Issue No3: America’s Inquisitive Man

An 1814 English fable titled “The Inquisitive Man’ tells the story of man who goes to a museum and notices many tiny things but fails to notice an elephant. Hence the metaphor “the elephant in the room” was born. It applies to huge subjects, questions or controversial issues that everyone is aware of, but no one wants to address because it makes some people uncomfortable, embarrassed or it can be inflammatory or dangerous.

These brief articles will cover different examples of an elephant in the room. I’m going to go graph-centric and will speak specifically to their content whenever possible. I will also provide unquestionably credible sources.

My first elephant in the room example was America’s financial situation. The second article explored the lack of blameworthiness of both Hollywood and the video game industries regarding gun violence. My third article focuses on the hypocrisy of the American automotive buyer regarding their continuing need to drive large, oversized gas-guzzlers and our short sighted government fuel policy enabling it while at the same time passionately agreeing that climate change is a high priority issue deserving spending billions of tax dollars to reduce our carbon footprint. This is our third elephant.

These enclosed graphs include what the EPA classifies as Light-Duty Vehicles, which includes electric…