Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Comment on Today's Discussion (12-8-09)
So today we talked about increasing the prices of gasoline so that we can encourage people to decrease the amount of gasoline they use and encourage them to buy more fuel efficient cars. I think that this is a great concept, but I worry about the effect that this will have on people who do not make much money and will then have difficulty driving to work, and probably will not be able to afford new more fuel efficient cars. I also worry that this will have an effect on the cost of food and other goods which will then in turn force companies to eventually lay off workers, which will make an even bigger problem. I liked the idea of having more research being done to find ways to become more fuel efficient. I think that that is a great idea. I just worry about the immediate effect that it will have on our economy. Maybe there is a better way, hopefully! While thinking about this concept, maybe we could have there be incentives to drive less. Maybe people could could get "green credits" like they have in this stimulus bill, but be for driving. This could encourage people, and maybe have people working as a community like the reading from Dr. Maathai encourages. That might make a friendlier way of approaching this problem? Just a thought :).
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2 comments:
I like your "green credits" thought! Incentives always seem to help... I understand why you are worried. I just want you to think of how these changes (rises in prices, new cars, etc) won't happen overnight. It's not like we're all going to wake up tomorrow to gas being $7 per gallon. In the time it takes to get to that point, I think we as a country will have found a way to adjust. If Europe can do it, so can we! Like you said, we need more research, and I am hopeful to what that research will uncover :)
Incentives will definitely help. But again, where does the money come from for the incentives: most likely taxes. That being said, that is no reason throw out a good idea like green incentives.
You are definitely right about the need for community action to get the citizens involved and feel like they are doing something to make a difference. We can't give up on policies just because we don't like paying money, but we CANNOT have the top-down policies work effectively if we don't have community does not understand it.
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