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I see your point, but I can assure you that at no time did I ever feel that by buying an SUV that I was abusing my fellow man. Had I felt that, I may have made another choice.
Look, you cant make giant sweeping statements like that and leave it so ambiguous.
It sounds like there are three main points in your argument (sorry if I am reading too much into it).
Environmental, safety on the road, and the upkeep of the roads and infrastructure. Hmmmm, lets look at those.
Environmental. You have a valid point there. However, as what was noted before, there are a lot of other factors. I have many friends that drive over an hour to work (or to the river), so that they can make a higher wage in the city and live in the suburbs where the cost of living is much lower. They, many of them, drive older cars and vans that may get slightly better mileage than an SUV, but the emissions are horrendous. Take a 1992 Ford F150 and set it next to a 2006 Chevy Tahoe and watch who is destroying our environment quicker. Which is worse? Which is giving a big up yours to mother earth? They are making a decision, to live farther away to serve themselves financially, yet at the expense of the environment. One is no better than the other, neither is perfect. For most large families, there are only a select few other options to a SUV, non of which give appreciable less impact on the environment. My wife carpools kids to school every day, she needs room for 6 kids, every day. She drives a suburban (that is California emissions certified as a clean engine) that gets 16mpg, and she drives it less than 7k miles a year. Whats a better solution for the environment? Buy a smaller car and make three trips?
Safety. SUVs are inherently safer for the occupants, and at the same time less safe for those around them. I cant fault somebody for wanting to put the largest shield around their children that they can. Its a valid point though.
Tearing up the streets. Maybe, the heavier the car the more it tears up, but at the same time the SUV owner pays much more into the system due to having to buy more gas. Kind of a wash, by design.
All of that is overly simplified, and there is a lot more to each argument, but still.
Of all the people in this country that have a giant finger up saying fuck the world, I would argue that a typical SUV owner aint that typical. For better or worse, I think most of them simply think nothing of it. Not anything, at all. Its not on their radar.
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