Special Series
The Year of Living Car-lessly Experiment
In a Series
The Currency of Parenting
When Seattle Weekly editor-in-chief Knute Berger called my family “moochers” for not owning a car, it got me thinking.
On the face of it, “moochers” is a ridiculous thing to call us. We pay for our transportation, just like everybody else. And because my family now drives about 7 percent as much as is typical for a family like ours, we’re no longer mooching off of future generations--burning their oil while ruining their climate. So, aren't we actually among the non-moochers?
When I saw all the heat, venom, and profanity that Berger's column unleashed in the blogosphere, however, I realized there's a deeper issue inside the word "moocher." If there weren't, no one would have cared.
And I’ve got an idea of why this label has such emotional valence. I believe it’s because cars operate in two economies.
