I listened to the episode, and its genuinly horrifying how big auto’s pushing of bigger and bigger cars just keeps killing, and the majority of people seem to go “eh, thats just the way it is”
Yet we Americans are terrified of gun violence. Shitting our pants, shitting out useless laws. About the same number of people are killed each year by vehicles (fluctuates a bit). Where’s the outrage? Where are the calls for “common sense” legislation? The contrast is interesting.
But here’s the rub, I can stay away from dangerous people, situations and areas. I can also choose not to blow my brains out (that’s always near half of gun deaths).
But I don’t have much choice but to travel by vehicle. Or walk around. (Dear friend was just killed crossing the street.) Had a few people I know die from car wrecks, or damned close, including myself. How many people you know been shot? I don’t know one. Yes, that’s anecdotal, but I’d guess our collective experience is much the same.
It’s the randomness that people fear. Justifiably! I get it.
How about sitting in my living room? Or bedroom? Poor guy at the end of the block has had TWO vehicles in his living room! How many pics have we seen of cars crashing into homes? So many that they barely make the news. (You can say the same about bullets!) Talk about random death coming at you! Yet we never talk about the vehicle “arms race”.
“Guns shouldn’t be an accepted part of life!”
Aight. Neither should vehicular death.
“No one should have an assault weapon!”
Aight. No one should be driving a SUV tank.
And please, let’s dial in the, “I HAVE to have a vehicle/gun.” I can argue both all night, and I can argue BOTH sides. I can also argue “perfect world” scenarios. Neither are interesting nor new topics. We’re not going to make either illegal, so what now? Hell of a question.
I literally need a bigger vehicle to protect me from the other assholes with big vehicles.
Road designs are horrible, and everyone wants to buy hummer-sized SUVs and Trucks. What do you expect?
Bigger cars are more profitable. Small cars are not.
The average full size suv buying price is 80K. the average car buying price is like 30K.
this is also the same reason new starter homes are like 3000 sq ft today. and one from 30 years ago were 2000 sq ft.
the cost to produce a huge suv is not much more than it is to produce a small car, but the suv is commands 2-3x the price of the small car.
