Mr. Thompson loves his Prius. It’s a clean, pearl white color and gets close to 45 mpg if he accelerates slowly when getting up to speed on the highway and breaks more when driving downhill. But that’s fine, he doesn’t have to worry about what other drivers think of him because he got a fantastic tax break for being environmentally friendly and buying a brand new hybrid car. He enjoys telling people about how great it is to have a battery in his car, as opposed to wasting fossil fuels– never mind that the battery sometimes fails when the temperature drops too low in the winter. People don’t need to know that.

And what does that matter anyway? Everyone knows Mr. Thompson’s car is great and, by proxy, Mr. Thompson is great for caring about the environment!

With a small smile and a swell of pride, Mr. Thompson folds up his newspaper and throws away his disposable coffee cup before getting into his Prius and driving the 5 minutes to work.