Ode to SUV's
Aug. 29th, 2003 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccojAKA, How do I hate thee, let me count the ways.
You know how there have been articles lately about a study that shows the health dangers of suburban sprawl? Basically, since sprawl results in people taking their cars everywhere because nothing is within walking distance, sprawl dwellers end up with increased rates of heart attacks, hypertension, an average of 6 lbs extra of weight, etc etc.
Well, this article is somewhat related. It's from the Des Moines Register, and I got to it after following a yahoo news link, "Cars, Trucks Now Outnumber Drivers".
By JOHN GAPS III
Register Community Publications Director
08/28/2003
Earlier this week I decided to take 35th Street to enter I-235 going east. Holy mother of pearl, am I the only one who almost got wasted by a semi-truck, hell-bent on forcing me into the concrete barrier?
Is this the way its been all this time? I don't remember the concrete coming up so fast in my entry lane. Did someone leave off a few hundred feet when figuring how much lane you get coming to you as you leave the ramp? Is this all because of a bad spreadsheet?
Whenever possible I like to blame Excel spreadsheets for all the ills of life today. Excel is the computer program that produces the lovely columns and rows where everything equals something else. It is the altar on which we place our burnt weekly offerings in business.
In the suburbs, they're trying to make their spreadsheets look more like bedsheets to Wells Fargo. Fair enough. I'm sure most of us, sooner or later, get the household budget into a working document approximating a spreadsheet.
My problem with spreadsheets is that they tell you much about cost and little about value.
The other day I was trying to make a right-hand turn onto 86th Street but couldn't move. There was a large hunk of red metal next to me called a Chevy Suburban. It wasn't big, it was enormous.
Two Geos were in orbit around the Suburban due to its strong gravitational pull. I'm not sure if it's bigger or smaller than the H2 Hummer currently trolling the streets. If you don't make much noise and spook it, you can find a Hummer grazing on Honda Civics in grocery store parking lots.
This weekend I found myself between two oversized SUVs the size of an urban dump truck. My car was backed out a full 10 feet from my parking space before I could see whether a car or child was coming my way.
I know they cost a great deal. But what are they worth? The life of the driver and passengers inside for sure. Who do you think is going to survive if someone in a tiny four-door, full-size sedan tangles with one of these super-sized monsters on the open road?
But what is the cost, really, if you're saving your own life? What is the cost of fuel? SUVs average somewhere between 9 and 15 miles-per-gallon in fuel efficiency, which is pretty awful. Gas is most certainly going to stay around $1.50. The price is $2.05 at pumps as close as in North Platte, Neb. (as of last Sunday).
So it's not surprising we're spending about $1 billion a week to keep our flag planted over those oil fields in Iraq. That's the cost, $1 billion with a 'b'. Are these big aircraft carrier-sized vehicles, dangerous to all who don't drive them, part of the decision to stay on? Or to have invaded in the first place? Is the cost of young American lives worth all-wheel-drive?
Let's apply the spreadsheet to a war casualty. To make this exercise more meaningful, picture your own child or a favored family member currently in high school, someone just an induction ceremony removed from military service..
Let's try to find the cost of a simple combat death of a U.S. soldier four months after the "official" end of hostilities. (Tough to say that with a straight face.)
So its going to cost you about $150,000 to get a kid from birth to 18 years old, a bit more if they go to Dowling.
If you have multiples its simply cheaper, because the oldest gets spoiled with all new stuff and the youngest gets a new car because the parents are earning more by the time the kid goes to high school. (Yes, I'm a middle child).
Add to the $150,000 some taxpayer-sponsored military training, personal possessions, funeral costs and gold fillings. We're still somewhere under a quarter million. But lets say $250,000 a death. About the price of a nice, but not too nice, house in Clive, three-car garage included.
I'm not a cynic here, because a cynic is a person who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. So throw in the lives. The pain of families, friends, teachers, schoolmates. What is the cost of raising someone into adulthood and having their wonderful flame snuffed out by a lunatic with a grenade in Iraq?
I find it difficult to put those numbers on a spreadsheet.
I'm just wondering if the cost of 10 miles-per-gallon doesn't have some influence on why we're willing to accept the mounting death toll.
