Originally Posted by Bekologist
when i reread your post i saw the lack of a second car affected you family income, but i didn't want to redact a succinct post.
It's all a trade off in what you believe versus what you are willing to put up with, expat. your family sound all right off. Got 15,000 worth of bikes that need hauling, right?
You shouldn't self identify yourself as an evil car owner unless you're suffering from a guilty conscience. Which is what a lot of your rationalizations sound like.
Guilt free, and non-apologetic.
Perhaps I'm a bit too idealistic, but I've got ideas that I want to see embraced by more consumers. It's a total waste trying to push things here, but I've got hope for the US. Our new house will have some way to capture solar energy. We'll have a worm farm for recycling food scraps. A compost bin. A water tank to capture rainwater for our organic garden. I've done my research on this, and come to the conclusion that my family can lessen our environmental impact. Perhaps I will be seen as a hypocrite, doing all this plus promoting utility cycling, yet still owning a 4WD to haul my motorcycles. So be it. I'll sleep well at night no matter what.