Friday, October 24, 2014

US cannot afford any more welfare for cars

We try to document the direct and indirect subsidy for the auto-and-sprawl system on this blog and also here. One of the biggest "hidden" costs of this system is the US military. The autosprawl interests in the US use its military to maintain control of energy sources and routes -- giving more attention to high net-energy locations, such as Kirkuk, Iraq.

It costs the US taxpayer about $2M to kill one Islamic State fighter. Even if that were affordable, it will not work, as ten more join for each one killed.

This waste of money is necessary to prop up the billionaires who rely on the autosprawl system for their wealth. If the US loses control of energy prices, these billionaires will suffer huge losses.

The people of the US should stop wasting this money. They cannot influence their federal government, but they can act locally by implementing free buses in cities and towns. This policy will actually save money as all the hidden costs of cars and sprawl start to go down.