4 ms·

What about the choice of an individual to get an F150 which has an unnecessarily large V8 engine roaring and idling when no one is using it for what it was desi

What about the choice of an individual to get an F150 which has an unnecessarily large V8 engine roaring and idling when no one is using it for what it was designed for? I am in a city surrounded by cars that are far too large for their designated duties. People choose, like you mention, and yet it's the children with asthma and my mother with asthma who pays the price for the ridiculously oversized and smog-producing vehicles that are everywhere in society. I'm all for pickup trucks and minivans and buses, but only in the right application. At other times, which is probably 80-90% of the large vehicles I see, your choice to go alone in the car hurts all of our lungs and our planet.

GiorgioG 8y ago
> I'm all for pickup trucks and minivans and buses, but only in the right application. I'm glad I don't live in a place where it's ok to limit people's choices based on someone's opinion on what is or isn't the 'right application.' I'm sorry about your mother's asthma; my 6 year old son is a type 1 diabetic - that doesn't make it ok for me to go chastising society's choice to put sugar in practically EVERYTHING we eat or to try force society to change because of my son's misfortune.
- wilsonnb2 8y ago
  Unless someone is forcing your kid to eat food with sugar in it, it's not a good comparison. Your neighbors don't really have a choice as to whether or not they enjoy "hearing its V8 roar from inside the house through several walls/doors" or breathe the extra pollution that some (but not all) large trucks create. > When your kid spikes a fever at 1am and you have no car and you need to go buy some children’s ibuprofen, what are you going to do? I can run to my local 24/7 grocer or Walmart and be back in 10 minutes flat. I'm sure your neighbors will love being woken up in the middle of the night. Perhaps some of them would be glad to live in a society where there are reasonable limits on what situations other people can force you into for their own pleasure. Please note that this comment isn't really directed at you specifically - you might not have close neighbors or they might be truck enthusiasts as well. It's directed at all owners of obnoxiously loud trucks who don't care how it affects other people, which may or may not be you.
  - GiorgioG 8y ago
    > Your neighbors don't really have a choice as to whether or not they enjoy "hearing its V8 roar..." You're right, they don't - but since many of them have a truck, it really isn't an issue. I'm honestly not a 'truck enthusiast', but I'd wanted one for the longest time and I'm happy with my choice. It makes trips to Home Depot / Lowes / etc a dream. Going to the mountains on vacation with it has been great as well - having gone up the side of a mountain up a single lane dirt road to a house we rented a couple of years ago (you never know what kind of infrastructure exists when you rent a place on VRBO/HomeAway/etc.) in our minivan was an experience let me tell you. This year we rented another place up in the mountains and having a truck was a godsend. I don't remote start my truck at night (because I'd like to think I'm not an inconsiderate A-hole) - I only start the truck remotely during the day for a few minutes to get the A/C started since it's over 100 degrees (F) in summertime here. I let my non-truck owning neighbors/friend borrow my truck when they need it - so on the contrary, our neighbors love us. Personally my experiences living in a city have been far louder and had much ruder neighbors than I could dream of than in our current situation (people blaring music at all hours of the night and early morning, driving cars with seemingly no mufflers or motorcyclists whose sole purpose seems to be to irritate everyone sleeping, domestic disputes between deaf people (otherwise why would I have been able to hear them from several houses over, etc.)
- WhompingWindows 8y ago
  The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity. If I produce a bunch of pollution on my land or on public lands, I should pay for whatever costs that pollution incurs on others. I don't fault you personally, nor anyone driving their Cadillac Escalada to the grocery store solo, however I do fault politicians and the populace at large for not enacting sensible pollution taxes which recompense innocent bystanders to your choices. For you, I'm glad you can utilize that vehicle when you feel you need to, and I think it's only fair that you pay a tax for the increased cost to society that that choice incurs.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity. Well, no, they are quite able to not account for those. “Should”, not “must”.

GiorgioG 8y ago

> I'm all for pickup trucks and minivans and buses, but only in the right application. I'm glad I don't live in a place where it's ok to limit people's choices based on someone's opinion on what is or isn't the 'right application.' I'm sorry about your mother's asthma; my 6 year old son is a type 1 diabetic - that doesn't make it ok for me to go chastising society's choice to put sugar in practically EVERYTHING we eat or to try force society to change because of my son's misfortune.

wilsonnb2 8y ago
Unless someone is forcing your kid to eat food with sugar in it, it's not a good comparison. Your neighbors don't really have a choice as to whether or not they enjoy "hearing its V8 roar from inside the house through several walls/doors" or breathe the extra pollution that some (but not all) large trucks create. > When your kid spikes a fever at 1am and you have no car and you need to go buy some children’s ibuprofen, what are you going to do? I can run to my local 24/7 grocer or Walmart and be back in 10 minutes flat. I'm sure your neighbors will love being woken up in the middle of the night. Perhaps some of them would be glad to live in a society where there are reasonable limits on what situations other people can force you into for their own pleasure. Please note that this comment isn't really directed at you specifically - you might not have close neighbors or they might be truck enthusiasts as well. It's directed at all owners of obnoxiously loud trucks who don't care how it affects other people, which may or may not be you.
- GiorgioG 8y ago
  > Your neighbors don't really have a choice as to whether or not they enjoy "hearing its V8 roar..." You're right, they don't - but since many of them have a truck, it really isn't an issue. I'm honestly not a 'truck enthusiast', but I'd wanted one for the longest time and I'm happy with my choice. It makes trips to Home Depot / Lowes / etc a dream. Going to the mountains on vacation with it has been great as well - having gone up the side of a mountain up a single lane dirt road to a house we rented a couple of years ago (you never know what kind of infrastructure exists when you rent a place on VRBO/HomeAway/etc.) in our minivan was an experience let me tell you. This year we rented another place up in the mountains and having a truck was a godsend. I don't remote start my truck at night (because I'd like to think I'm not an inconsiderate A-hole) - I only start the truck remotely during the day for a few minutes to get the A/C started since it's over 100 degrees (F) in summertime here. I let my non-truck owning neighbors/friend borrow my truck when they need it - so on the contrary, our neighbors love us. Personally my experiences living in a city have been far louder and had much ruder neighbors than I could dream of than in our current situation (people blaring music at all hours of the night and early morning, driving cars with seemingly no mufflers or motorcyclists whose sole purpose seems to be to irritate everyone sleeping, domestic disputes between deaf people (otherwise why would I have been able to hear them from several houses over, etc.)
WhompingWindows 8y ago
The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity. If I produce a bunch of pollution on my land or on public lands, I should pay for whatever costs that pollution incurs on others. I don't fault you personally, nor anyone driving their Cadillac Escalada to the grocery store solo, however I do fault politicians and the populace at large for not enacting sensible pollution taxes which recompense innocent bystanders to your choices. For you, I'm glad you can utilize that vehicle when you feel you need to, and I think it's only fair that you pay a tax for the increased cost to society that that choice incurs.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity. Well, no, they are quite able to not account for those. “Should”, not “must”.