24. BICYCLES: This may sound stupid, but with the price of gas, you will soon find
your having to go to work on a bicycle, you have seen
millions of Chinese going around their cities on
bicycles. Now, we are going to be riding bikes (to collect our unemployment
checks) while the Chinese are driving to work.
So this is more or less in jest. Of course “motorized bikes”.
However most bicycles are made in China anyway, so you will be
improving the “Chinese economy” when you buy your bicycle.
Of course the very rich, and the “politicians” will still be
driving cars,
(which your taxes are paying for), but you won’t be driving anymore. You never
thought you’d be paying $5/gal for gas either did you? Well! Just wait, it’s
going to get worse, in 1971 I was paying 18 cents a pound for Hamburger, now I
see hamburger for as much as $2.79 a pound, Oh! And of course that hamburger is
now in a fancy container. Big deal. Get your meat and antibiotics now in one
package.
Before WW II, most
neighborhoods had local grocery stores, within a few blocks walk from the
average residence, then came the super markets, not within walking distance for
many citizens. This now requires a car to go shopping. Many children had “after
school jobs” to deliver groceries to local homes of the elderly? I know! I did
that myself when I was 13 to 15. Now no supermarket delivers to local homes.
Some have tried this technique, but unsuccessful. Some small American cities
still cater to the local citizens, but those are few and far between. As our
cities became larger and larger, just shopping for groceries and other personal
needs requires us to having a car.
We no longer work within
walking distance, and extreme weather either summer or winter require us to
have some transportation to get to work. As homes were built after 1946 outside
of downtown area, citizens needed to drive to the jobs in the inner-city.
Remember the films we saw in
the 1950’s, bragging about our new cities, with homes in the suburb? How great
this new system was. Now, How dare we drive to work? Streetcars were removed,
tracks torn up, now we use buses, Trackless Trolleys gone, all diesel powered
buses, improved transportation in our smog covered cities.
Now we are chided for using
gasoline, as though we are criminals, how dare we need transportation, when our
government system applauded the new bedroom communities, not considering
transportation needs in the future. Now we have to decide how we can survive
for the future.
The government now says you don’t really need your own personal
car anymore, that if there is a natural disaster, the government will come to
evacuate you (but not your pets) to a safe area, as they did in New Orleans
in 2005, with hurricane Katrina, so you don’t need to drive yourself to
safety, just drown like rats.
While the Mayor of New
Orleans let some 280 school buses set, and be flooded under 12’ of water,
totally destroyed buses.
Of course we have not discussed why New Orleans neighboring communities did not want “those” people escaping to their neighborhoods. WHY? Reread # 23 for that.