Originally Posted by
mconlonx
People scrape by. Cuba is a great example of that. They could certainly have abandoned cars, yet instead, there is a healthy car culture there, one where they keep cars alive that are 50-60+ years old. What meager cash they have, some choose to spend on their cars -- basically anyone who has a chance will spend it on cars. Black and grey market certainly become valid enterprises during times of true austerity.
Many Chinese live an austere life, yet it is one of the fastest growing markets for cars.
The "If only people would recognize..." and "When oil/society collapses..." arguments fall as flat regarding mass transformation to bicycle culture as do the arguments I hear from the
SCA crowd for their arms skills...
An austere economy fulfills its needs and the people have free time to devote to hobbies. If they can somehow get parts to fix up old cars, why wouldn't they do so unless they have some other hobby they want to reserve that money for? It's these economies where cars and driving are considered a necessity where everyone is pressing each other for more money to spend on fuel, insurance, tires, maintenance, etc. If people in austere economies start driving cars as compulsively and extensively as people in non-austere economies do, many who have the money for cars as a hobby now won't be able to afford the same standard of living because they are priced into expensive rentals, face higher costs of living, etc.
Austerity is a benefit. The more people conserve, the more affordable everything becomes. Austerity isn't hard to achieve by totalitarian mandate. The challenge is popularizing it within free democratic societies. It's just like with driving. The more people stay off the roads, the better traffic flows for those who do drive. The challenge is getting those people off the roads without forcing them off by means of high fuel prices, economic recession, etc. Wouldn't it be great to have a prosperous economy where people are free to drive precisely because most don't most of the time? That would be a triumph of democracy and freedom over economic compulsion.