Freedom for your new year

Want to feel free and liberated in the new year? De-car-ing might be the answer. Wait -- Don't stop reading! I'm serious, and you'll wanna know this too! Karrie Higgins reports for the L.A. Times on Tom Hodgkinson's book "The Freedom Manifesto":

Hodgkinson explores how the very machines and appliances that supposedly save time actually devour it, cars being the prime example. Americans associate cars with personal freedom, but Hodgkinson points out that, according to the late cultural critic Ivan Illich, once you consider all the labor required to pay the loan, gas and repairs, not to mention all the time spent at the service garage, you get an average of only a lousy 5 mph. Marketers prey on our sense of being "time starved" and exacerbate the condition to their advantage.

I can't emphasize how much I agree with this. My take on my past car ownership:

When we think of cars, we often think of freedom to go where we want, when we want. Certainly that's how cars are marketed to us. But in many ways, I found my car restricted my freedoms. The car kept me from spending a good chunk of my money on other stuff, from sleeping in late on street-cleaning day, and even from a stress-free evening out without worrying about finding parking and a designated driver.

This doesn't mean I no longer ever ride a car. I sometimes Flexcar, sometimes cab it (my whole de-car-ing series here). But I'm free from both the physical and financial unfreedoms of having to own a car 24-7.

Karrie Higgins' whole article, "Escape from Consumerville," is an interesting read that reviews both Hodgkinson's book and Anne Elizabeth Moore's "Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity." Beware: It's not all an easy road to checking out to consumerville. After all, "attempts to fight the consumerist culture can actually advance it." But you're not a sucker to advertisement, are you?

Comments

[Beth Mandel]

True LA Freedom meets environmental responsibility
when you hop a Metro train to take advantage of downtown
designer sample sales . You have time to read the paper
and arrive refreshed and ready to fight for your bargain.

Beth Mandel
T&S Partners PR Group

[Siel]

If only the Metro train came all the way to Santa Monica! But I can take the Big Blue Bus 10, which takes me on the freeway and shoots me downtown in a half hour :) Kinda shopped out right now though --

[Dan]

You're right about cars being a big money pit. Most people aren't ready to go cold turkey, but here's a modest proposal, call it de-car-ing lite. Angelinos have really expensive taste in cars, and a lot of our social status is tied up in the cars we drive. I know you FEEL like such a big shot driving that $35,000 car with the fancy luxury brand, but stretching to make the payments on it just becomes another shackle on your life. There are plenty of nice, new cars you can buy for $18,000 or less.