EarthDaySchmirthDay

I have to say that all this balogna about being Carbon Neutral, trading in your gas lawnmowers, refrigerators and old cars is depressing me. The days of the $200 buck Chevy Caprice that our teenagers could work for, afford and burn around town in are gone. Why save a car and sell it to some kid when you can get a 3 grand credit towards a new car, put yourself further into debt  and support the economy.

Aside from the obvious bent of the Federal and State governments to further influence our buying and spending habits by promoting these programs in the name of saving the earth, I wonder what the far reaching effect will be on our youth.  When I was 15, I’d  run to the liquor store every thursday to grab the recycler, pour over the cars for sale section with a highlighter  (while in zero period) and dream of the day I had enough money saved from my weekend job to afford that early 80′s Chevy Citation. Dream of stashing my skateboard in the back and driving myself to the Flower St ditch so I could skate.  What do the kids have to dream about today?  Growing up in the late 70′s/early 80′s  nary a new car was on the street, people were frugal and those that did purchase a new car were the odd one. People fixed their own stuff or called a friend and offered a BBQ if they would help fix it. People were self-sufficient, worried about how their lives looked to those on the outside, whether it appeared as if they were living beyond their means.

FF a couple years, the advent and permanent acceptance of credit cards,with their frequent usage brings about a culture and people that can’t wait to have something fixed, can’t understand why you would take 7 years to finish a bike, 3 years and keep the old 60 year old car in the garage until you can squirrel away enough cash to make it roll again.

IT’S MOTORCYCLE HELMET LAWS ALL OVER AGAIN-sponsored by the companies that produce this junk, to keep us having to buy it, keep their books in the black and ours perpetually in the red because we as a people cannot stop, wait, save and purchase things when we need to/ when they absolutely must be replaced.

Is there anyone else in this world that realizes that it’s all a shell game by the corporations and their lobbyists to increase commerce on new items? It’s bad enough that our modern appliances are built for shit and will self-destruct 20 minutes prior to the 90 day warranty expiring, now the weak-minded sheep are being given incentive to fill the landfills/recycling yards

Oh and cops busting people for going through the trash…it’s done under the umbrella of keeping your trash safe from people that would want to steal your identity but it truly is an effort to protect the city’s revenue that comes from the selling of your recylables. From the ages of 8 -16 my brother and I were able to walk the neighborhood and collect newspaper, fill up the back of my dad’s ’78 Chevy crew-cab to capacity, drive over to Santa Ana recyling, plunk that sucker on the scale, unload it, hit the scales again and walk out of there with 150-200 bucks that we used to buy our family Christmas presents with. Not so when the SoCal cities decided that they wanted in on the action. They have functionally taken away a vital part of the income for our cities working poor.

Be responsible, be wise but please people, be real