tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9279394.post7892136022265598370..comments2023-10-06T08:53:14.731-04:00Comments on Eternal vigilance: California's middle-class car cultureRicketsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02579799843541826447noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9279394.post-12516297782854990112012-10-05T04:36:33.543-04:002012-10-05T04:36:33.543-04:00Actually when I devote any thought to Cali, the fi...Actually when I devote any thought to Cali, the first thing that comes to my mind is the Political economy of Water, not the automobile. Southern Cali, naturally, is a desert. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9279394.post-21747185254008366122012-10-03T20:58:29.242-04:002012-10-03T20:58:29.242-04:00funny...
Driving Without Insurance = DWI = Drivin...funny... <br />Driving Without Insurance = DWI = Driving While Intoxicated<br /><br />I suppose that this would penalize people who let their insurance lapse even if they still drove... and also people who gave up driving temporarily.<br /><br />" For me, the selective social exclusion implicit in car culture is reason enough to want to kill it, but you, of course, will want to frame it in market terms."<br /><br />That's basically what I also dislike about cities that require cars (and the consequent economic and environmental costs). As a cultural issue, it's something that I would like to change regardless of "markets"... the markets are just for setting prices on economic products.<br /><br />But still, I don't think that the state should be picking winners in either economics or culture. But I will be more vocal in opposing state support of bad culture than state support of good culture... and car culture is bad culture.<br /><br />Ricketsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02579799843541826447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9279394.post-5529948045907819892012-10-03T20:31:43.141-04:002012-10-03T20:31:43.141-04:00When I first read your statement of a provision of...When I first read your statement of a provision of the proposition—<i>"This proposition changes the rules regarding auto-insurance fees, by allowing companies to consider a new customer's history of coverage when setting rates."</i> I assumed this was a reference to penalizing DUI (driving without insurance) offenders by assigning them to the lucrative "high risk pool," one of the features of the poor-tax that I've been burned by here in Michigan. But when I got to your punch line: <i>"So yeah, this is just a way to milk adults who give up driving for one reason or another,"</i> the true horror of it sank in. For me, the selective social exclusion implicit in car culture is reason enough to want to kill it, but you, of course, will want to frame it in market terms. I suggest the angle that a competitive market is characterized by low entry and exit costs. People too often overlook the latter. It appears the insurance shills want to impose heavy exit costs on the automotive lifestyle. I wrote about entry/exit costs of car-use at some length several years ago, <a href="http://n8chz.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-for-mitten-to-bite-hand-its-time.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. The situation is bad as it is, but this is beyond the pale.Lorrainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567383019731167967noreply@blogger.com