The Tata Nano

A $2,500 car is available for sale in India. Not much to look at, but it's $2,500, and it gets 50 MPG or better. It isn't spacious, but it's probably a little better than the manually-pulled rickshaw, or a crowded bus transporting chickens and commuters. ABC News bills this as a potential environmental nightmare. Problem is, millions of poor Indian families may be able to scrape together enough rupees to afford one of these babies. The environmental nightmare ensues when the have-nots can join the haves. You see, we don't need to come up with new, cleaner technologies for transportation. We can make our Sasquatch Carbon Footprint because the third world can't afford the polluting luxuries. The same reasoning keeps health insurance away from the poor. Allowing everyone to access the medical system would only make us have to wait longer. Good idea, isn't it? It's really kept health care costs in check.