Funmurphys: the Blog

Enforced Virtue

I used to feel strange driving a car. As opposed to a minivan or SUV, that is. Back when I used to do my parental duty and take the Fruit of the Murphy Loins to functions for children, I often had the only car on the lot. And it didn't matter how green or blue the drivers were. Since then I've noticed that typically a person's politics don't have much impact on the kind of car they drive. People who complain about sending American jobs overseas have no trouble driving a foreign car; people who warn me about global warming and green house gases have no trouble driving some giant SUV; ardent free traders who loathe unions will only buy American cars.

I am not trying to call hypocrite here because it's way overused and I don't think it's accurate in this case. The point is a lot of factors go into the decision of what kind of vehicle to drive, and as with all parts of life, we have to make comprises and balance competing priorities. That's life. And that's why I support free markets in general - they allow the people living with the consequences to be the ones making the decisions.

But in light of the whole CAFE standards issue, more relevant than ever, I have to note while the politics don't seem to play a large role in what kind of car people drive, it does play a large role in support for CAFE standards. I'm against them, for the simple reason if people prefered gas milage over other features, then we'd be driving high gas milage vehicles. The CAFE standard is based on the illusion that we can all drive vehicles that get better gas milage all other things being equal. They aren't - there are always tradeoffs. The reason I don't support increasing CAFE standards isn't because I don't support increased gas milage in the abstract, it's because I know it comes at a price, and a price people aren't willing to pay.