We just got home from visiting family in a neighboring (contiguous) state. Round trip, we traveled by car about 1,700 miles, and you can add another 100 miles for driving around after we arrived at our destination. It was a blessing to see our children and grandchildren again. Due to the distance involved, we do not have the opportunity to visit that often.
We travel by car in most cases. Why? We would need to travel for about 265 miles to be able to board a passenger train. The train would not depart until about 1:30 am (01:30 hours). Then, the nearest place we could debark would still be about 130 miles from our destination. So, we would have to rent a car to get there, rather than impose on family to pick us up.
Today's price to fly would be about $1,330.00 round trip. We would drive about 40 miles to the nearest airport, and we would need to travel another 40 miles by car to our destination after landing. If you factor in baggage fees, a rental car, and other miscellaneous expenses, flying would cost several hundred dollars more than driving and staying in a couple of motels. Of course, flying provides more time at the destination, and less time traveling – if you are on that kind of schedule. These days, we are not.
We drive a full-size sedan with a small 4.6 L (281 cu. in.) V-8 engine. It gets about 20 mpg (actual) locally, and about 23 to 24 mpg (estimated) on the highway. These days, you can’t buy a car like that unless it is used. It is getting older, but it is paid for. The expense to fix it when it breaks is less than making payments on a new car. With inflation running wild, lower- and middle-income people have to be careful about how they spend money … unlike certain elected officials in Washington, D.C.
So – what’s the point? The point is that this is reality - for Americans West of the Atlantic Seaboard, and even more so for people who live in areas like the Desert Southwest, the Great Basin, and the Mountain West. Further, it is a reality that people like Bernie Sanders, Chuckie Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Al Gore, and Jennifer Granholm do not understand - and do not even care about. To them, we are fly-over America … an area populated by ignorant rubes who do not know what is in their own best interest.
I beg to differ. I will go to see my grandkids as often as I can. I will drive. When gasoline gets more expensive, I will do without other things to be able to afford it.
It looks like a lot of other people are doing the same thing. I do not have a scientific count, but it looked like traffic was just as heavy as it used to be everywhere we went. Someone once said that “America is a nation on wheels.” It is clear that the Green New Deal crowd knows little about America, does not like what they do know, and wants to force all of us to become what they want us to be. All I can say is NO.
It is clear that the Biden Administration and the other Green New Dealers in Washington are trying to force the American driving public to convert to electric cars.[1] In my opinion, electric vehicles (EV’s) should, at best, be an interim, transition technology. There are better alternatives, like hydrogen-fueled vehicles, when we develop the ability to produce and distribute the fuel economically.
How I am supposed to make the
monthly payment on a new car that I do not want, since I am retired and on a
fixed income? Further, estimates vary on
the cost to replace the battery in one of those things. One manufacturer’s EV has a MSRP of
$31,500.00 to $37,495.00, and they offer an 8 year/100,000-mile warranty on
their EV’s batteries. For many
Americans, that means the owner will be responsible to pay if their EV needs a
new battery after about 5 years. One source lists the price of that same
company’s EV battery at $15,734.29.[2] That is about half of the original sticker price. Is that what you want? I have other spending priorities in an
inflationary economy where milk costs $3+ per gallon.
Our fearless leaders just don’t get it. “Middle Class Joe” Biden is a wealthy man.[3] Do you think he, or his cronies worry about what things cost when they try to make gasoline so expensive that people must buy electric cars to get around? Hardly!
I’m looking forward to our next road trip in our big, heavy, safe, and comfortable gasoline-powered car. President Biden’s high gasoline prices can’t stop me.
Remember how things were
before Biden. Vote to return our country
to sanity in November.
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