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To: SUV Family
but it will start to become a way of life

Amongst the environmental intelligentsia, there is what they call transition risks, which in many ways is crystallized as the costs incurred on the way to a greener world. Often, these are hard costs - outlays for green hardware, costs for disposal of non-green things, and losses on non-green businesses (e.g. Chapter 7 of ExxonMobile etc.).

But there is also an economic cost, which is an overall reduction in "consumer utility" or satisfaction. These costs are, often, ignored in part due to the difficulty in quantifying utility. But they are REAL costs.

This was perhaps best seen in the US' flirting with going full-metric system. Sure...base 10 measurements sure are easy to remember, more logical, and we got a few extra ounces from a 2 liter soda bottle vs 64 ounces. But it failed in part because few Americans really WANTED the "better for us" metric system.

Until some bright bulb can convince a large swath of Americans that EVs will enhance their net utility, this transition either won't happen or it'll require force.

i’d prefer to drive home, park my car, and plug it in until the morning and have a full battery than hanging around gas stations.

To be sure, many Americans are more than willing to put up with the many transiton risks that accompany EVs because their personal utility function has "being green" as a major driver, or they share your preferences that you highlighted. That's perfectly fine...I'm all for consumer choice. Indeed, I prefer buying my meat direct from the farmer...it's a hassle and costs me more, but it is MY utility function and - wait for it - I'm not forcing anyone to subsidize my increased utility.

So I don't agree that this inevitable, but I also wouldn't want to force anyone to drive a gas-guzzler. Or, to paraphrase a great saying, I don't share your preference for EVs but I'd fight for your choice.

293 posted on 05/24/2021 7:39:00 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: DoodleBob

“Until some bright bulb can convince a large swath of Americans that EVs will enhance their net utility, this transition either won’t happen or it’ll require force.”

The ‘bright bulb’ for lighting was LEDs.


297 posted on 05/25/2021 9:43:34 AM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
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