This is one of those times that I don't like being a mod ... I can't quite say what I really want. But here goes ...
[rant]
Quote:
Originally Posted by stovt001
And what the hell is government, a charity? The greed coming from government completely eclipses any greed from corporate America. You don't see private companies setting arbitrarily low speed limits and shortening yellow lights in an unsafe manner just for a revenue grab do you?
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No, but nobody can claim that the auto industry doesn't invent arbitrary ways to make money. If they
really wanted to, they could create cars that lasted 2x as long, used fewer parts, and cost only a little bit more. Why don't they? Ask anyone who works at a dealership where they make their money: parts or sales.
Even with the Camaro, GM is hoping that some will buy a 2010 SS right now and then trade it in for a brand new 2013 with some new features (vert? Z28? Gen V engine? Nav?) even when their current car has nothing wrong with it and would be completely satisfying if it weren't for something 'new and improved' being offered. Planned obsolescence was invented by Ford decades ago, the idea that your car is now old and needs to be replaced with something better every few years.
Does this bother me? Not at all. But the notion that government is evil and wants to destroy the GM that we know and love is laughable. Why? Because the GM is far from a simple business that inocently goes about building cars. They've gone out to destroy other industries (light rail for example) in order to further their own goals. They have their lobbyists in government and officials have gotten money (through back door dealings and up front campaign contributions) to give the automakers what they want, rather than what some other group wants, such as the average voter. So they have had their hand in things for decades, now the government is starting to return the favor and people are screaming foul.
This hasn't been a problem for me in the past, thats why I've never raised the point. Well, that and the interaction between government and GM hasn't been too much of an issue on the boards. But now that things have been flipped around, I think its worth mentioning. Personally, I think we should be more concerned about business interfering with government than government interfering with business. Because really, whats affects you more: Obama having a hand in GM or Fritz Henderson having a hand in the US Federal Government?
One last little comment ... regulations. Know what the penalty for not being up to CAFE standards is? A fine. A small fine. Less than the gas guzzler tax if you work it out for the cars that have the lowest mileage. I think tail pipe emmissions are similar. Crash standards are a minimum requirement to be legal, and every car greatly exceeds them. So its the customer that forces safety more than the government, a 3 start crash rating is not good enough for most: it
has to be 5 star. Point is, GM could easily build unsafe, dirty gas guzzlers (a Hummer H2 is nothing compared to what they
could do) if they wanted to, and pay some small fines. But the average consumers would abandon them faster than they do their new years resolution.
I'm done now.
[/rant]