[Superman]

Jamie, you are far to smart to have missed the elegance and beauty of this current system. Subsidizing the oil companies with taxpayers' money improves their bottom line, and keeps American auto maufacturers busy selling expensive, large vehicles. It's not about free markets. It's about capitalism. Capitalism obviously works, as long as citizens are not paying attention.

Same with safety. Traffic congention (and transporation infrastructure challenges like we have here in W WA), highway deaths and injuries, insurance rates, all these things would fall if we required motorists to be skilled and educated as a condition of holding a motor vehicle operator's license. Instead, anybody that can read (at least a little) and is 17 years old with about $20 can get a drivers' license. But you see, if we tightened up the requirements, a bunch of bad things would happen. Deaths and injuries would fall, congestion would fall, costs would fall, gas cionsumption would fall, etc. But SUV sales would also fall and effective public transportation systems would be developed. See what you're suggesting? Don't be silly.