Europe’s old cities were not designed for automobiles. When I was in Amsterdam the primary means of travel was bicycles. But there are newer sections of European cities that are designed around the automobile. This is an interesting topic because the cost/benefit analysis is so immense to civilization and humanity.

We’re in complete agreement on guns. One thing I always ask the pro gun crowd is, what are the 2nd and 3rd words in the Second Amendment?

And its mostly an American phenomenon; Europe and Asia have cars too but their effect has not been as total there as it has been here. They still have livable cities, decent mass transport, and much less in the way of vast, low-density suburban wastelands. Still, rightly or wrongly, I believe most people feel the price we had to pay for the family car was worth it.

But nobody in the world has the gun problem we’ve got. Not even close.

For better or worse, the automobile changed this country, and the world, profoundly. The firearms epidemic has given America nothing but heartbreak.

“And eventually, Supply and Demand can be tuned to converge at the point where Profit is maximized.”

S&D tunes itself to that all by itself. Gravity also works on its own. But let’s not debate that again.

True, but often, nothing is achieved in spite of a great cost.

I’m not quite sure what your point is. Sure, guns and cars have very little in common, but I never implied they did.

What I’m trying to say is that there are often unanticipated costs, and they are rarely figured in the profit-and-loss calculations.

About half of all Americans own a gun. Most of those are hand guns. About 5% of the population own all the assault rifles in America. Marketing manipulation as you say is quite simple since there are so many guns it is easy to scare people into wanting one for protection. It doesn’t even take marketing. They just need to watch the news.

Cars are not in the same category as guns. Yes people die in car accidents but people died falling off horses too. The advent of the automobile represented a massive transportation revolution in the world. I wrote a paper about the auto industry in college and I know I’ve talked about this before, but let me summarize. Before the automobile 90% of the world’s population never travelled more than 25 miles from where they were born. This made them dependent on whomever ran the local factory or mine or monopoly business. The car freed the human race from this condition as it created mobility of labor on a scale that never existed throughout human history. This meant higher wages and better standards of living for people since businesses now had to compete much more for their labor. Also, it is in the modern car driving households that women have acheived near equal social status. In effect, cars are one of the greatest forces ever created for individual human freedom. But as market economics teaches, nothing is ever acheived without a cost. People die in car accidents. Pollution has threatened our health and even our civilization. Modern cities dedicate nearly half their total real estate to the automobile. Self driving electric cars may help mitigate the first two problems.