Cars and Freedom

A important notion inherent in the Conservative political perspective, often incomprehensible to Liberals, is the intimate link between money and freedom. Money, as a broad measure of economic wherewithal, provides choices. With money a person can decide where to live, what to wear and eat, where to travel to, what recreational and educational activities to engage in, and even what opportunities to provide children. The more money the broader the scope of choices in our lives. Money is so important that most of us willing trade the precious commodity of time for money in our jobs.

Personal transportation is also a measure of freedom. Sure there are some people who take special pride and interest an automobiles or manage to travel from place to place via public transportation. However, for the most part, a car allows ordinary people to control their lives like few other possessions. Cars permit us broad discretion in where to live. We are not limited to high-traffic corridors that may be serviced by mass transportation. Cars have made possible for many the achievement of the American dream of a house and yard.

Cars allow us to plan our day more independently of the schedules of others. We can on a given day, deviate from a work-route to pick up a child from baseball practice or purchase groceries.

Cars also provide a sense of possibility. One can spontaneously choose to simply jump into the car and visit grandma in the next state. One can tour and view the country more intimately from a car. The freedom of the open road underpins much of our culture and literature from the TV show Route 66, the movie The Open Road, and the book Blue Highways.

No one wonder Americans are in love with their cars. No wonder car use has increased in European countries, even those with significant mass transportation alternatives. No wonder that as both China and India have become more affluent, the population has raced to own and drive cars.

The recent tremendous increase in gas prices has robbed Americans both of a measure of both economic and transportation freedom. People feel pressure but their scope of choice as been reduced and Americans are apprehensive that it might be reduced further.

The salient political point to understand is that Americans will embrace solutions that allows them to maintain their transportation freedom. There are some on the Left who are smugly happy with high prices because they feel Republicans will be blamed and because they believe it will push people away from cars. Americans will resent this loss of freedom, even if the Left believes it is for their own good of people

There are many possible ways to alleviate the current problem including: the movement to higher mileage gs automobiles, substitution of hybrid and electric vehicles for solely gas powered cars, improving the road infrastructure to reduce eneregy-wasting bottlenecks, and increasing oil production. All will likely play an important and necessary role. However, the option to use high prices to ween people from their cars will not be politically sustainable over the long term. If the Left attacks personal freedom, they will ultimately pay a price. For example, banning offshore oil drilling can be popular when oil is $22 a barrel, less so at $130 a barrel oil.

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