cars in the 1980s didn't get better fuel efficient b/c of magic. car companies didn't just start pumping out fuel efficient vehicles for fun.
cars started to have better fuel efficiency b/c the GOVERNMENT forced them to during the oil crisis way back when.
car companies were told: make cars more fuel efficient or don't sell them in the United States. PERIOD.
so before you complain about how the government making that 30mph meeting with a tree survivable fucks up the fuel efficiency of cars, remember that cars wouldn't even be as fuel efficient as they are today if it wasn't for the government....
BOOM.
The market is a far stronger driving force than the Government forcing companies to make certain cars. People will buy whatever they want. With the price of oil going up, people think about fuel efficiency more, thus driving sales of more fuel efficient cars.
30mph has always been survivable. Any car made since the model T could hit a tree at 30 mph and do pretty good. That being said the death rate per 100,000,000 miles in America isn't much better than average overall in the world. That means our forced safety isn't helping to stop fatalities. It isn't that the safety laws for cars in other countries aren't good enough - its that our country is overdoing them or making rules that help our companies compete.
Why do you think you should have a say in how safe the car anyone drives is? That is as bad as people thinking they have a right to tell me to wear a helmet when Im on the motorcycle. Its my head - mind your own.
A boy is sitting on a park bench with a candy bar, and a pile of wrapped beside him. An old man walks up and says.. "Your going to kill yourself eating all that chocolate". "I'm not worried about it, my Grandpa lived to be 100", the young boy replied. "Did he live to be 100 eating chocolate every day?", the old man asked. "No, he minded his own fucking business.", the boy told him.
The simple fact is the cars in Europe are perfectly safe, they have air bags, and you can hit things without dying.
You don't like it when the government tells you smoking weed is bad do you? Don't act like the government telling people they have to do things is a good thing. People should have the right to make decisions for their own lives and safety if they aren't hurting others. If I want to drive down the road without airbags and seat belts or on a motorcycle without a helmet - what do you care? Laws like that are complete BS. I would compare them to laws that outlaw sodomy and abortion. IE: Laws that are made just because someone else decided you shouldn't be allowed to make your own decisions.
If there were 5k cars that got 40mpg, everyone would own one and it would change by a large percent how much oil we consume.
Now, we already have noise pollution laws, stating that if your music/ vehicle can be heard from 30 feet away, you get a ticket. This bill would have killed the stereo shops around here. Luckily, that shit was KILLED.
