Originally Posted by Fugazi Dave
I'll second that sentiment.
I dislike the fact that most politicians here feels the need to tread lightly on anything oil-related. They can't speak out against oversized and unjustifiable SUVs for fear of offending the gas-guzzling electorate. The overriding sentiment of entitlement in the United States is sickening. The whole idea that we are the greatest nation in the world, are fundamentally superior, and are thus entitled to anything we damn well want, including consuming half the world's resources, producing 2/3 of its waste, and driving a Hummer H2 through Manhattan.
Don't forget, it's that garish sense of entitlement and superiority that motivate the great minds of the world. The people who design and create new gas-guzzling SUV's, appliances, methodologies ... bicycles
do so because they know it will afford them any luxury they want, not because they feel some altruistic sense of duty to provide you with all the luxuries you enjoy.