Monday, August 10, 2009

Cash for crunkers

To my mind, an important program, as I could not retrieve monies from the ATM for two whole days, having jettisoned all memory of my PIN.

In other news, I watched FOX this weekend and heard a man say that fuel efficiency is bad for the environment because it makes people drive more. Now please tell me which substance is worst to abuse.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would point out that there is an observed phenomenon where making something cheaper or more efficient (and usually therefore cheaper) will result in more usage.

If I am currently paying $200/month for AC in the summer, then upgrade to a more efficient system and pay only $100/month, I'll likely turn the new system up for even more cooling than before and end up spending $150/month. In some instances this can completely negate the benefits of greater efficiency. But in general, all it does is slightly mitigate the benefits. I guess it goes without saying, but whoever that was on Fox News was an idiot.

8/10/2009 01:03:00 PM
JRB said...

Of course, you're right.

I just don't think it is a persuasive argument against fuel efficiency, in the larger scheme of things.

8/10/2009 01:18:00 PM
GroovyJ said...

That argument seems to presuppose that driving is a leisure activity. Maybe it is for some people, but for a sizeable majority it's a way of getting to and from places. These people are unlikely to drive more simply because it's cheaper. Instead, they'll likely channel their savings into something they enjoy.

10/09/2009 01:15:00 AM

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