivial things that don't really matter. But we live in an autocentric nation and we build places to live that mandate vehicularization, and foolishly assume suburban Elk Grove is safe because of the way we've built it. It's safe! And safety is everything! Keep our children safe! Safe schools! Safe cars! Safe parks! Yet, the single most preventable thing we could do to promote safety in Elk Grove we refuse to do -- build roads and environments that don't promote driving like assholes. Suburbia fails for precisely this reason; traffic accidents are the most preventable cause of death while we make the ridiculous claim that suburbia is safe.
But, we value the ability to speed through wide residential streets more than the value of our neighbor's or our own lives. We live so far from the places we need to go that to speed to make up all that lost time is rationalized. We collectively accept the consequences of these actions. No big deal, we say.
We'll spend tens of millions in full page newspaper
Indeed, far, far more of us will lose our lives to the way we drive than the problems with what we drive, yet we focus our attentions on these [mostly] trivial things that don't really matter. But we live in an autocentric nation and we build places to live that mandate vehicularization, and foolishly assume suburban Elk Grove is safe because of the way we've built it. It's safe! And safety is everything! Keep our children safe! Safe schools! Safe cars! Safe parks! Yet, the single most preventable thing we could do to promote safety in Elk Grove we refuse to do -- build roads and environments that don't promote driving like assholes. Suburbia fails for precisely this reason; traffic accidents are the most preventable cause of death while we make the ridiculous claim that suburbia is safe.
But, we value the ability to speed through wide residential streets more than the value of our neighbor's or our own lives. We live so far from the places we need to go that to speed to make up all that lost time is rationalized. We collectively accept the consequences of these actions. No big deal, we say.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Default Chicken
As I review the Elk Grove Citizen this afternoon I list some the names of my neighbors newly added to the foreclosure roster:
Jacob M. Hurley, Quang Q. Huynh, Richard D. Warrick, Aleli Angeli M. Manuel, Matt Robertson, Sally A. Eversole, Richelle Callo, Selina C. Ang, Lisa Noyer, Phillip C. Lovell, Marlin L. Eagles, Bianchi Investments LLC, Mark A. Buzzard, Alonzo Arreola and Robin Dahl.
These are the people (remember, Bianchi Investments is a person, too) listed just on page 6 of 6 in my local paper.
What is highly interesting is that these names are substantially different from the names of people defaulting only 12 months ago -- these names are predominantly white. Twelve months ago they were predominantly brown. I am curious as to why. These defaulters signed their mortgages at roughly the same time, 2005 - 2007. Why did these white people decide to wait another 18-24 months to default compared to their brown brethren?
I may never know. Nonetheless, I still maintain that all of this economic horseshit was as much caused by consumer greed as it was by lack of financial regulation and the real estate machinery (real estate salesladies, mortgage brokers and housal unit builders). Each of the people listed above expected their housal units to appraise 20% more each year ad infinitum while every tranche of that real estate machinery received their own slice of that pie. They were all starry eyed, looking for their share of unearned riches.
Today many of the above named are likely locked into a game of default chicken -- if they stick it out in their housal unit and fail to pay the mortgage they might be able to stick around for 9-12 months (rent free!) because the bank likely will want to defer processing the foreclosure to prevent the mark to market of a loss. The longer the bank sits on it, the longer the "owner" can live payment-free. This is precisely why we are seeing more delinquencies on mortgages vs. delinquencies on credit cards.
Just wait until we enter, in my estimation, a future with escalating energy prices. Wait to see howAmericans consumers prioritize their energy consumption activities. Wait to see how Americans consumers will prefer paying for gasoline to fill their cars before paying for their children's tutors, before recreational prescription drugs, before eye glasses. The game of energy chicken is coming.
Jacob M. Hurley, Quang Q. Huynh, Richard D. Warrick, Aleli Angeli M. Manuel, Matt Robertson, Sally A. Eversole, Richelle Callo, Selina C. Ang, Lisa Noyer, Phillip C. Lovell, Marlin L. Eagles, Bianchi Investments LLC, Mark A. Buzzard, Alonzo Arreola and Robin Dahl.
These are the people (remember, Bianchi Investments is a person, too) listed just on page 6 of 6 in my local paper.
What is highly interesting is that these names are substantially different from the names of people defaulting only 12 months ago -- these names are predominantly white. Twelve months ago they were predominantly brown. I am curious as to why. These defaulters signed their mortgages at roughly the same time, 2005 - 2007. Why did these white people decide to wait another 18-24 months to default compared to their brown brethren?
