>From Kyle: >> I was particularly struck by one of your comments: >> >> > [those who have sufficient income to afford >> > ECO-friendly cars, BMWs, Porches and other imported >> > overpriced garbage] have disdain for people who perform labor, >> > actual work. They think we [meaning you] aren't doing enough. > > WHOA! Hold up a sec, putting (ECO) in front of my writing BMW > and Porsche is bad bad! These, especially when engines are > malfunctioning, and this is something that happens so often in these > 'high-end' cars, are some of the worst smog dumpers out there. > Porsches will produce exhaust that will knock a buzzard off a > gut wagon.
... I'm not sure how I managed to conjure up up an "ECO" link-up with the foreign cars like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Porsche. Indeed, it was inaccurate of me to have even suggested that such cars are "ECO" friendly. I don't think that was my original intention. Nevertheless, I flubbed it. (bad writing!) On the ECO car front it would appear that foreign manufactures like Toyota and Honda are trying, but as you well know right now there is a stiff premium price attached to hybrids and plug-ins. In order to claim "bragging rights", that one is driving an ECO friendly car, one must possess an adequate bank account containing sufficient discretionary funds available to spend on such luxuries. That ain't me. I'm approaching the retirement age by some standards, but I still have 6 - 7 years of a mortgage to pay off. And then we discovered that the house needs to be painted, the roof needs well over $6,000 in repairs due to extensive rot, and then both cars gave out. We had no choice but to go to a single economical compact car, a nice KIA Rio. There were other financial emergencies as well which I won't go into. All these incidentals have resulted in a home equity loan that is almost as large as the mortgage itself. Nevertheless, I consider myself lucky because at least I have a job with decent health insurance. ...and I can literally walk to work in fifteen minutes. Concerning my ECO comment, in an indirect round-about way what I think I was trying to say was that those individuals with fat bank accounts (including those who are primarily motivated in securing "bragging rights") DO help pave the way towards a better future for the rest of us by spending their discretionary cash on these expensive ECO friendly cars. We had better be thankful that they do so! The allocation of such discretionary funds (including for vain reasons) helps companies continue their R&D work that produces innovations that ultimately produce economical ECO friendly cars that the rest of us surfs can actually afford. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