You know how there have been articles lately about a study that shows the health dangers of suburban sprawl? Basically, since sprawl results in people taking their cars everywhere because nothing is within walking distance, sprawl dwellers end up with increased rates of heart attacks, hypertension, an average of 6 lbs extra of weight, etc etc.
Well, this article is somewhat related. It's from the Des Moines Register, and I got to it after following a yahoo news link, "Cars, Trucks Now Outnumber Drivers".
By JOHN GAPS III
Register Community Publications Director
08/28/2003
Earlier this week I decided to take 35th Street to enter I-235 going east. Holy mother of pearl, am I the only one who almost got wasted by a semi-truck, hell-bent on forcing me into the concrete barrier?
Is this the way its been all this time? I don't remember the concrete coming up so fast in my entry lane. Did someone leave off a few hundred feet when figuring how much lane you get coming to you as you leave the ramp? Is this all because of a bad spreadsheet?
Whenever possible I like to blame Excel spreadsheets for all the ills of life today. Excel is the computer program that produces the lovely columns and rows where everything equals something else. It is the altar on which we place our burnt weekly offerings in business.
In the suburbs, they're trying to make their spreadsheets look more like bedsheets to Wells Fargo. Fair enough. I'm sure most of us, sooner or later, get the household budget into a working document approximating a spreadsheet.
My problem with spreadsheets is that they tell you much about cost and little about value.
The other day I was trying to make a right-hand turn onto 86th Street but couldn't move. There was a large hunk of red metal next to me called a Chevy Suburban. It wasn't big, it was enormous.
Two Geos were in orbit around the Suburban due to its strong gravitational pull. I'm not sure if it's bigger or smaller than the H2 Hummer currently trolling the streets. If you don't make much noise and spook it, you can find a Hummer grazing on Honda Civics in grocery store parking lots.
This weekend I found myself between two oversized SUVs the size of an urban dump truck. My car was backed out a full 10 feet from my parking space before I could see whether a car or child was coming my way.
I know they cost a great deal. But what are they worth? The life of the driver and passengers inside for sure. Who do you think is going to survive if someone in a tiny four-door, full-size sedan tangles with one of these super-sized monsters on the open road?
But what is the cost, really, if you're saving your own life? What is the cost of fuel? SUVs average somewhere between 9 and 15 miles-per-gallon in fuel efficiency, which is pretty awful. Gas is most certainly going to stay around $1.50. The price is $2.05 at pumps as close as in North Platte, Neb. (as of last Sunday).
So it's not surprising we're spending about $1 billion a week to keep our flag planted over those oil fields in Iraq. That's the cost, $1 billion with a 'b'. Are these big aircraft carrier-sized vehicles, dangerous to all who don't drive them, part of the decision to stay on? Or to have invaded in the first place? Is the cost of young American lives worth all-wheel-drive?
Let's apply the spreadsheet to a war casualty. To make this exercise more meaningful, picture your own child or a favored family member currently in high school, someone just an induction ceremony removed from military service..
Let's try to find the cost of a simple combat death of a U.S. soldier four months after the "official" end of hostilities. (Tough to say that with a straight face.)
So its going to cost you about $150,000 to get a kid from birth to 18 years old, a bit more if they go to Dowling.
If you have multiples its simply cheaper, because the oldest gets spoiled with all new stuff and the youngest gets a new car because the parents are earning more by the time the kid goes to high school. (Yes, I'm a middle child).
Add to the $150,000 some taxpayer-sponsored military training, personal possessions, funeral costs and gold fillings. We're still somewhere under a quarter million. But lets say $250,000 a death. About the price of a nice, but not too nice, house in Clive, three-car garage included.
I'm not a cynic here, because a cynic is a person who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. So throw in the lives. The pain of families, friends, teachers, schoolmates. What is the cost of raising someone into adulthood and having their wonderful flame snuffed out by a lunatic with a grenade in Iraq?
I find it difficult to put those numbers on a spreadsheet.
I'm just wondering if the cost of 10 miles-per-gallon doesn't have some influence on why we're willing to accept the mounting death toll.