I may never know. Nonetheless, I still maintain that all of this economic horseshit was as much caused by consumer greed as it was by lack of financial regulation and the real estate machinery (real estate salesladies, mortgage brokers and housal unit builders). Each of the people listed above expected their housal units to appraise 20% more each year ad infinitum while every tranche of that real estate machinery received their own slice of that pie. They were all starry eyed, looking for their share of unearned riches.
Today many of the above named are likely locked into a game of default chicken -- if they stick it out in their housal unit and fail to pay the mortgage they might be able to stick around for 9-12 months (rent free!) because the bank likely will want to defer processing the foreclosure to prevent the mark to market of a loss. The longer the bank sits on it, the longer the "owner" can live payment-free. This is precisely why we are seeing more delinquencies on mortgages vs. delinquencies on credit cards.
Just wait until we enter, in my estimation, a future with escalating energy prices. Wait to see how
Autocentric America
I am fascinated with most people's concern for public transit -- it's a subsidy that should be eliminated! Let those bastards pay their own way! I'm tired of them sucking off my teat!
Today, Californians pay a 6% state sales tax on gas and an 18 cents per gallon excise tax. By law, the state sales tax goes towards public transportation and other mandates per previous propositions. Our Green Gov'na in the Greenest state in the nation in the Greenest nation on the face of the earth intends to eliminate the sales tax and raise the excise tax, which can then go into the state general fund and towards our mammoth state deficit. This would effectively kill off all state funding to transit while resulting in over a billion dollar tax cut to automobile drivers because the excise tax won't be raised as much as the sales tax reduction. That is -- we will be subsidizing private auto use even more while eliminating transit subsidies.
The argument for this is that society has already determined what is more valuable -- the ability to go where I want, when I want, via my own private means on public roads is more important than pollution, being green, foreign wars for oil and the 40,000 annual deaths and 2,300,000 accidents. I can understand this; we have to prioritize our needs. I just happen to think this is bullshit, but it's right in line with Autocentric American values.
That is, we passively, but willingly, accept the prosecution of foreign wars to allow us to drive the 300 feet to the mailbox instead of walking. This is an American value, and while it might never be presented in just this way, it is in just this way we live. Same for pollution -- the air is plenty clean enough so I won't fund initiatives towards better air. If transit met the more valuable requirements that my car provides, I'd ride the train, but until then, screw your transit.
This is a fatal error in my opinion, fatal because I see energy scarcity in the future. Not "running out" scarcity, but "much more expensive" scarcity. We will have not set ourselves up correctly for this outcome with these policies we're enacting. Again, this is one man's opinion. In my opinion, the way we use energy creates a host of other social pathologies, from war to pollution to a lack of beautiful cities...the list goes on. It's too bad for me that I have to live in this shit, but hey, I'm in the deep minority at the moment. While I deeply disagree with most Americans, I accept your collective ignorance. Perhaps someday a nice depression or energy scarcity development will occur and perhaps more people will come to realize how badly we've built our cities, how we've failed to integrate the natural environments around us into our living arrangements, how we've failed to regard each other as people, how today we're all just mindless consumers instead of contributing citizens.
Perhaps someday enough of us will clamor for change, for medium density cities where cars don't dominate, where energy use is minimized, where transit is respectable and timely.
Perhaps.
Today, Californians pay a 6% state sales tax on gas and an 18 cents per gallon excise tax. By law, the state sales tax goes towards public transportation and other mandates per previous propositions. Our Green Gov'na in the Greenest state in the nation in the Greenest nation on the face of the earth intends to eliminate the sales tax and raise the excise tax, which can then go into the state general fund and towards our mammoth state deficit. This would effectively kill off all state funding to transit while resulting in over a billion dollar tax cut to automobile drivers because the excise tax won't be raised as much as the sales tax reduction. That is -- we will be subsidizing private auto use even more while eliminating transit subsidies.
The argument for this is that society has already determined what is more valuable -- the ability to go where I want, when I want, via my own private means on public roads is more important than pollution, being green, foreign wars for oil and the 40,000 annual deaths and 2,300,000 accidents. I can understand this; we have to prioritize our needs. I just happen to think this is bullshit, but it's right in line with Autocentric American values.
That is, we passively, but willingly, accept the prosecution of foreign wars to allow us to drive the 300 feet to the mailbox instead of walking. This is an American value, and while it might never be presented in just this way, it is in just this way we live. Same for pollution -- the air is plenty clean enough so I won't fund initiatives towards better air. If transit met the more valuable requirements that my car provides, I'd ride the train, but until then, screw your transit.
