The Value of a Car
We Are The Solution Wrote:You drive around in a car that is basically just like mine (I mean it doesn't float or hover or fly or go warp speed) yet you pay 10x the price for your car because it is suppose to show you are successful. What does it really show? That you are a robot, trained to think that everything this society tells you you should want, you really do want.
It could demonstrate that.
But, in the case of, say, me having a 2002 BMW Z3 M coupe, it would mean something else entirely.
If anyone cared to ask why I owned that car, I'd explain my love for driving. I'd talk about how I enjoy technology in motion. I might point out the precise nature of the vehicle, how it was created by focused human intelligence and effort. I'd likely enthuse about the beauty I saw in the body and design. All told, I'd be saying I found an embodiment of my values in this awesome piece of machinery and since I could afford it, I bought it.
Then again, it debuted with a MSRP of only $45,600 so this is assuming your car cost a mere $4,500. However, the same thing I wrote could be written for a 2005 Porsche 911 Turbo ($118,400). For how much did you buy your car? I may need a base figure to work with here...
UDATED 9/19/2005 2:48pm
The Austin-American-Statesman: Testing the electric bike (link will rot)
By Ben WearAs for me, riding one was about 50 times more fuel-efficient than my SUV and was good exercise. But I sweated like a longshoreman, it took at least twice as long to get to work, it was more dangerous than driving, the range of the electrical charge might be less than advertised, and, well, I can't afford the darn bike anyway without selling my SUV.
Values, man. Values.