Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Elk
So you actually like the government telling you what kind of car you can buy.  I don’t think you need to worry sounding like an American. |
No, I don't like the idea of a government telling me what to buy: they'd be dumb enough to require Honda Accords or something hideous like that.
The problem that you "freedom to choose" people forget is that there are social consequences to vehicle choice. There are things like pollution and global warming, or the geopolitical consequences of the need to import oil (funny how American money ends up in all kinds of anti-American regimes' bank accounts as a result of this). Those are all things that the individual driving the Hummer H2 or whatever gas guzzler of the day doesn't face on their own, but instead they basically inflict on everybody else. The American thirst for oil is something that WILL need to be addressed at some point in the near future.
Now, how do you propose addressing this, given that people, when choosing a vehicle, will choose the most gas guzzling thing possible? Either
a) government jacks up the price of gas in hope that if it's high enough, people will move to smaller vehicles on their own, (and automakers, to keep selling big ones, will improve the big ones' fuel economy tremendously) or
b) government continues to pressure automakers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles than what people want to buy, in which case the current pressure (the 27.5MPG car standard, with its loopholes) is clearly inadequate,
I simply can't see a way to account for the social consequences of gas guzzlers that doesn't involve [well thought-out, which may be impossible for the US govt given the political pressures and everything else] government action. Or do you somehow magically think people will chose Aveos instead of Escalades tomorrow? That strikes me as even more naive than expecting the US government to do the right thing...
Oh, and for the record, what idiot came up with that "fuel economy" phrase? It's not like we're talking about any fuel being SAVED, we're talking about how much fuel gets burned...