This is a fatal error in my opinion, fatal because I see energy scarcity in the future. Not "running out" scarcity, but "much more expensive" scarcity. We will have not set ourselves up correctly for this outcome with these policies we're enacting. Again, this is one man's opinion. In my opinion, the way we use energy creates a host of other social pathologies, from war to pollution to a lack of beautiful cities...the list goes on. It's too bad for me that I have to live in this shit, but hey, I'm in the deep minority at the moment. While I deeply disagree with most Americans, I accept your collective ignorance. Perhaps someday a nice depression or energy scarcity development will occur and perhaps more people will come to realize how badly we've built our cities, how we've failed to integrate the natural environments around us into our living arrangements, how we've failed to regard each other as people, how today we're all just mindless consumers instead of contributing citizens.
Perhaps someday enough of us will clamor for change, for medium density cities where cars don't dominate, where energy use is minimized, where transit is respectable and timely.
Perhaps.
Uninsured Motorists
Went into my auto insurance company last week with the intention to lower my costs because I drive much, much less than I used to. Yet I ended up paying more going forward.
This is the dirty little secret about bike, bus and train commuting in suburbia -- you still need your car. You still need multiple cars. Not only are you shelling out money for bicycle tyres and train tickets, you are pretty much fucked when it comes to registration and car insurance in California -- you can't appreciably change the premium even if you only drive it once a month.
What I did to raise my costs is to finally carry uninsured motorists (UM/UIM). I did this not as a motorist, but as a bicyclist. In California, per Insurance Code Section 11580.2, the coverage flows to you, not to your insured car. If I get hit on my bicycle by an underinsured motorist, I can make a claim against my own policy to cover the costs of my broken bones, resetting my jaw, pain and suffering, co-pays, surgeon pre-op visits, etc. The same would apply if I'm on my unicycle, stilts, recumbent, horse, or pack mule.
I brought this to the attention of my insurance company, Allstate, and the agent lady summarily dismissed this idea. "No f-ing way," her eyes read, as she really became annoyed with my questioning. Grudgingly she said she'd follow up with this to her claims department, which to her surprise she was told that yes, this coverage applies to bicyclists and even joggers and pedestrians in the street. It's bodily injury arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of an uninsured motor vehicle in the state, not just your motor vehicle.
The only thing about all this is that this doesn't apply to a hit and run...because the way I read the insurance code, UM/UIM hit and run only applies to bodily injury as a result of contact while I'm in my insured car. One way I can try to protect myself from this situation is to never ride in the dark and to only ride in traffic with lots of potential witnesses...which I do anyway.
There are varying statistics floating around out there, but apparently 16% of our state's drivers are uninsured. My guess, as I'm bicycling through South Sacramento, is that that percentage is much larger.
As shitty as it sounds, having to increase my auto insurance as I drive less, this is the price I pay for living in Autocentric America. Insurance, registration, smog fees and the like are areas that are always the targets of our legislature because to increase the use tax (read: gas tax) is political suicide in a nation beholden to their cars.
This is the dirty little secret about bike, bus and train commuting in suburbia -- you still need your car. You still need multiple cars. Not only are you shelling out money for bicycle tyres and train tickets, you are pretty much fucked when it comes to registration and car insurance in California -- you can't appreciably change the premium even if you only drive it once a month.
What I did to raise my costs is to finally carry uninsured motorists (UM/UIM). I did this not as a motorist, but as a bicyclist. In California, per Insurance Code Section 11580.2, the coverage flows to you, not to your insured car. If I get hit on my bicycle by an underinsured motorist, I can make a claim against my own policy to cover the costs of my broken bones, resetting my jaw, pain and suffering, co-pays, surgeon pre-op visits, etc. The same would apply if I'm on my unicycle, stilts, recumbent, horse, or pack mule.
I brought this to the attention of my insurance company, Allstate, and the agent lady summarily dismissed this idea. "No f-ing way," her eyes read, as she really became annoyed with my questioning. Grudgingly she said she'd follow up with this to her claims department, which to her surprise she was told that yes, this coverage applies to bicyclists and even joggers and pedestrians in the street. It's bodily injury arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of an uninsured motor vehicle in the state, not just your motor vehicle.
The only thing about all this is that this doesn't apply to a hit and run...because the way I read the insurance code, UM/UIM hit and run only applies to bodily injury as a result of contact while I'm in my insured car. One way I can try to protect myself from this situation is to never ride in the dark and to only ride in traffic with lots of potential witnesses...which I do anyway.
There are varying statistics floating around out there, but apparently 16% of our state's drivers are uninsured. My guess, as I'm bicycling through South Sacramento, is that that percentage is much larger.
As shitty as it sounds, having to increase my auto insurance as I drive less, this is the price I pay for living in Autocentric America. Insurance, registration, smog fees and the like are areas that are always the targets of our legislature because to increase the use tax (read: gas tax) is political suicide in a nation beholden to their cars.
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