Well, tell that to the average US worker who's just above poverty level, owns a late '70s jalopy with worn piston rings, who can't afford anything better because he can't afford to fix it when it breaks down due to all the electronic emission control stuff..
Not quite sure you're being fair here. First, is the average American worker really living just above poverty level? Your average union worker certainly isn't. My impression is that the average American with a full-time job does reasonably well. I'm not convinced that environmental regulation is placing that great a burden on working-class Americans, and I'm not convinced that working-class Americans are totally insensitive to the desirability of leaving their children a country with clean air, clean water, and wild places.
Declare huge portions of wildnerness off limits to all of those who can't afford to fly in on a plane or helicopter...
When I was a teenager I would hitchhike west with a few dollars earned through part-time work in my pocket, and spent months in the most remote corners of wilderness areas in the North Cascades, Southwest Colorado, and Idaho. I sure as hell didn't fly in. I walked. And one of the first thing I noticed was that as soon as a trail came within 30 minutes walk of a road, it became blanketed with cans, wrappers, and other litter.
Call me an elitist if you like, but I do believe in preserving wilderness, and in preserving tracts of the real thing as exclusive preserves for wildlife and the few people willing to take the effort to walk to them. The pilgrimage to the wilderness has an impact that none who have experienced it can ever forget, and dollar for dollar is more effective (IMO) than any known psychotherapy. It is also a quintessentially American tradition, and I don't think we should even consider depriving future generations of the benefits this sort of experience provides. |
