aka: why wasting fuel is not what you should be doing
Here's the thing - an SUV has a function. Usually that function is to drive person to from A to B. An SUV offers very little utility over a sedan or an economy car. It has the same number of seats, it's just a little more roomy. I know there are people who make 'proper' use of the SUV, but they are being discounted for the discussion, because we all know of SUVs and minivans that are not being used with utility.
These vehicles place a demand upon gasoline stores greater than the owner needs, because these vehicles consume more. So, due to supply/demand, the price is higher, and the SUV owner is happy to pay. The issue is that a lot of people are less wealthy than the SUV owner and their price goes up too(even if they drive an efficient vehicle), hitting them relatively more. As well, any service that has gasoline as a component is affected, and the price for that service goes up. This causes a general, unnecessary, inflation. Inflation reduces overall wealth and productivity. So, owning an SUV is bad for your economy, if you're not getting good use out of it.
Now, why are we not whining about old vehicles? That's pretty easy. The majority of the pollution done by a vehicle is during its manufacturing. So, for every year you drive an old car, because you've maintained it well, the average pollution of that vehicle goes down. Buying a new vehicle and scrapping the old (when the old vehicle was still functional) puts a whole new fuel and pollution burden. Sure, a new car might have better fuel efficiency (and that's good), and so people purchasing new cars should worry about that (to reduce the average pollution per vehicle-year faster), but we're all better off if you can eek more time out of your old clunker.
luiz said:El_Machinae said:In addition, SUV drivers artificially inflate the cost of gasoline (or inflate the demand), thus hurting everyone who needs gasoline and does not have enough. Inflation is too regressive to affect SUV owners fast enough to save the poor.
I don´t buy that. The price of gasoline is corrected almost every week here.
SUV owners are inflating the prices no more artificially than Mike Tyson inflated the gold price.
Anti-SUV people irritate the crap outta me. If you can pay for it, go ahead. I don't need eco-whiners telling me what I can or cannot do with my money.
Edit: and here's another thing that puzzles me? Why do eco-whiners only pick on SUVs? What about old cars, that consume far more gas and polute much more? What about super-sports car like a Ferrari or a a B. Veyron(which needs one liter of gas to do 2 kilometers, worse than any SUV) ?
Edit 2: I'm not refering to you as an eco-whiner, this is mostly a rant.
Here's the thing - an SUV has a function. Usually that function is to drive person to from A to B. An SUV offers very little utility over a sedan or an economy car. It has the same number of seats, it's just a little more roomy. I know there are people who make 'proper' use of the SUV, but they are being discounted for the discussion, because we all know of SUVs and minivans that are not being used with utility.
These vehicles place a demand upon gasoline stores greater than the owner needs, because these vehicles consume more. So, due to supply/demand, the price is higher, and the SUV owner is happy to pay. The issue is that a lot of people are less wealthy than the SUV owner and their price goes up too(even if they drive an efficient vehicle), hitting them relatively more. As well, any service that has gasoline as a component is affected, and the price for that service goes up. This causes a general, unnecessary, inflation. Inflation reduces overall wealth and productivity. So, owning an SUV is bad for your economy, if you're not getting good use out of it.
Now, why are we not whining about old vehicles? That's pretty easy. The majority of the pollution done by a vehicle is during its manufacturing. So, for every year you drive an old car, because you've maintained it well, the average pollution of that vehicle goes down. Buying a new vehicle and scrapping the old (when the old vehicle was still functional) puts a whole new fuel and pollution burden. Sure, a new car might have better fuel efficiency (and that's good), and so people purchasing new cars should worry about that (to reduce the average pollution per vehicle-year faster), but we're all better off if you can eek more time out of your old clunker.