juliusaugustus
4th February 2013, 08:07
While many Americans do consider the automobile an expression of freedom I consider it opposite I consider the automobile the ultimate expression of corporate and state tyranny. Let me begin with some history
Woodrow Wilson The Take Over begins
Woodrow Wilson also signed the federal aid road act of 1916 which promoted the "Good Roads program". This program originally designed for bicycle users and farmers but this program was co-opted by the auto and oil interests. ICC regulation increased under Woodrow Wilson and this in turn greatly crippled american railroads for years with fixed rates and routes had to be discontinued on the basis of whether the ICC would approve or not and often the ICC would not allow the discontinuation of routes. At the same time the new regulations encouraged consolidation. Beyond the Wilson Administration railroads also had various other regulations which held them back. Railroads also being private entities had to pay taxes on property and these taxes would often go to airport and road building. Competing modes of transport only paid taxes for usage of transportation
Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co
This case ruled that segregated usage was legal and this in turn is the main cause of urban sprawl. Separated usage forces an increase in the size of cities.
Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
Utilities were forced to sell off federally unregulated assets or any transportation related business. Streetcar systems already having to pave city streets thus indirectly subsidizing car and bus usage. Streetcar system paid property taxes on their tracks while bus and car users had no such costs. The public utility holding company act really was the last nail in the coffin for urban railroads. The result of the Act created the national city lines bus cartel.
Roosevelt
With an economy destroyed by the engineered boom and busts of the great depression the US could be redesigned in a way preferable to rich elites. The FHA was created to encourage suburbanization. The WPA was created as economic "stimulus". Roads were built in huge quantity. 1938-1944 several road aid acts were passed for the creation of roads.
Eisenhower
The secretary of defense who pushed for the interstate highway system was a former CEO of general motors and even said himself "because for the longest time I though what was for America was good for general motors and vice versa". This quote is often misquoted but the point remains he was an agent of automobile interests. The interstates discouraged the growth and electrification of railways in the US.
While many try to claim that rich elites are trying to move us into cities to control the exact opposite is true. Simply put with auto-dependence to many large corporations have too much gain by its mere existence. Bankers love the mandatory insurance, the housing loans, and the auto loans. Real estate developers love the subsidies they get. The oil, tar, tire, cement, and auto-mobile industries love it for very obvious reasons. The military industrial complex benefits from having to fight wars to defend the system. The question society has to ask is how much enough how much never ending urban sprawl with is enough? How much pollution is enough? How much time spent in traffic is enough? How much of giving an ever increasing amount of your income to the automobile is enough? An unsustainable system tied to a monetary system of exponential growth the result will be one thing and that is a destroyed environment. I say 100 years worth of nonsense is enough.
Woodrow Wilson The Take Over begins
Woodrow Wilson also signed the federal aid road act of 1916 which promoted the "Good Roads program". This program originally designed for bicycle users and farmers but this program was co-opted by the auto and oil interests. ICC regulation increased under Woodrow Wilson and this in turn greatly crippled american railroads for years with fixed rates and routes had to be discontinued on the basis of whether the ICC would approve or not and often the ICC would not allow the discontinuation of routes. At the same time the new regulations encouraged consolidation. Beyond the Wilson Administration railroads also had various other regulations which held them back. Railroads also being private entities had to pay taxes on property and these taxes would often go to airport and road building. Competing modes of transport only paid taxes for usage of transportation
Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co
This case ruled that segregated usage was legal and this in turn is the main cause of urban sprawl. Separated usage forces an increase in the size of cities.
Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
Utilities were forced to sell off federally unregulated assets or any transportation related business. Streetcar systems already having to pave city streets thus indirectly subsidizing car and bus usage. Streetcar system paid property taxes on their tracks while bus and car users had no such costs. The public utility holding company act really was the last nail in the coffin for urban railroads. The result of the Act created the national city lines bus cartel.
Roosevelt
With an economy destroyed by the engineered boom and busts of the great depression the US could be redesigned in a way preferable to rich elites. The FHA was created to encourage suburbanization. The WPA was created as economic "stimulus". Roads were built in huge quantity. 1938-1944 several road aid acts were passed for the creation of roads.
Eisenhower
The secretary of defense who pushed for the interstate highway system was a former CEO of general motors and even said himself "because for the longest time I though what was for America was good for general motors and vice versa". This quote is often misquoted but the point remains he was an agent of automobile interests. The interstates discouraged the growth and electrification of railways in the US.
While many try to claim that rich elites are trying to move us into cities to control the exact opposite is true. Simply put with auto-dependence to many large corporations have too much gain by its mere existence. Bankers love the mandatory insurance, the housing loans, and the auto loans. Real estate developers love the subsidies they get. The oil, tar, tire, cement, and auto-mobile industries love it for very obvious reasons. The military industrial complex benefits from having to fight wars to defend the system. The question society has to ask is how much enough how much never ending urban sprawl with is enough? How much pollution is enough? How much time spent in traffic is enough? How much of giving an ever increasing amount of your income to the automobile is enough? An unsustainable system tied to a monetary system of exponential growth the result will be one thing and that is a destroyed environment. I say 100 years worth of nonsense is enough.