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Me, in 2008, offering a bright idea for getting people to pay more attention to auto mileage:

Require stickers to list the estimated cost of fuel consumption over a five year period. The estimate doesn’t have to be perfect, just close enough to make it clear to consumers how much more one car costs than another over its life. Upside: it’s free. Downsides: none that I can think of.

From the Los Angeles Times today:

Federal regulators unveiled new fuel economy labels that could make it easier for new-car buyers to compare fuel-efficient vehicles and gas-guzzlers. In addition to the miles per gallon, the labels will show […] the expected cost of fuel over the next five years compared with the average new vehicle.

Clearly the federal government stole this idea from me and now refuses to give me credit. Bastards.

Oh wait. They actually did this back in 2006. But that label redesign only showed the expected cost of fuel over one year. Clearly the idea to extend this to five years was mine. I think they should name the new sticker after me.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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