American Culture at the Crossroads

Of all the world's great inventions, none have had as much of an influence on American culture as the automobile. From strip malls to suburbs and everyway byway in between, the constructs of our society are built around our desire to travel by way of the motorized vehicle. There are a few urban exceptions in which mass transit makes the most sense for a large number of people, of course, but for most people their car keys embody their highest levels of passion and (obviously) economic commitment.
Filling Their Coffers
State and local governments, too, have benefited greatly from our love of the car. Secretaries of State and Motor Vehicle Departments across the nation rely on license and registration fees, never mind the revenue collection that results from ticketed motorists. The insurance industry would be nowhere near as strong without the mandates of auto insurance, and collision repair shops would take in nowhere nearly as much profits without those premium-backed claims being paid.
Got Fuel to Burn, Got Roads to Drive
Thinking about the internecine relationships between government and energy producers, we can see that the tens of billions of dollars' worth of quarterly profits (not to mention the billions in tax loopholes) comes straight from our wallets into the bank accounts of Big Oil. It appears that efforts to increase fuel efficiency in modern cars comes have resulted in higher sticker prices, at least for now, as every idea under the sun (including the sun itself) is in the development pipeline, from algae to switch grass. But do car buyers really want to fire up a sewing machine in their driveway, as opposed to a Boss 302? Time will tell.
We are at a cultural turning point in our nation, in which the automobile as most of us remember it will be relegated to museum status - this is already the case as most people only see "muscle cars" at hot rod shows anymore - as the piston-driven internal combustion engine is phased out of existence. If nothing else, the "peak oil" theories espoused by geologists indicate that this will almost assuredly happen in this century. American infrastructure dictates that we will still require the use of motorized vehicles, but going forward, we will most certainly not be driving our fathers' Oldsmobiles.