Fourstar, you completely ignored the biggest argument brought up: we have a much bigger country. Public transportation is wonderful if one lives in a city that provides such services, but not all that many do. I live about eighty miles from Chicago, and there is no public transportation. The nearest college is thirty miles away, and it's only a two year school, so there are no dorms. I have to drive, then, sixty miles each day I go to school. With around twenty-five mpg, I'm estimating my daily gas consumption to two and a quarter gallons. With gas a four dollars per gallon, that's ten dollars per day I spend getting to school. That adds up to a lot of money.