A little good news. General Motors signalled that the end was near for the Hummer product line.

Wagoner said GM is reviewing its Hummer brand and could sell the military-derived SUV line, which has become synonymous with gas-guzzling excess and has hurt GM’s image at a time when consumers are demanding more fuel efficiency.

Gas-guzzling excess? Well with a basic curb weight of over 6,600 pounds, what do you expect? From what I understand, you expect somewhere between 8 MPG in the city and 14 or so on the highway. A classic symbol of conspicuous consumption. Big. And tall, so you can look down on your inferiors, the little people scuttling around in their Hondas. I’ve always thought it would be easier if you could just buy a status badge from the government, like $1 million for a bronze, $10 million for a silver, $100 million for a gold and so forth. Then you could just wear it on your lapel and you wouldn’t have to spend money on Hummers or Porsches, you could just buy safe, comfortable and efficient transportation. Everybody who saw the badge would know you had paid a lot of money for it. As a badge-wearer, you could sneer at the badgeless peasantry. Or patronize the wearers of lesser badges. The revenue from badge sales would help keep taxes low. Resource consumption would be minimal. Sounds like a win-win to me. I mean, this isn’t a new idea. Before there were Hummers, many civilizations had sumptuary laws that limited the wearing of certain articles of clothing, or colors or fabrics, to visually mark social status. Relatively cheap, and successful. Why not? Instead of the huge grilles and front ends of the pickup trucks and SUVs, why not just bring back the well-stuffed codpiece?