With cheap gas, Venezuelans buy big SUVs

[LoZoccolo]

CARACAS, Venezuela - The car show is filled with men who gravitate to the sport utility vehicles, peering through their windows and slipping into their leather seats.
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Many say they're looking for a powerful engine, but no one asks about gas mileage. In oil-rich Venezuela, gasoline costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies — and SUVs are selling briskly.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061008/ap_on_bi_ge/venezuela_gas_guzzlers

[Rex]

1. Irony of ironies! Look! Look at those dam socialist buying

Hummers!!!! I tell ya it is unpatriotic! How dare their economy 'flourish'! :sarcasm:

[Tatiana]

2. 12 center per gallon!? DAMN!

I've been longing for the Clinton-era 78 cents per gallon.

[jseankil]

3. And people here slam GM for offering Hummers

rather than those who buy them.

[SammyWinstonJack]

People here slam those who buy them as well as GM for offering them.

[greenman3610]

4. proof that people everywhere are just as pig ignorant

as they are here.

[jseankil]

6. I take it you don't have a car and take public transportation,

or bet yet walk everywhere?

[greenman3610]

13. I do have a car. Just not a pig ignorant SUV.

I must commute to a job 25 miles away for which there is no
public transportation. As soon as I can afford to, I am
migrating to a hybrid.

For years I have been annoyed when, usually in conversation with
half bright republican twits, whenever you dare to question the
wisdom of basing our transportation system on car
ownership, the retort is, "So, YOU don't have a car, RIGHT?"

Considering that trillions of tax dollars, yours and mine, have
gone to ensuring that there is NO WAY to live in most
parts of America without owning a car, this is a meaningless
canard.
Since I assume you are not a half bright republican twit,
I'm sure you'll want to remove this from your repetoire
of unthinking responses.

[jseankil]

18. I find the phrase pig ignorant to be ignorant.

Stop judging people that you don't know.

[northzax]

15. actually yes

you are completely correct. I walk to work. and to the store. and if I can't, I take the bus, or the train. I have, in fact, declined jobs in the past because I couldn't take public transportation to them. what's your point?

and anyone who purchases a car larger than they need is an asshole. Unless you go offroad on a regular basis, driving an SUV is immoral. your selfishness contributes to the deaths of others. if you drive anything that gets less than 30 miles to the gallon, and can afford something that does, you might as well be shooting Iraqi children yourself. everytime you go out to your car and step on the gas pedal, imagine yourself stepping on the face of a poor person, cause that's exactly what you are doing. everytime you shift into drive, imagine you are stabbing a knife into the bowels of an iraqi child, cause you might as well be.

So yes, I walk to work, and take the bus, or bike. What are you doing to reduce the country's dependance on foreign oil? what are you doing to reduce your climate impact? or is it not convenient to do anything at all?


tell the people of Vanatu that you are sorry, it wasn't convenient enough for you to stop driving. I bet they'll be totally cool with it.

[jseankil]

17. LOL, your post is the funniest one I have ever read on DU.

You words are comedic gold!

"everytime you go out to your car and step on the gas pedal, imagine yourself stepping on the face of a poor person, cause that's exactly what you are doing. everytime you shift into drive, imagine you are stabbing a knife into the bowels of an iraqi child, cause you might as well be."


Let me add some. Every time I put on a shirt made in China it's like me skinning a chinese child and using it to keep me warm. Everytime I throw away garbade instead of recycling it, it's like I've taken a blow touch to a 1000 rainforests. (Not to bad huh?)

Your post really shows that the far far extreme left and the extreme right actually meet one another in the middle of nuttyness.

[northzax]

20. answer me two simple questions:

1: do you believe in the overwhelming scientific evidence of global climate change influenced, in large part, by the presende of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere? yes or no.

if no, then I suggest you read up on the scientific literature a bit.

2: do you believe that petro-states are overwhelmingly oppressive regimes that use violence to repress the majority of their populace? How many of the top 15 oil exporting states are even remotely democracies? (I count 53, even granting you Venezuela the others being Norway and Mexico) Without oil revenues, would the mutawwa'in in Saudi Arabia be as powerful and as able to oppress women as they are? unlikely. How about Nigeria, why is that state so fucked up? (hint: oil) read up on the attempted coup in Equitorial Guinea (oil) how're human rights in Kazakhstan? Armenia? Uzbekistan? Iran? why did we invade Iraq, and not North Korea? see any sort of a trend here?

If you use energy you don't need to use, for your convenience, you are simultaneously contributing to global climate change and to the support of oppressive regimes around the planet. sorry to break the news to you, but there you go. Enjoy.

And I suggest buying American Apparel T-shirts, they're made in the US, by union labor. unless, of course, it's more convenient to buy stuff made by slaves in China.

There are alternatives to our destructive lifestyle, look for them, you'll feel much better. Or don't and then keep complaining about it. whichever. I don't want to say "never use oil" that's ridiculous. use less.

[lonestarnot]

7. Exactree! Pig Ignorant!

[spoony]

14. Symptom of the human condition

The problem comes in when societies (some in the US) think their ignorance is superior to others' ignorance.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. I guess I'm pig ignorant then.

Afterall, I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

[pitohui]

5. yeah these stories come round ever so often

during the first gulf war, the hysteria was supposed to be that venezuelans were driving "classic cars" from the 50s and 60s fins and all at 10 cents a gallon

[enid602]

8. subway

They also have a pretty good subway system; 1.2 million Caracans ride it every day. That would make Caracas second among US cities in terms of subway ridership. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas_Metro

[pitohui]

9. second among "US" cities?

hilarious typo there, i think caracas is trying to avoid becoming a usa city thank ya verra much

you meant american cities, right -- as in north and south america?

[enid602]

12. would

I said it WOULD make it second among US cities (I assumed you knew it was in Latin America); WOULD is the operative word here. Actually, I suspect Caracas is fourth in terms of subway ridership among all American cities, after Mexico, DF, New York and perhaps Toronto.

[Deja Q]

10. Damn, that's cheaper than the price of gas in Beijing!

[and-justice-for-all]

11. Gas is always cheap in South America...ALWAYS!

[The Anti-Neo Con]

19. Proof that morans are everywhere! n/t