Hybrids and Hummers: A short rant that has very little to do with cars

They say that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. I have been having an interesting conversation with a friend, Christina, about social welfare and poverty in the US. Her partner, Roland, apparently refers to the US as a ‘third world country with pockets of wealth’. I think this is a very apt description. My experience of the US is limited to a few visits, the longest of which will be three months. I have been living in the East Bay of San Francisco in a little town where the trees that line the main streets are permanently decorated with pretty little lights that dazzle the eye once the sun drops. I thought these were a Christmas treat, but alas, my partner (a local of sorts) assures me not. New dining venues have opened and boomed in Walnut Creek despite the fact that the US is in the middle of a serious recession which has seen a rise in people whose sole income is food stamps ($200 a month, to feed the whole family) unemployment levels have risen, and there is visible and increasing levels of homelessness (see this excellent New York Times article for more information:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/us/03foodstamps.html?scp=2&sq=Food%20Stamps&st=cse ). University education is in absolute crisis in California, with fees rising by 30%, staff furloughs enforced and stacks of lay-offs.

A lot has been written about America and its mythology: the home to immigrants far and wide who have come to make a better life for themselves and their families; a melting pot where everyone has a chance at bettering their circumstances; the innovators; the educators; the great civil rights revolutions of the 60s; the music, the movies, the chance for instant fame … What a great capitalist experiment! While other nation-states attempt to emulate the neo-liberal structures of the United States by reducing the welfare state and promoting privatization, conditions here continue to resemble a rotting apple: rosy on the outside with a nasty surprise at the inner core, spreading outwards.

This may sound cynical or sweeping in its criticism. There is no doubt that America is a complex political, social and cultural web, with resistances as well as complicities and exploitations. For example, San Francisco has universal health for its residents, and is a Sanctuary City, meaning that it will not search for or arrest residents who are not legal US citizens. Obama is attempting with all his might to “harness” (a word he is terribly fond of) the energy of all Americans in an effort to rebuild, take responsibility and resume the position as innovators, creators and global leaders. There is also no doubt that companies, consumers, farmers and industries in general have jumped on board new and necessary initiatives. For example, the environmental and fair trade causes. In California the organics market is amazing, with Organics ranges reasonably priced at the local Safeway. I have found it easier and more affordable to eat organics in San Francisco than I do in Sydney.  However, where there is capitalism there is exploitation (Marx, how indebted I am to you for this insight!).  These well-intentioned causes have been turned into profitable businesses with swanky slogans. My coffee, part of the Rainforest Alliance (a  counter to fair trade that has been labeled ‘fairtrade lite’) tells me about the local benefits of the indigenous Mayan community. But looking more closely, only 5% of net profits are given over to the local community.

Is capitalism to be held responsible for the vast discrepancies that characterize American life? Or is capitalism just not working properly? In the 1950s and 60s, with the development of shopping malls and the creation of the consumer, capitalism became aligned with lifestyle and aspiration. This logic continues to operate making the commodity the outcome and the goal. Within this context, Hybrids and Hummers both represent forms of capitalist excess. The hybrid Prius, which costs on average US $25,000, has been criticized for being as bad environmentally as a Hummer (this is not necessarily true however – at the end of the article I have linked to both sides of the argument). $25000 US is a lot of money, and makes this car inaccessible to many. Moreover, its image is linked with middle class folk who want to claim the higher moral ground when it comes to environmental matters (disregarding the fact that much of the lifestyle they take for granted is enabled through a variety of levels of violence). Meanwhile, a Hummer will set you back US $ between 39,000 and $60, 000. In this way the Hummer, a car with a beefy aesthetic and a reputation as a major polluter, represents arrogance. Unlike the Hybrid, which tries to pretty America’s image and show it as a world leader in sustainable change, the Hummer spits in the face of such notions, flaunting unlimited capitalist choice and freedom. When the weather starts getting even nastier, the Hummer will continue to drive through the middle of the hurricane, sure of its indestructibility.

There are loads of Hummers and Hybrids in Walnut Creek. In a way these two cars represent two faces of America and the continuation of the American dream as bound up with the automobile. But both of these faces require a future in which capitalism provides the way ‘forward’. One assumes the necessity of market-driven solutions to climate change and global relations of power, while the other continues to hold on to the ruthlessness of unfettered enterprise without conscience. What connects these two cars is their status as middle to upper class commodities.

Capitalism, however, doesn’t exclude the poor or disadvantaged per se. To the contrary, it requires them in order to operate more efficiently.  I won’t rehearse the arguments regarding the global economies of exploitation on which western middle-class lifestyles rely, but what I do want to quickly end on is the development of ‘Slum Tourism’ within the US. What this example highlights is the way in which the poor and disadvantaged are roped back into the very structures of capitalism that exploit them.  My friend Christina and I got into a discussion about this which prompted my current rant. Slum Tourism is exactly what is sounds like: people pay a sum ($100) to L.A Gang Tours in order to be safely carried through the ‘ganglands’, witnessing suburban slums up close and personal. On the tour they stop by the local gaol (Los Angeles County) and a detention centre, both of which house tens of thousands of inmates. The organization has well-intentioned goals: it is aimed at creating more jobs and opportunities for locals, and will see that the money made will go back into rebuilding the shattered structures of the community. In other words it is a market-based solution to problems which cannot be separated out from neo-liberal capitalism (for example, the privatization of gaols and detention centres means that it is profitable to imprison people).

What worries Christina and I is: firstly, that the Nation-State is so negligent that community organizers and leaders have to think up these sorts of solutions. This illuminates the degree to which the social welfare state does not operate in the US.  And secondly, as Christina put it, the possibility that at some point the tourist industry will develop such programs, only without the social agenda. This really isn’t that radical a notion under neoliberal capital. Perhaps when this happens they will transport the tourists though these streets in Hummers…

For more information on Hybrids and Hummers, and the debate regarding environmental credibility, go to http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9750840-1.html .  This site names both of the articles regarding the Prius and the Hummer, and provides links to the Pdf.

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