[slowmover]

Originally Posted by GoGogebic

I really don't understand what going to the library has to do with anything. You can be the smartest person in the world, but that won't necessarily prevent you from losing your job. People just assume if someone loses their job they're lazy or stupid. I know it's hard for some of you to believe but the DOT states the average US driver only gets 17.2 mpg. So there are many people out there who are living on the edge when it comes to fuel mileage, and they are not all stupid and lazy. I guess my point was that we can argue all day long about the causes of high gas prices, but none of us can do anything about them. No one here is going to end fuel speculation or single handily create enough middle class jobs to save the country. The thing I have always admired about the people on this site is that they don't wait for the government to fix the problems, but they fix them themselves. I was just hoping that their would be a little more compassion for people like Mike who are new to the things many people have known here for a while. I think its up to us here to help them and create an easy way for them to get on board.

GoGogebic

This is whining. I'm lazy, Not my fault, Can't do anything about it The government won't help. This is known as "learned helplessness" a tawdry appeal worthy of Oprah. (Which makes it suspicious in and of itself, for who is attracted by this premise; to whom is it useful?; links below).

I was just hoping that their would be a little more compassion for people like Mike who are new to the things many people have known here for a while.

Why does this person need compassion? I would expect that would be for his friends and family. People like Mike, ignorant of the larger trends staring them in the face -- not hidden -- comprise what appears to be the majority of todays Americans. Consumers, not citizens. Until the bad habit of expecting others to do their work for them is ended (an educated citizenry), they'll find that life isn't about "answers", but about the questions. Ignorance does have a cure.

I think its up to us here to help them and create an easy way for them to get on board.

Why should this consensus exist?

How much easier, or cheaper, can a library card be? The Net may be good for initial digging on a topic, but there is no substitute for physical books. And never will be. Those who don't read are dependent on those who do. And are easily manipulated therein. This should be understood as -- throughout history -- that an easy way for them to get on board is for someone else to invent the frame, the problem and the solution for everyone else (to singular profit, be it money or power). Aren't you tired of that?

As this site is primarily about fuel economy (as I read it; FE being merely a subset of automobile ownership cost), one needs to understand, first, that fuel WILL rise in price. Second, that (due to a number of predictable and also unknown factors) availability WILL become problematic at some near point in time. It's happened here in America before. Little imagination needed.

How well will hypothetical Mike deal with this information? The five owners of the entire American media aren't going to help (unless one lives in Cartoon World), nay, the opposite as the past thirty-plus years demonstrate. The interest there is in keeping ignorance flourishing. Cui bono. "Forums" like these are useful as conditions decline . . taking the temperature of Joe Q. Public. Better he run neither cold nor hot en masse.

So in a very-near future where price and availability have become distinct yet interlocked problems, what else may occur? My $10/gl gasoline to which I am restricted to a few gallons weekly only allows me X-miles to travel (even assuming I have records of sufficient depth to make this assertion with accuracy).

I improve my average mpg for the vehicle I own (hopefully outright), and can predict how far I can travel based on this site. (Isn't that enough burden for the denizens of this forum? That hyper Mike learn to predict?)

As with learned helplessness, there is also unearned confidence lurking here due to prediction. (Another premise. Why should a consensus arise? How quickly is this site to become moribund due to "consensus"? Cui bono?)

None of us have driven in this world-to-come as it is hypothetical.

Just slowing down is not enough. Nor is combining trips. They take us most of the way . . but 300-mile trips to other cities via car no longer exists in our world (yours, mine, that of many) as commuting, groceries, utilities and debt service take nearly all of our income henceforth. Aero improvements may be entirely worthless for the majority . . they never hit 45-mph from hereon.

We've all heard: Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

As a result of using this site well I can accurately predict fuel use for given ends. Today.

Your hypothetical Mike is up against a wall in the new world. The Internet is prone -- increasingly -- to disinformation. What works to sway masses of people will be adjusted constantly. Lack of reading skill will definitely be hurtful, of not knowing how to separate the wheat from the chaff. (Don't trust that an e-book can't be changed after you buy it, it can and it will).

Let's take 1979 (or WWII) and extrapolate:

There will be plenty around here who, having achieved high mpg for their particular vehicle and use (have substantially cut their fuel bill and the rate of wear) will also be deeply surprised (unearned confidence) that what with cutbacks by municipalities and states on road repairs (none); what with bad weather increasing annually, and the other minor disasters that accumulate, that the roads themselves will deteriorate --bye-bye belly pan -- that what used to be stoplights are now (the temporary made permanent) stop signs and they can no longer glide along to those earlier high numbers.

- On every trip the car will be loaded to the gills with people or goods. (bye-bye grille block.)

- Every other driver will be trying -- unsuccessfully -- to achieve higher mpg; causing minor mayhem in every long stretch (and don't forget the bikes, the scooters, the lawnmowers out on the road).

- The lack of auto insurance by an increasing majority will make risking the family vehicle a huge problem . . there is not enough income to replace it (for more than half of Americans come that day) nor is there any longer coverage for uninsured motorists.

- Good luck even getting quality tires. Or shoes.

Is your hypothetical Mike prepared for this? I'd say that none of us are, but some are farther along the road than others. "Energy Independence" is the subject your man wants for learning. (Start with: not how to achieve it, but what it is. Depth of understanding).

I'll have some fun with Frank Lee: It is well-known that he has a Magic 8-Ball hood ornament that will attach to any of his five Fix-Or-Repair-Daily cars. He needs to know which of the clunkers can make it to the parts store that day to get the pieces to repair the one he really needs. I think he might have a couple thousand or so in purchase price spread across them all. Frank Lee has also stated that he lives below his means. Saving for that rainy day. Increasing his store of knowledge . . . now, me, I have one vehicle, a diesel, that I keep as nicely as can be. Study up on problems and fixes. One is enough, is my thinking. Can run on more than just retail fuel. But writing this today indicates to me that maybe Frank Lee can abandon any those old Fords and still go about his business unhindered. I can't. (I'm working on the alternates he already has).

The pleasure of this site -- and that is how it should be seen, IMO, as pleasurable -- is in trying to better a set of skills as well as vehicle performance. That others offer us examples is about the limit of what can be expected. It is up to us to do our own thinking (making choices).

If these also change our thinking about the problem of personal transportation, so much the better: What fossil fuel is available to us (that I can afford, not simply what is for sale) I can make the best use of. It's open-ended.

But understand that not even a 90-mpg car will fix the problems of needed mobility in this world-to-come. Higher mpg is only a stopgap. The larger picture is that the jobs may exist somewhere, but if I cannot get to them (another state, but my house won't sell), then a different reality intrudes. If one thinks that lifestyle changes will suffice, he is deeply mistaken.

To what end does straw man hypothetical Mike exist, if you please?

"On The Hypothetical Mike Show (now that Orpah is gone) next week we'll be discussing ways for your family to make surefire negotiations at gang roadblocks and not accidentally lose your car!! . . . "


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