Only 18 years old? It must be 1999! Forget about buffer overflows, the world is going to end in two months!!

I was waiting for someone to post along these lines. While it is great that your 'hilly 10-mile commute' only takes you about 45 minutes, my nearly flat 25 mile commute would take unreasonably long with a bicycle. 25 miles as the crow flies, I might add, since the reality is I'd need to bike first east and then north (or vice versa), through some neighborhoods that I don't even feel safe driving though in a car with the windows rolled up, let alone a bike with my laptop strapped to my back.

Thankfully I live near a train station, so I don't require the use of a car to get to and from work. I can bike to the train station, ride downtown and then walk the last mile to work. I guess you may be right, not everybody in the country needs a car - but the overwhelming majority certainly do.

Cars are cheap because nearly everybody in this country needs a car. You need a car to get to work, you need it to get to school and you need it for recreation. Sure, if you happen to live in a major city there is also mass transit, but for a large percentage of the population a car is a necessary reality.

Now, with that being said - what happens when something is produced in such great numbers? Economies of scale - the price is driven down due to mass production. Vehicles that cost $13,000 USD are a reality and they're not half bad either. A pretty decent car can be purchased for $20,000, and a really good car for $30,000. Luxury vehicles are nearly anything $40,000 and above.

What about electric cars? They aren't mass produced in any great number just yet, because so far everyone is content with dropping $13,000 on a car that's just "good enough" for their needs. Why do I need an electric vehicle? What benefit does it give me _right now_? Fuel costs decrease significantly, yes - but enough to offset the price of the car? Probably not, even over the lifetime of the vehicle. Therein lies the problem.

Electric vehicles - especially from a non-big 3 startup - are something I believe the government should assist. Your tax dollars are helping fund the future, because while you may not be able to afford this vehicle at $50,000, you might be able to afford the next car they produce using the profits of the Model S.

When the world is filled with "good enough" and people who like "good enough" - how do you convince people to switch to something better?

We unfortunately use IE6 exclusively here at my office/entire corporation. IE7 is being trial (and we're 'not allowed' but not blocked from installing IE7 or IE8) but 99% of the corporate populace is running IE6. It made things interesting when I inherited an internal app that's "developed" using oracle application express. Giving the entire app an overhaul and trying to integrate stuff such as jquery to makes things a bit more user friendly was quite a challenge when the browser that everyone uses keeps throwing up rendering errors for what seem to be almost no reason. Eventually I said screw it and developed the entire site twice; using browser sniffing to determine what version to send out. The work wasn't justified at the time (only myself and a few others use alternative browsers), but when the company eventually does move to IE7/8 this app will at least be compatible with newer versions. Not only that, but it'll exhibit features that simply aren't available under IE6.

Unfortunately you need to read the manual before you even purchase the car, and the car comes in so many body styles, colors and designs - and every option under the sun. You can even throw in a Model T engine and have it run great.

The car that runs on baby kittens on the otherhand, comes with far fewer options, and these options are all kinda similar (different engine sizes and three or four colors) - but the support is great, everyone has one (so if you don't know something about it, your neighbor might) and the roads were designed with them in mind.

Sometimes it's not about features, it's about the marketing. Microsoft is successful not because they offer the best product, but because most people only know of their product and nothing else. And unfortunately until recently (Ubuntu and similar), Linux just hasn't been close in ease of use. The previously mentioned distros are a great step in the right direction but are still far from being ready for the prime time.

Meanwhile, I'm going to hop in my Aluminum iCar. It only has one button and is maintenance free. Only comes in black or white though, and it costs $150,000 - but hey, that's the price you pay for ease of use sometimes?