"Mike" wrote in message
...
I have a company car which costs me nix to run but requires me to
drive for the job. I won't change the job so the gas goes with the car.
If
things were different I would be driving a 20 year old merc run on waste
vege oil. Most people who have the option don't think of it.

rob



as I said it's money. You are more than likely unable to change your job
for
financial reasons/committments. You could tell the company that you don't
want their car and that they could pay you milage to run your old Merc,
BUT,
they get a good deal from the Leasing Company to provide you with a car
and
to pay you milage would be expensive for them, plus, with an old car, the
possibility of your unreliability and not earning your keep. Money issues
left right and centre there.

I could chuck my job Mike but it is a job I love, provides so many benefits
and genuine job satisfaction. Part of that job satisfaction is independance.
I had to battle hard to get it. The job does pay well and that is helping us
pay down a mortgage at a stupid rapidity. I would work for $20 k less, such
is the quality of the job. Once the house is paid off we will renovate and I
can look at retro fitting low flow showers, maybe a composting toilet or at
least a low water flush, investigate some form of rain water harvesting and
grey water usage, higher spec insulation etc. Being a mature house in a
mature suburb it needs to fit with existing asthetics, the house needs to
retain its value (although I intend being acrried out of here in a box) and
the history of the suburb is something I really appreciate.

Money does get in the way of somethings. I think those who believe liberal
free market capitalism is the 'natural order' of things are naive, such as
Robert Fukuyamas book 'The End of History' (although he has since repented).
The pathways open to humanity are varied and broad. To me being a socialist
these days is very much being an environmentalist. Capitalism may survive,
it has a habit of doing that, however the free market will undergo a series
of jolts if environmental degredation continues (and I think it will). If we
survive I see a world based on localism and local democratisation. Heaven
knows at least here, in New Zealand, we are so removed from world economies
and our trading markets that we won't be able to be global. We may not end
up in the stone age however we may end up with a society 50-100 years back
in time in many senses. Stone agism is a worst case scenario, continuing on
our merry way with technology and science providing us miracle solutions (is
to me fking naive) optimistic. Some of the dull witted libertarians I know
think all will be sweetness and light in the future. If we survive in a
lower tech/lower horizon world that to me might indicate success.

Currently the availability of bio-fuels in New Zealand would account for
something like.25% of the current energy demands of our nation. Put another
way, it would take 400 years of bio-fuel growth to produce the same energy
demands as 2006.

rob