KMO wrote:
Tad wrote, "In fact it is a BAD analogy, which Nateman addresses in theAmtrack is a government organization. Is it any wonder trains are whithering away? If the government had stayed out of the picture they'd still be around. Cars are the markets way of getting around government tinkering.
very next sentences:"No, it is a good analogy, but this is a subjective evaluation on my part
and certainly not a "fact." Brett was able to see the relevant
parallel. Check out his post on the topic.As to Nate's criticism that went something like, "Recreational Heroin
does not help one deal with reality but rather to deny
it. (Taken for severe pain it is another matter). Cars however do help
one
to deal better with reality. Travel across a continent is possible in
only a
handfull of days with cars (not to mention the bounties aquired in trade
for
those who don't even drive).Heroin's only destination however is the
grave."Hmmm.... So Nate is claiming that a gradual whithering of our nation's
transportation infrastructure that leaves us dependent on automobiles
for trips that people in other countries would make by train constitutes
a healthy dependence while heroine addiction is a one-way express ticket
to the grave?
My response to that is to invite Nate and everyone elseSpeed kills no doubt. But so does poverty. You can see a dead guy by the side of the road but how does one figure out the lives extended due to the increase in productivty cars have produced? Perhaps comparing the life expectency in a country with only a tiny fraction of cars. Not the best evidence because of all the other factors but at least a good benchmark.The Nateman
to do a little checking into the available and relavant statistics and
compare the number of heroine-related deaths to the number of
traffic-related deaths in any given year. (And, no, Tad, I do not have
the figures at my finger tips.) You may claim that traffic fatalities so
vastly overshadow heroine related fatalities becasue so few people use
heroine whereas virtually EVERYONE interacts with cars on a daily
basis.