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Originally Posted by UtahBill  Back in the 70's Congress mandated reduced emissions on cars sold in the USA, and it took a few decades but we made some real progress in that arena, and gained some great improvements in mileage and performance as well. |
Yes but then Reagan came to power and rampant conservative fuelled pro business policies came into effect.. policies that did not help the average American one bit. I read not long ago that the US had until very recently the same average mile per gallon as it had in 1980. That's not improving things frankly. And that's why a European car on average travels almost double the distance of an American car, and that's why Ford is IMPORTING European made cars to the US, to meet the demand of fuel efficient cars.
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IF CONGRESS HAD ONLY mandated more energy efficency in our buildings at the same time, we might not be in the jam we are now.
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I agree, and even us in Europe did not mandate energy efficiency in housing until recently, but funny enough, here, the power of the market actually helped in Europe. Consumers drove a revolution in energy efficiency in housing all on their own often, and its only recently (last decade) that governments and companies have got on the band wagon. Example.. today its mandatory that all new houses in Spain come with solar collectors to heat hot water. Next step in the south of the country I bet is to get solar collectors on all new houses to provide electricity... its not like we have many clouds here
However saying that, certain things that have been implemented have been frankly stupid. Take sorting our trash, and lowering the amount of times its emptied. Sorting is fine, if the companies then just dont go dumping it in the same place and dont recycle.. which is what quite a few do.
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My wife and I built an energy efficient home for our retirement years. Our new neighbors just up the hill are building homes with multiple Air Conditioning units to compensate for poor structure orientation, too many east and west facing windows, etc. They are now paying big utility bills and complaining about it.
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hihihihi on your neighbours and I know what you mean. When I lived in Denmark, one of our neighbours was a local tv/electronic chain mogul, who built a house that had glass on one side facing the lake we lived by... and during the autumn, and winter... lets just say, the wind usually came from the lake, and it was not warm air
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We in the U.S. are a nation of unwise consumers, and we have tons of debt to prove it.
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All consumers are "unwise" regardless of country so dont be too hard on Americans. They all lack the knowledge (on average) to make the correct decision, and that's why the free market fails time and time again and regulation is needed. And it of course does not help when the other part in the equation, the "companies" selling us stuff are motivated by more and more profit (which is their right) and not motivated one bit with what is good for society. Hence regulation up to a point is good, regardless what rabid right wingers claim. Without regulation we would still have children in coal mines, slavery and mass pollution... since that's the cheapest way of doing things.... look at China and India.
As for your tons of debt.. that's all your own doing. American's have on average over double the amount of short term non collateral debt of Brits, who are by far the worst debters in Europe. Again the hardships of the oil crisis of the 70s and 80s, on top of the hardships after WW2 have had their impact on European life.
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