T. rex, the Dodo bird and the SUV

Yo, Swami:

The other day it cost me like a hundred bucks to fill up my Chevy Suburban for a holiday weekend trip to Paddock Lake, then I saw this news story about how SUVs and trucks as personal vehicles are "an endangered species." Does this mean I should trade in my Suburban for one of them little "smart" cars that look like a roller skate?

Sincerely,
Conspicuous Consumption

Dear Consumer:

Here's hoping that your 32-gallon tank got you all the way up to Highway 50 and County B. And no doubt your Suburban's four-wheel-drive capability came in handy on the towering, rock-covered mountains of Kenosha County.

Anyway, peering into the crystal ball, The Swami sees a day when SUVs are more expensive to operate than they are worth. That day was, oh, a Thursday in the summer of 1986, or around the time SUV mania hit the American marketplace.

But The Swami does not advise you to ditch your rolling financial sinkhole. The American economy might collapse entirely without those $100-a-week gas purchases filling the feed-bag for Big Oil. You keep fighting the good fight.