Hummer, the unnecessarily large, overly-destructive off-roading vehicle that is more often seen on suburban streets than rugged terrain, may have guzzled its last gallon. Well, at least on the production side.
General Motors couldn’t complete the deal to sell the vehicle that gets a whopping 14 miles per gallon to China — as if the country needed more help creating pollution. Chinese company Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. decided to pull out of its deal to buy Hummer, leaving the Sport Utility Vehicle facing a shutdown, according to The Washington Post.
Hummers may be no more, but good riddance. Unless you’re in a war zone, you have no business driving a car that can barely fit in one lane anyway.
But Hummers aren’t alone in being too big for its own good. Here are some of our picks:
Debt: Be it Arizona’s, student or national debt, owing people (or China) money isn’t a good feeling. Of all the places to downsize, this may be number one. Money in the bank is usually better than money in credit card debt.
Social networks: Remember the good old days when getting a Facebook account was a reward for going to college? Back when your dad, grandma and 12-year-old sister weren’t secretly stalking your profile? Or even when you actually screened the friend requests you got? When the girl you spoke to once in class wants to be your “friend,” it’s time to step away from social networking.
Beverage cups: A 64-ounce Big Gulp may be the best bang for your buck, but it’s not as beneficial for your bladder or your health. As the years have gone by, portion sizes have grown. If you go to Burger King today, the “small” drink you get is really the medium-sized beverage of a few years ago. Travel to Europe, and your large soda will be a “small” by U.S. standards. But drinking huge sodas means more than the inevitable sugar high and low. It means you’d better have easy access to a clean bathroom — you’re going to need it.
Class sizes: For some of us, the first class we take at ASU is bigger than our entire high school population. Heck, ASU is bigger than a lot of the cities some students come from. We’re not trying to diss the whole accessibility tenet of ASU, but it gets hard to learn when you’re squished between a snorer and a texter in a class of 500.
Saying bye-bye to the bulky Hummer behemoth may not be as hard as giving up Facebook for a week, but at least it’s a start on cutting down on the excess stuff we don’t really need. We can just hear the trees breathing a sigh of relief …
