Date:         Fri, 10 Nov 1995 09:57:48 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Beckstead <sbeckst@dpc.com>
Subject:      RE: Volkswagen 'quality' /L

On Thu, 9 Nov 1995, Joel Walker wrote:

> companies: "we" create the "demand" ... if we all rode bicycles, then the
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	I have to take exception to this.  We do perpetuate the demand
however in Los Angeles at least the demand was created by the Oil and Car
companies getting together and buying the public transportation and
scrapping it. In any case the public rarely CREATES the demand we merely
have no/few economic alternatives.  Therefore WE did NOT and do NOT CREATE
the demand.  The demand exists because there is no incentive to develop
more economical/ecological means of trasnsportation. 

	As long as corporate megagiants (putting on my Oliver Stone hat)
are making money (and have POWER) and lots of it there will be NO move
toward mass transportation or even towards developing efficient versions
of what we already have.  I have heard rumors, and I'm sure you all have,
of inventions being bought up and locked away because it would have
terribly hurt the Oil comapnies or even the Auto industry. How much
credence you place in such theories is up to you but I think the truth
lies somewhere between our worst nightmare and what we see as reality. In
other words I'm sure we all don't know what is going on but I don't
believe it's all that bad. 

(unduly paranoid) Scott


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A nation that trades liberty for security deserves neither!.
	Ben Franklin

sbeckst@dpc.com <Scott Beckstead>