smahtcah!

In 2008, at the beginning of these hard financial times, when gas prices were hovering around $4, people were doing two things in regards to vehicles: getting rid of their big cars and gas-guzzling SUV's, and often opting for fuel efficient smaller cars such as the smart car. However, now that gas prices have fallen and become stable at around $2, a review of the year's worst selling cars shows that sales of smart cars have fallen 61%, and people are going back to their large SUV's. This article reports that "Small cars in general aren't selling as well now that gas prices have fallen and pickups and larger vehicles are making a comeback."


This shows just how wishy-washy our culture and society have become. Everyone freaks out when gas prices go up and reports of proof of global warning come out. They buy fuel efficient cars, start recycling, become model citizens for our environment (or maybe just for the sake of their pocketbooks taking a hit). Now that gas prices have gone back down, and all the hype about environment-saving greenness has become old, people's small cars and green ways have fallen by the wayside.


Society is so easily influenced now a days that nearly anything can be marketed as the next coming of Christ and consumers with eat it up. Much like smart cars were in 2008, similarly Ipads, Wiis and many other unnecessary gadgets are being hyped up this year in time for the holidays. How do we know that what happened with smart cars wont happen with anything we are buying into this year? Will they go out of style in a year or two when they are not needed anymore or made obscure by newer better gadgets? I think that the American public and consumers everywhere need to take a step back before buying anything, and think "why am I buying this?" and "do I really need it?" They need to deeply consider things like this before adding to their credit card debt.