





I. 56 MPG = Lost Jobs?



They write:










III. Ray LaHood Wants Standard to be Finalized by July







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RE: Freedoms
By YashBudini on 7/1/2011 11:55:33 PM , Rating: 2
So please tell us how the government has prevented you from buying a Bentley or a Ferrari. Hell you can drive around in a tractor trailer if you want to, who's stopping you?

RE: Freedoms
By mindless1 on 7/2/2011 2:27:47 PM , Rating: 2
"Prevent" is a nonsensical word. Suppose every time you leave your home, your neighbor beats you half unconscious.

Your neighbor didn't prevent you from leaving home, but it's definitely going to change the way your choices are made, you no longer have the same freedom of choice as you formerly did.

Why doesn't everyone have the nicer cars you mention? Their higher cost is a primary factor. Since cars are sold in luxury and performance tiers even among similar types of vehicles, raising the prices of each does change what the average shopper will purchase.

Who is stopping them? A government that makes everything in their lives more expensive than it ought to be, by burdening the average taxpayer with paying for what benefits the wealthy.

Let's put it another way. The government isn't stopping anyone from choosing to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle if that is what they want, there is no reason why the government needs to mandate fuel economy for those who are fuel economy conscious to pick an economic vehicle and through sales rates, automakers will spend more R&D on increasing fuel economy.

We know that is not what people want, the industry is currently a reflection, a balance of what people want based on what they buy based on 100 years of experience. We can say "oh SUVs used to sell well and now don't so much", but that fact reinforces my argument, that consumers chose on their own to buy something else without any government intervention necessary.

Yes there was cash for clunkers, where many people just bought a newer SUV to replace their old one, not the highest fuel efficient vehicle they could find.

RE: Freedoms
By YashBudini on 7/2/2011 5:57:43 PM , Rating: 2
Every new car lot I pass is loaded with unsold SUVs and other vehicles that get poor mpg. Perhaps you haven't noticed.


The people that want these cars buy them. The cost includes a level of exclusiveness for status. Notice how their crappy mpg rating and gas guzzler tax has no impact on the vehicle. People buy want they want, and they sacrfice what they feel like sacrificing, which is why homeless people always have beer, cigarettes, and lotto tickets. What taxes have stopped them?

In the 70's Detroit said the cost of the catalytic converters would hurt car sales. Guess what? The cost of sheet metal changes totally dwarfs the cost of cats, even back then.

your neighbor beats you half unconscious.

Yeah it's tough living in a country with no guns.

RE: Freedoms
By mindless1 on 7/6/2011 7:46:57 PM , Rating: 2
If the new car lot has lots of SUVs, it is because the dealership orders lots of SUVs because they sell lots of SUVs, although at the same time I would expect the average car lot has plenty of smaller vehicles too, you just wouldn't notice them as much because they are smaller... a little car won't block you from seeing the SUV behind it, but the SUV would block your seeing the car behind it by a higher %.

False about "the people who want these cars buy them". While it is true that the people who buy these cars want them, the opposite is not true, there are lots of things in life that people want but cannot afford or in the case of vehicles, they don't have the extra garage, driveway or other space to store everything they'd "like" to own.

Homeless people always have these things? I suppose you watch too much TV and stereotype well, but there is a reason why homeless people tend to continue smoking and drinking, because that is a minor expense relative to things like making a house payment, nice clothes to wear to work, providing for a family, the car to go places, etc etc. Plus, statistically speaking mental illness is a large contributing factor to homelessness (at least before the recession in the US it was) and mentally ill people tend to drink and smoke more, IF they can manage to.

You wrote "what taxes have stopped them", while failing to grasp that ideally they would not be doing without all the things they do. Think about it, if you could survey all of them do you feel the consensus would be that they have everything they want? Your example is extremely self defeating in that they have almost nothing and you wanted to argue as though taxes must not stop them because they want not for anything, which is clearly not the case.

Sheet metal changes are a necessity to update a design, improve safety, etc. You can't argue away that cost as a reason to ignore cost of other things, but I fail to see how this fits into your argument because today a catalytic converter can be bought aftermarket for $100, a far cry from the total cost of all the mandates to push vehicle attributes beyond what the public wants.

Guns are not an answer to my example, rather that just escalates the situation until one person is dead and the other goes to prison. If you wield a gun and the neighbor backs down you can't (reasonably assume to) get away with shooting him, so he leaves and being the thug that was hassling you already, he comes back with a gun, waiting in hiding knowing that you are inside but you not knowing if or when he is outside.

