The bane of america: solo drivers, subarbs, and i'm gon' get mah own

I read an article today in the NYTimes titled,

"Once Popular, Car Pools Go the Way of Hitchhiking"

"Today, advocates point to the increase in social networking tools that would make it easier to identify potential ride-sharing mates — yet the national car-pooling rate continues to fall, and today it is below 12 percent of all drivers....The population of the Washington suburbs has exploded in recent years, up by more than 60 percent since 1980. "

There are several indicators about our American society:

-->Funneled thinking

If more people carpooled, there would be less cars on the road=there would be less time spent in ugly traffic.  If more people carpooled, there would be less pollution (a.k.a nasty air) and fewer cases of respiratory diseases. If more people carpooled, they would save a bunch of money on their gas, and buying a car, and maintaining a car, and insurance.  But nope, because driving your own car is convenient, and that's all that matters.

-->love of individualism

The phenomenon known as the subarb and its massive growth not only creates more physical space between us, between where we work, between community. We want to own and drive our own car and define ourselves through the things we can call "mine". This is my car, this is my house, I earned it, I own it.

-->success = the degree of our self-indulgence

How big your salary is, how many people are under you, how big your house is, how much you can spend on dinner, how much you can spend on vacation, how far you can afford to be from your next door neighbor, how many amenities you can fit into and around your home, how secure your subarb is, how much your purse is worth, how big your TV is, how many channels you have, how expensive your car is...

I'm gon' get mah own!