Quote:
Originally Posted by hellosailor
cam-
"AND Put on a REBATABLE tax per gallon of gas to influence CHOICE"
I'd agree with you there, but I think you've missed the logic. The problem is that the car makers will lag, not lead, because they serve the "old" market not the future one. Buyers who want to buy a high mileage high quality car will pretty much find they can't buy one--because the makers haven't made one, because the market hasn't demanded one. The classic "chicken and the egg" paradox.
Government carrots and sticks can break that paradox and ensure that cars are made and a market is served.
Ideally, carrots and sticks will both be applied but let's face it, gummint ain't that sharp. The rubes, excuse me, mass market, still want 8000# crossovers and trucks and 300+hp, whether they need it or not. And I think we've all seen and heard families with three Landrovers and a Hummer complaining bitterly that they can't afford $4.50 gasoline--but they wouldn't dare to buy cars that cost less than $50,000 and they prefer to waste money leasing them and being conspicuous consumers.
Conspicuous consumption drives the market way more than you might give it credit for. Folks won't fold, unless someone gut-punches them to give 'em a little help with that first bend.
Of course, the entire car culture and the logic of "live here, work two hours away, no way to get ther ebut drive" needs a good re-examination too. But that's something only a real sharp gummint would look at--and way more dangerous than doing a bandaid fix like this one.
ss-
"every assertion that there is global warming has been disproved."
Quite to the contrary, every record shows that the earth's climate has always been in flux and that right now, we're actually way overdue for an ice age. Global warming, whether it is humanly caused or simply part of the larger cycles, may either save us or kill us and anyone who argues that we can ignore this part of our environment, rather than trying to understand it, is simply a lemming going over the cliff.
This planet gets hot enough to kill off all human civilization. And cold enough to do the same. Doesn't matter WHY that happens, if we're not ahead of the curve, it will kill us off. Just like waking up and finding six inches of water over the bilge--you either pay some attention to it, or you deserve to drown.
|
Boy, I'll bet you could get a job in Detroit, Stuttgart, or Tokyo. Because none of the auto mavens there have been able to predict what the car of the future will resemble.
It might no hurt to remember that Toyota researched the Prius on profits made from large SUV's and pick up trucks. And they sold the Prius at a loss. Honda canceled it's hybrid for terminally torpid sales, as well.
The fact of the matter is that all car companies have lost money and will continue to lose money on high mpg cars until something fundamental in the market changes. Apparently only certain enlightened individuals and the US government know what the car of the future should look like. and we could have that car today if we just mandated that the Corolla cost $50,000 and was the only car one could buy. We'll do worse than that.
One may have noticed that the Obama administration just bumped the CAFE standards to 39mpg by 2016, something the NHTSA itself thought not only imprudent but technically impossible with existing safety standards.
We could double the average mileage of our cars overnight if we eliminated all pollution and safety standards. How bad do we want it?
And what is inherently wrong with people choosing the car they want, as they would when buying a boat? Do you really believe people are too stupid to choose in their own best interest?