.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

The New Commoner

A broader form of capitalism called Proprietarianism offers wealth, enhanced lives and greater control of day-to-day living to common citizens. It offers the opportunity to build communities and relationships. The philosophy IS oriented toward business, but NOT necessarily big business. More "Mom & Pop" size businesses give more people more opportunities to conduct their own lives their own way.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Wind-up Cars?

No terrorist would fly a hang-glider into a toolshed. That suggests that bigger is not always better. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that big and small should be much more carefully considered in the things we construct. It appears to me that there is often no really good reason for businesses to become huge. True, really large businesses can be more profitable than small ones. That is usually because, for various reasons, a small business cannot easily compete with a large one. But isn’t competition a major factor in capitalism? Smaller businesses should be a goal in a capitalistic economy – spreading, not just the wealth around, but talent, ability and opportunity as well.

I doubt if mismanagement and greed can be regulated away. I think they will always be with us. And when they bring down a huge business many get injured. Far fewer are injured when very small businesses fail.

Let me use automobiles as an example. Automobiles are a significant part of our economy. Not just their use and manufacture, but the support businesses and cultural things that go along.

We have always thought of automobiles as a monolithic lot. That is one continuum from the smallest to the largest vehicle and those to be made by giant, international corporations. I believe we should begin to think about them differently.

Gasoline Cars and trucks are at their least efficient when they are operated under urban driving conditions. Right? Not only do they get lousy gas mileage, but the pollutant emission levels are much higher than when they are driven at highway speeds. Almost all vehicles are designed for highway use yet we drive them in cities as well. Why not two different kinds of vehicles for those distinctly different driving conditions. We lack vehicles designed just for driving in urban conditions.
Two classes of vehicles! Could that be part of the answer to fuel shortage and air pollution? Urban vehicles and non-urban vehicles. I believe such thinking could make a significant difference in many related issues. Areas of cities could be restricted to urban vehicles only. The advantage of that is safer operation, and because the vehicles could be smaller, more parking spaces and driving lanes.

Today’s hybrid cars typically use a combination of electric engines and gasoline engines. That combination allows the vehicle to operate in both urban and non-urban environments. They are an improvement over the older system, but I believe they fall short of what is possible.

The gas powered vehicles we have now seem to be just fine for highway use so I propose that we continue to make them for that purpose and add a new class of vehicle for urban driving conditions – and limit them to urban areas.

Urban vehicles could be very light weight, one or two passenger and would need a top speed of maybe forty-five miles per hour. Additionally, the distance an urban vehicle would have to drive between re-fueling wouldn’t need to be as great as highway versions. Typical urban driving would allow vehicles to be powered by engines that run on stored energy rather than generated energy. By stored energy, I mean like electric battery powered engines, compressed air motors or even a high speed flywheels. I suppose one could wind up a big coil spring or a rubber band and get sufficient power, but somehow that doesn’t seem right. The key is the energy is generated somewhere else and stored in the vehicle as opposed to generating power on board with gasoline or diesel fuel. Such motors, of course, emit no pollutants and are typically much quieter that comparable gasoline engines.

What’s the advantage to producing the power elsewhere and transferring it to the vehicles? It is much easier to control efficiency and pollution in a few generating plants than in a large number of automobiles.

Lastly, the manufacture of small, stored-energy cars could be done by very small businesses. Many people could be employed in such a system and there would not be a danger of widespread economic disaster if such small businesses fail.

1 Comments:

Blogger Torial said...

I like this.

I distrust big business, big government, and big religion for the reasons you espoused.

So how will you proceed?

4:57 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home