If I were going to start a thread about car audio, I would do it in one of the car audio threads. That's not lounge material, in my opinion.
The analogy is one I heard a while ago from David Suzuki (for those who watch The Nature of Things). It applies to many things, but I think in our current frame of reference is applied best to the impending "energy crisis" and the search for alternative energy/fuels.
In North America, we have huge holes (inefficiencies) in our tubs. No matter where we source the energy from, we are still using and wasting a lot more energy than is necessary. If we were to focus on solving some of the things causing the problem, we could make better use of the energy we already have. Instead, people are searching for the next great fuel.
Take CFL's (compact fluorescent lamps) for example: corporations everywhere and (uninformed) environmentalists are touting it as a great way to make our energy consumption less detrimental. The bizarre thing is:
1) World-wide, we are trying to get rid of items with Mercury as they pose an environmental hazard; guess what CFL's have in them?
2) LED lights draw less current and can last for up to 50,000 hours (compared to the 15,000 hours from a CFL).
This probably isn't anything new to you, but is just a simple example of how we continue to throw money away on everything from new products to new research without really focusing on the actual problem: the size of the population, and the energy it consumes.