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@EdwardZ
Leaving aside discussions as to if the UK is a democracy.. Its a question of public health and individual rights. Motorcars are not self-harm as narcotics but makes 2nd hand cigarette smoke seem like a poor joke. Lets not even talk about CO2, polution and its impact on global warming blah blah.. Lets not even talk about global oil-fed terrorism and its impact on limiting civil rights.. lets not even talk about the massive property damage caused by motor exhaust... beyond all of the direct economic and social costs.. in the UK today it is the main killer of 16-24 year olds.. In the US in any 3 month period more Americans will die in auto accidents that the total casualties of the so-called "War on Terror" (itself fueld by oil) since 2001 (Iraq, Afgahnistan etc.).. And what does the car deliver? Freedom? Freedom to sit in traffic.. Ever talk to a junkie about their addiction?
That is why most of the West economies are in deep trouble. Politicians want to get elected and if that means to side step the issues to not make waves with sponsors such as petrochemicals, automobiles, arms makers etc. Instead of investing in education-- the UK thinks they can solve their education problem by mandating foreign language teaching in elementary school--- and improving infrastructure, the UK like the US lets things just fall apart.. The US government saved "GM".. it did not really save "GM".. only really the pensions.. the problems with "GM" are still there.. Other than a pile of money.. it put off the kind of restructuring that the US needed.. Its major effect was to get Obama votes in Ohio.. but the rust belt is still rusting... Lower taxes get votes. Its the divide between personal interest-- pay less tax-- and public interest.. When the state fails in its own legitimation all that remains is personal interest.. and that means the want to pay less tax.. and a continued free fall..
Reminds me of the story of how Lenin came to his philosophy we call "Leninism" as expoused in his pamphet "Was tun" ("What is to be done"). On his way home from a failed worker's demonstation--- hardly anyone came--- at Munich's Karlsplatz he observed out of the window of his tram on the way home a bar filled with workers (the Schelling Salon which in the mid 1930s was a favorite haunt of Eva Braun and her Adolf).. he realized that one can free slaves but they don't stop being slaves..
But slaves can and have freed themselves at various times.. From the Israelites to .....