There’s always a choice
Posted by Jess on April 29th, 2008 filed in UncategorizedI don’t understand this moral outrage people feel about the rising cost of gas. The Declaration of Independence does not say we have the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and cheap gas. That’s not the way it works. That’s not the way capitalism works.
I’ll admit that I might be biased. I sold my car when I moved to Chicago, and now that I’m in D.C. I frequently look around at gridlock and giggle to myself. Yeah, my commute to work is an hour and a half each way, but I’ve read 32 books this year and usually arrive to work calm and not ranting about the idiots on 270.
I’m not going to argue about whether or not OPEC is a cartel, or debate the role the war in Iraq is playing in gas prices in the U.S., but I think there comes a time when you have to take some responsibility. If you live in a city like Chicago, New York, D.C., or San Francisco and you don’t take public transportation at least one day a week, you have no right to complain. You’re the reason why more cities don’t have public transit systems.
April 30th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I am ashamed to say that I am part of the problem. I got my license 2 years ago now, and I do not regret it. San Diego has a TERRIBLE public transit system; I made this decision when my 35-minute, 3 mile one way commute was going to get extended to 60-90 minutes one way. I could walk there and back in that time, and it wasn’t worth the time expended for a part time job. In those two years, I’ve driven less than 5000 miles, but saved so many hours in hassle.
Learning to drive opened a lot of doors for me. If I lived in Chicago, I would still not be driving.