Consumers to blame

Car Lot: http://centerline.grobbel.org/wes/photos_block.htmKunstler presents us with an interesting analysis on the transformation of the US landscape. Providing us with a timeline, he illustrates its evolution from the early colonies to present day. Kunstler begins with the assertion that the early founders formed a ‘covenanted corporation’ that entitled them to all the land. He suggests how the land was given extreme value and how it was recognized early on as a means for ‘capital investment’ (25). The land was divided up according to each family’s ‘needs and social standings,’ in a way creating an early economic system (20). Kunstler then goes on to discuss the division of the Midwest into geometrically square divisions, suggesting that the square plots promoted various scattered farms rather than villages. Kunstler argues that this promotion of the private over the public was an early foundation for an individualistic society. After illustrating the rise of industry and the development of suburbia, Kunstler discusses how the invention of the automobile altered the US landscape forever. He asserts that suburbia was at one time practically an Arcadian living environment where one could experience both the city and the country within an hour of one another. But with the rise of the assembly line and mass production, as Kunstler argues, the automobile industry destroyed that environment forever. He argues that General Motors and Ford Motors corporations sought to replace ‘public transportation with private transportation,’ seeking to eliminate the train industry for its own benefit (92). He discusses how Fords production of the tractor and farming technology destroyed the landscape of family farms by encouraging them to outsource more produce than was necessary, forcing them into bankruptcy. Kunstler asserts that the assembly line and mass production led the US into the Great Depression through overproduction during a period of low demand. He blames the construction of the interstate that destroyed miles of countryside on the unnecessary rapid expansion of the automobile industry. To Kunstler, the publics crave for having their own car versus taking the train was evidence that the society was growing even more individualistic. Kunstler blames the corporations and the government for the rapid evolution of the US into a ‘nowhere’ space: physically, economically, emotionally. But at no time does he recognize the role the consumer has played in the automobile industry; an industry is only as strong as its consumer base. He doesn’t recognize the role the consumers’ played in the destruction of their own environment. If the US was founded upon individualistic principals, then why aren’t individuals to blame? Where is the consumer’s individual carbon footprint?