NY Cigarette Tax to jump $1.60 more.

[quote name='Knoell']Yep now I am a bigot of muslims, american indians, and african americans. Care to add anyone else? It seems I am a bigot at every point in which you disagree with me. How convienent.[/QUOTE]

People who only use mechanical pencils.

Though I do hope there was some sarcasm in saying that most of the natives have it good and were given quite a bit. Sure, any res where there's a casino will be doing fairly well and they have a decent amount of wealth redistribution and programs for those that need them within the community. If you're out in the middle of nowhere with land that's barely useable for farming or anything else with no real source of income, your on a shite reservation and don't have it all that great.
Here's an analogy, the entire US is a reservation. The Idaho tribe does well because they have good land for farming and enough of a population center nearby that they can put up the 100's of millions that it takes to build a casino that will eventually turn a profit. The Mississippi tribe has no such casino and the land isn't all that great for crops, therefore the residents on the res suffer, and greatly at that.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']A.) People don't need cars. It makes your life easier, yes. However, the human race survived a couple of years before cars were invented just fine.

B.) Auto emissions may be regulated, but let's take the emissions from all the vehicles in the US for one year and pit them against all the emissions from cigarettes in the US for one year. Now, I'm just guessing, but one of those stacks is going to be far bigger and much more dangerous than the other.[/QUOTE]
You either don't or can't read, I don't know which. For MODERN LIFE we need transportation, at least in this country where people live an hour away from work. This country was built around the automobile, good luck reversing that.

The fact that you even want to argue that we don't need automobiles is ridiculous.
 
Needs vs. wants.

We all make choices in life. If you choose to work at a job that is an hour away vs. getting a job that's closer or moving closer (walking, biking, etc. distance) to your job, that's a choice you have made.

There are over 15 million Americans who make by without owning a car. I suppose they're just all fringe people who hide away in a cabin in the mountains though...
 
You do know about public transportation, right? Just because they don't drive themselves doesn't mean they aren't being transported by an automobile. And living within walking distance of work isn't feasible. Most major cities were designed around the automobile, this isn't just my opinion. On the other hand, those socialist Europeans generally do live closer to work because many of their cities weren't built around the automobile.

Ian McKellan once said he didn't own a car because he didn't need one, he could walk everywhere. That's fine in London, but try walking from the suburbs to a major city for work every day. But then, I guess you live next to the Wal-Mart too.

For modern life in America, most people need cars.
 
[quote name='Clak']You do know about public transportation, right? Just because they don't drive themselves doesn't mean they aren't being transported by an automobile. And living within walking distance of work isn't feasible. Most major cities were designed around the automobile, this isn't just my opinion. On the other hand, those socialist Europeans generally do live closer to work because many of their cities weren't built around the automobile.

Ian McKellan once said he didn't own a car because he didn't need one, he could walk everywhere. That's fine in London, but try walking from the suburbs to a major city for work every day. But then, I guess you live next to the Wal-Mart too.

For modern life in America, most people need cars.[/QUOTE]

From my front door, to my car, to the WM parking lot, to the time clock, it takes six minutes. It would take a bit longer by bike and quite a bit longer by foot (and yes, I've waked to work before... I've said for awhile that I'd like to get a bike to take to work, but 'meh. I'm still American, after all.).

Again, what do you *NEED* in life that you don't believe you can get without an automobile? Hell, ride a frickin' horse. There's an Amish community fairly close by that seems to get along pretty well without cars.
 
I came from a town that was 20 miles away from any stores. The only businesses were for replacing tires and fixing farm equipment. There was no public transportation in my town and the average temperature during the summer is around 100 degrees. The reason people were still there was because there was extremely low cost housing and farm jobs. So would we need a car? Especially the older folk who are more susceptible to heat stroke? And there were no Amish communities for horses.
 
[quote name='cindersphere']I came from a town that was 20 miles away from any stores. The only businesses were for replacing tires and fixing farm equipment. There was no public transportation in my town and the average temperature during the summer is around 100 degrees. The reason people were still there was because there was extremely low cost housing and farm jobs. So would we need a car? Especially the older folk who are more susceptible to heat stroke? And there were no Amish communities for horses.[/QUOTE]

These people made a choice to move to this location where they put themselves in a situation that they "need" a car. Every single one of those people could have made the choice to move to the town 20 miles away with the stores and businesses they want.

If I choose to start smoking cigarettes and my body gets addicted to the nicotine, I can still quit at any time - even if it means my life will be harder.

If I choose to move into a community that doesn't have the resources I need to make my life easy (i.e.: not having to grow my own food, hunt my own meat, cut my own timber, etc.), that's a decision I make and I can move at any time...
 
So what if it wasn't their choice. Say they moved to a nice town with stores and amenities and these places closed due to changing economic reasons, and those left were too old/poor to move?

Nice false equivalency though. The need for a job is exactly the same as the need to smoke.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']From my front door, to my car, to the WM parking lot, to the time clock, it takes six minutes. It would take a bit longer by bike and quite a bit longer by foot (and yes, I've waked to work before... I've said for awhile that I'd like to get a bike to take to work, but 'meh. I'm still American, after all.).

Again, what do you *NEED* in life that you don't believe you can get without an automobile? Hell, ride a frickin' horse. There's an Amish community fairly close by that seems to get along pretty well without cars.[/QUOTE]

I like how you take your personal anecdotal experience and assume it applies to everyone.

I've never seen your thought process so transparently laid bare.
 
[quote name='camoor']I like how you take your personal anecdotal experience and assume it applies to everyone.

I've never seen your thought process so transparently laid bare.[/QUOTE]

If you would have been paying attention to the flow of the thread, you would have seen Clak inquired about my own personal experience. It's weird how conversations usually have more than one person. It helps if you try to follow everyone in the conversation if you want to be a part of it.
 
Actually I can believe that, not because I know you, but because there are so many Wal-Marts across the country, I doubt many people live more than 30 minutes from one. So you're lucky in that your employer has so many locations, but most do not.

If i worked at AT&T it would require me to drive to downtown Nashville. To live nearby would cost more than living in the burbs where I do, so to be able to walk I'd have to pay higher rent/mortgage just for the opportunity to walk to work. Of course living downtown probably means in an apartment, some people want an actual yard to be able to play with their kids and have gatherings, you won't get that in a high rise downtown. Yet there are some jobs that just aren't plentiful in suburbs., so either you sacrifice your ability to spend time outdoors in your yard and live downtown in an apartment, or you drive in.

In theory you are right, I'm not arguing that, but in practical terms, cars are necessary to most people's lives. We aren't even considering how you'd visit family without transportation, not everyone lives near their families.
 
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