Re: Global Warming - I love that it's finally getting attention

I believe in the laws of economics. While they involve the behaviors
of people, the axiom of "what a prudent person would do" has as an
underlying assumption which is "in the absence of an agenda". I use
this test whenever the question of "will they or won't they?" comes
up. But since it specifically ignores the issue of agenda, it is a
blunt tool.

The Prius is a counter-example of this, or better, soci-economics: When
I had it, I don't know how many times I stood across from someone at
the gas pump, who had a perfectly servicable paid-off vehicle say "I
gotta get me one of those" even though for most it made absolutely no
economic sense to get into a $300-500 a month car payment to combat
filling up the tank cost of $50-70 (once you factor in other things,
like new car insurance rates, etc). I'm not making the arguement
against a Prius being a good economic choice, but only if you're in the
market for a car.

Instantaneous price pressures are more difficult for American's to
fight off than than those that are spread-out; as a society we're not
trained to do long-term economic cost analysis: modern cloth diapers are
another good example -- you pay $200-500 up front costs to get started,
and that will diaper pretty much all your kiddos... if you go nutz on
the high end dipes, you can go $1,000-2,000 or more quite easily. But
again, it takes care of all your kiddos (and has a high resale value -
50-80%). Disposables will run you $1,000-2,000 per kiddo. But it's easier for most to stomache because it only costs you $20-40 a week (assuming
non-multiple births) tacked on to your grocery bill, so it's really
hard to discern the true cost. Or inkjet cartridges <shudder> to
fill that "comes free with your new 'puter" printer. Free as in
teenager-eating-you-out-of-the-house free. Much better off with a
laserwriter. I've had $40 laserwriter cartriges last me YEARS.

I had a good friend with me in the car and he was disucssing getting
rid of his almost-paid-off vehicle for a Prius in a desire to be more
green AND save more green. It got decent mileage (so 18-25mpg) I told
him he'd be better off paying off his current vehicle, continue saving
the monthly payment to create a downpayment and seeing what comes from
Toyota in '09 / '10 to compete with the Chevy Volt.

It could be argued that the people that use disposable diapers, buy cars when they're not economically a sound choice and feed their inkjets do not fall under the category 'prudent', and I would agree. Sadly though, they do fall under the category of 'Average American' and by 'Average' I really mean 'most'.