Mossback Sneers At Preposterous Idea Of Not Driving Cars As Much As Possible

Here's the set-up: Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute, the Real Change Bus Chick, and the Petersons over on the Eastside have riled up the Seattle Weekly's Knute Berger. According to Berger (and if you're used to any semblance of logical consistency, grab a handrail and hold on), the problem with not having a car, or using one less, is that you become a moocher.

Yes, mooching, because while the Durnings don't have their own car, they're not above begging some rides from friends and associates who do. Which is a little like saying you've quit smoking because you're no longer buying cigarettes, merely bumming other people's.

Note to Berger: Not to invalidate your perspective, but to add to it, if people like you, they call it sharing, not mooching. Secondly, if you're going to use the smoking analogy, your point is what? Everyone should keep smoking as much as possible and pay full freight?

Conversely, some economists might call the unused portion of a car's life "dead capital," which sharing partly frees up, in the form of full tanks of gas and deepened social bonds between friends and neighbors. A gift economy can create capital from excess utility, but perhaps this is a bad idea. Maybe we should stuff kids into the driver's seat earlier, so they don't get in the habit of mooching rides from parents. That's probably where it comes from.

Modern life is full and complex. To some extent, we're experiencing the local version of globalization. We might say we want urban villages, but we're also consumers who demand choice and customization. Being satisfied with what's down the block isn't always going to cut it.

You have to wonder what is down Berger's block and why he chose to live there. How unspeakably fiendish that everything he wants to get to is exactly a car trip away. Every damn time! We know we consider it a pure miracle that, living in the urban density of Capitol Hill, everything we need is within walking distance.