@EI3JDB As we say in Danish, "mange bække små gør stor å" (many small streams make a great river).
I have an American relative who tells me that one of the reasons many of them drive ridiculous giant cars over there is ... road safety. This is because the giant cars are normalized, and driving a compact car puts you at risk of getting hit and killed by someone driving a Suburb-Panzer. The statistics bear this out: The increased popularity of large SUVs has *increased* traffic fatalities for pretty much everyone who's not driving a SUV. This means that in that context, buying a big SUV sure looks like a reasonable way to keep your family safe.
But I'd say that the most productive place to cast blame here isn't a random American family who somehow has to keep existing in the middle of an insane vehicular arms race, but rather the politicians and automaker executives who allowed that arms race to kick off in the first place (and, in the latter case, directly profit from it).
Likewise, it's a *choice* that basically the entire so-called western world changed our approach to living arrangements in a way that makes it difficult to function without a car. It's not something inherent to the human condition, it's a politico-economic decision that can be (and in some places, to various extents, *has been*) reversed.
