Rhoneisms

I’m skeptical of electric vehicles as a climate friendly solution as I see them as replacing one extractive finite earth-destroying fuel (oil) for another (mined minerals) while big-auto and big-energy make trillions by trying to convince us to replace the cars we have and throwing our current vehicles into landfills. All the while telling us that it is more “green” when, in fact, the only “green” is more money for big-auto and big-energy.

An answer I hear often to this is, “We here in [insert car friendly US city] need to be more like [insert bike friendly EU city].” And while I can appreciate the utopian dream behind that idea, I’m a realist. It’ll never happen…

One problem here is history (from an urban planning standpoint). Most cities and towns in Europe were built at a time when most people had no mode of personal transportation beyond their feet. Horses were expensive and carriages even more so. Bicycles are the natural progression from that mode and designed to “fit” where foot traffic does.

While most of the oldest cities and towns in the US were designed and built for horse and carriage. Especially the newer ones west of the original thirteen. Cars (horseless carriages) are the natural progression from that mode of transportation.

This is to say that, the US will likely never be like [insert bike friendly EU city here]. US cities are not designed to be and never intended to be.

Just from a pure cultural standpoint it’s just not how most of us really live. Those who have two jobs, or have kids to pick up from one place at one time and get to another by a different time so that they can get to a third place on time and they barely have time for that. Or those that have many places to be at throughout the day for their work. Or those that have two (or sometimes three) jobs to make ends meet. Or they have shopping to do for a family of three, or four, or five or six. Or those that are disabled. Or those that are elderly. Or those that, because they are not male and white, will never feel safe on a bike through a neighborhood in which it is felt they don’t belong. Or women who would never be in any vehicle alone where they could not lock a door. Or those that can’t ride a bike (yes, Virginia, some never learn for a variety or reasons).

The solution must progress from the problem (like foot to bike, carriage to car) not regress from it (car to carriage, bike to foot). Nor can we culturally swap who/where we are (car to bike) unless you can convince an entire country’s populous to change its culture.

I don’t have any magic solution to the problem. I think folks are being sold a bag of green by big corporations (with the help of big government) with everything to gain by doing so. The companies get to sell tens of millions of new vehicles and both they and buyers get to pretend they are doing something good for the planet when, really, they are likely doing even more harm than good. Especially because it further pushes off investment/drive towards actual clean/renewable/non-finite solutions.

I mean, it is and it isn’t. Owning the land is the “what”. But it’s really about the “why”. It’s about what property ownership allows you to do. Not just for you but for your descendants.

As an example, my great-great-grandfather and grandmother were able to purchase 40 acres of land immediately following emancipation. Because of that land, the ability to farm it and derive other revenue streams from the land, free and clear of any debt or interest payment, they were able to send all eleven of their children to either college or trade school.

Before they passed, they set up a deed that made sure that land, which they also eventually grew to 116 acres, remained in the family and passed down to their heirs.

But what they passed down was not just the land — the “what”. They also passed down a living example and set of values – the “why”. They passed down the example of stewardship to further advancement.

One could use such a resource to fuel education. In a society that could find a way to take anything away from you if they wanted for no reason other than the color of your skin, education was the one thing they could never take or deny.

The result of this lesson is that our family is four generations of college-educated people. Ownership of the land is what allowed that.

People think of inheritance as stuff – money, furniture, property. And, while these things are important, they are simply things. Real inheritance is the freedom owning such things allows.

Our daughter will never have to pay rent or mortgage in her life if she does not want to. She will get one of our houses when she’s of age and inherit our property when we pass, free and clear of any encumbrances. But, it’s not about the what, it’s about the why…

What could any of us do if we never had to worry about a roof over our head? If we never had to think about a mortgage payment or debt? For example (and this is our daughter’s current plan), if you are in college and own a whole house, maybe you could rent out rooms and use the income to pay for school loan free. Perhaps, when you graduate and get a job, you get to net the whole amount without having to pay rent, or a car payment, or college loan debt. How would life be different if this is the “what” all of us had and the “why” we learned and put into action?

That’s what she’s really inheriting. And, if she’s learned anything from us, I hope it is the lessons we’ve learned from our ancestors; that we are simply stewards of this stuff that we’ve been fortunate enough to have passed down to us and her job is to do the same. To take it, grow it, make her life and those of her children better with it and leave it to the next generation better than she found it. But, most importantly, pass down the same set of values to keep the chain going. That’s what a legacy is.