Same issue with oil consumption.

Fuel efficiency is a result of customer vehicle purchase choices. She appears unaware of the reality that Americans really don’t care much about fuel efficiency. Oh, they say they do, but only after they get the capability, performance, and style they want. This is proven by the nearly 50% of the U.S. market captured by vehicles classified as trucks. In addition, these larger vehicles offer many times the unit profit of small cars. The U.S. makers are merely interested in regulations that allow them to satisfy their customers and to achieve the goal of any business, to make some money. The Chinese, being very much less affluent than Americans, do choose fuel efficient, small to tiny cars. This sort of ignorance perpetuates the myth that the U.S. makers are inferior in capability to foreign makes. The simple fact is that Americans like large vehicles and will continue to buy them until fuel prices climb much higher than they are today.

I am actually thrilled by the movement towards re-creating Detroit as an urban gardening post-oil-age pioneer, and shouldn’t have let a succinct story line be the enemy of accurate depiction.

Now, back to “shuffling around glassy-eyed in pursuit of my hopeless dreams”

Ah, what dramatic hyperbole, Susan. It would be even better if it were true. It must be wonderful from your comfortable perch in northern California to be so intimately knowledgable of what going on in Detroit, 2,200 miles away. Have you ever been to Detroit, or have you gotten all of your information about it by listening to late-night comedians? Yes, Detroit is experimenting with some urban garden and farming. Yes, Detroit is in a deep recession. To use such a simplistic statement that “Detroit is turning back to pasture”, however, only illustrates your lack of in-depth knowledge and two-dimensional thinking. Have you taken the time to learn about the things that actually are going on there? Of course not – getting accurate information might ruin your pre-determined story line.

In the final analysis, Susan, I suppose you can’t help yourself. Northern California, after all, is nothing more than a collection of aging hippies and New Agers smoking dope, worshipping the moon, and shuffling around glassy-eyed pursuing hopeless daydreams, right?