Here we go again....

This is just silly.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124266939482331283.html#mod=rss_Page_One

Here's the government trying to effect change by mandating it rather than encouraging it. GAS TAX, MAN! It would do all the above, and not force the automakers or consumers hand. It would make everyone think they're making their own decision, and foster competition. I thought we were a capitalist society?

It's like dealing with a kid. First you tell your kid to put on a jacket because it's going to be cold outside. He's likely going to protest (because he's a kid), so you have two choices. 1. you force him to put on the jacket "because I said so" or 2. you let him go outside, freeze his ass, and then ask to put his jacket on. Either way, the kid ends up with the jacket on, but with 2, he also learned a lesson and made a choice. He probably feels good about that choice, and next time he's on his own and cold, he might just ask for a jacket. With 1., let's say it's not really cold enough outside for a jacket. Now, he's standing around, hot, thinking, why have I been forced to put on this jacket. Jackets are dumb. Now the lesson is "A jacket is something you put on when your mother is cold." (Shamelessly lifted from a comment thread on Slashdot).

The mandatory fuel guidelines are just like 1 if you ask me. If fuel prices go up, people will demand more fuel efficient cars. Someone will fill that gap. Someone like, oh, I don't know, Chrysler-Fiat? Look, we just saved Chrysler! Go USA!

There's something else that bothers me. Every time you read one of these articles about Americans and fuel efficient cars, they always seem to mention that US car makers don't make enough margin on the compact cars because they don't have all the luxury accouterments and whatnot. So, in this new era of people buying fuel efficient cars, you think that people with money are going to spend less? Again, the market will figure this out. Rich people will spend the same amount of money on a fuel efficient car as they would on an SUV. Make a small car with lots of finery, they will buy it. It kills me. In the beginning, SUV's were barely more than trucks with a back seat added. They were not luxury vehicles. But look at them now. Leather seats, navigation, glass roofs. If there's a market for it, someone will make it. We're an enterprising bunch. Let us do what we do best, Obama, don't force it with artificial forces. It's destined to fail.