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Gear
 Did
you ever buy one of those fax/printer/scanner
doo-hickeys? Remember what happened when one
of its three functions quit working? Yes, you
junked it or set it aside because it's not
designed to be repaired. Unfortunately for
this poor planet just about every consumer
good we manufacture, particularly the electronic
ones, suffer the same fate, and most often
they go into landfills which, as we're now
learning, isn't an answer. There is no 'away'
anymore.
Cars are the worst offenders in this regard,
and what's worse is that we'll discard them
simply because they're no longer "new".
Just look around. How many 20 to 25-year-old
cars do you see on the road? The main problem,
as I see it, is that automakers simply stop
making parts for older cars after so many years.
(Your 1975 Fairmont may be perfectly reasonable
transportation but just try and find a replacement
z-bar for the 200ci L6.)
Secondarily, some cars are designed so badly
it's just not economical to repair them. Let
me tell you about the automatic transmissions
in the mid-90s Ford Taurus...
Or maybe not.
I
just
ate.
What this all means is that the driving public
essentially re-equips itself with an entire
new fleet of vehicles every ten years, and
that's a heavy burden on this planet's ever-shrinking
natural resources.
There is a two-fold answer. The first is a
car designed specifically to be repaired or
updated indefinitely. I think in terms of the
simplicity and utility of the old VW Rabbit
but one which is propelled by an electric motor,
powered by a small reciprocating gas engine.
(The new Chevy Volt uses this system.) By making
the gas engine modular it can be replaced when
the time comes, inevitably by more efficient
technology. An electric engine also means no
transmission or, if front-mounted, no driveshaft,
either.
The dash, instead of being embalmed in swoopy
swaths of plastic, should be designed to fold
out, allowing easy access to wiring and the
heating/cooling system. This is just common
sense stuff.
The second part of the answer is the hard part,
and that's convincing a driving public to stop
regarding the car as an extension of its respective
egos. It's a CAR, people. You might think you're
a pretty hot kumquat in your red convertible
Pacific Rim-mobile, but so do the other 50,000
guys
driving the very exact same car. Frankly, no
one cares. (A red, convertible Ferrari is another
matter, though.)
So how do you get Americans to buy a car that's
strictly utilitarian? My solution is to stamp
each car prominently with the year of its manufacture
on, say, the rear panel. This will have the
effect of celebrating the cars age, especially
a line of cars whose body style seldom changes.
People will begin to take pride in owning their
car for many, many years. It's like that little
gauge in some cars that indicates your
current
mileage. It makes some drivers want to drive
as efficiently as possible.
I also imagine owners applying their own sense
of style to their cars, using them as tabula
rasa to make art on wheels. Did you ever see
a Phillipine tuk-tuk?
Yes, the auto companies will inevitably make
fewer cars under this scheme, but that's the
whole point. We'll always need cars in this
country but let's have access to at least one
that we can wear out and rebuild, not just
abuse
and
junk.
=Lefty=
------------
 February
10, 2011: "We're going to have a relentless focus on creating jobs." -
John Boehner.
So far the list of Republican accomplishments for 2011 is:
(1) Attempted curtailing of abortion rights.
(2) Attempted defunding of Planned Parenthood.
(3) Attempted defunding of NPR.
(4) Investigating Muslims.
(5) Declaring English as America's Official Language.
(6) Reaffirming "In God We Trust".
(7) Challenging AARP's tax-exempt status.
(8) Approved defunct funding for failed
religious schools.
Nope. No job creation here. Move along. Move along.
------------
 And
what lies is Fox News spewing lately? They couldn't wait to crow over
NBC's lack of reporting on parent company GE's zero tax payments in
2010...
except
NBC had.
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