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Comment by ananyob | Hacker News Reader

I think the Atlantic is regarded as vaguely liberal/left. The important thing in the article - far more important than car ownership is the energy usage figures. The US uses a lot more fossil fuel per capita than Western Europeans - even if they have fewer cars.

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I think the idea that car ownership is falling due to income inequality is staggering - that points to one direction only - enclaves of super-rich in a sea of poverty. It is not the way anyone expected USA to meet its Kyoto targets.

But the evidence of increasing income inequality is persuasive.

My favourite quote from somewhere recently:

  A society is fair if you are willing to enter it at the top or the bottom.  
  If you dont want to join Western society at the bottom of the pile, 
  its not a fair society.

Edit: far too snarky.

There is some truth to that. Different parts of the U.S. are vastly different in wealth, and most people have very little conception of what norms are outside their peer group, both their geographical peer group and their sociocultural one. For example, living in Silicon Valley and working in tech, you might think that $100k+ is a common white-collar salary, something that most educated professionals would make—if not as starting salary, then at least after a few years.

What percentage of American salaries do you think are $100k+, though? I've heard people guess as high as 20-30%. Some people, both Americans and foreigners, seem to imagine it as this super-rich country where everyone is making those kinds of salaries. But the real number is 7%.

(About 20% of American households do make 6 figures, but most of those are two-income families that are adding together two 5-figure incomes, e.g. husband and wife each making $60k.)

Sure. Though if oil consumption isn't falling/remains high, the US isn't going to be reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

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