There must be a rube in
the House.
A recent Republican who
does not understand how the game is played – much less why it is being played
the way it is played. He and perhaps some of his fellows not-yet-initiated
publicly wondered why the federal government is underwriting the sale of
luxury-performance cars that happen to be electric.
It is a curious thing.
They suggested rescinding the
$7,500 tax inducement which the government has been using to “help” electric
car manufacturers like Tesla, which sell electric cars that start around
$40,000 and which emphasize not economy but
performance and style and technology.
Some might look upon the robbing
of Peter – who probably drives an eight-year-old Camry in need of front end
work – so that Paul can
drive a brand-new, $40,000 electric luxury-performance car – as somewhat
obnoxious.
But not everyone.
There is, for example, Genevieve
Cullen – who is the head shill for the electric luxury-performance car lobby,
styled the Electric Drive Transportation Association. She practically squealed
the collective indignation of her clients, who are alarmed very much by the
prospect of having to make an honest dollar:
She and they “ . . .continue to
believe that a reformed tax code should include a robust set of
incentives to support the electrification of transportation,” Cullen
wrote to House Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, who is the chair of the
Ways and Means Committee – which is the government gaggle which weighs how to
dispose of our means.
But Cullen is not being straight
with Brady – or with the means providers (who haven’t got much choice
about that).
The issue on the table is not whether Uncle
should “support the electrification of transportation,” as she shysterishly
misdirects. It is whether wealth transfers from working people to affluent
people ought to be continued.
Elon Musk, for instance, is
a billionaire.
The idea that anyone who files a W2 ought to be made to fund his operations is
haltingly offensive.
The people who buy the electric
cars he makes – when he does actually make them – are the same people who buy
BMWs and other luxury-performance cars
with prices that start around twice the price of an ordinary IC-engined economy
car.
Which is why the electric cars
Tesla sells do not emphasize economy. That would be as obviously absurd as
suggesting a diet of potato chips and grape soda sweetened with fructose for
the obese. The difference here, however, is that the government is not paying
obese people to eat potato chips and grape soda.
Wait, sorry.
It is paying obse people
to eat those “foods.” There is no longer any such thing as “government cheese”
– i.e., the basic
staples which used to be provided, at taxpayer expense, to
people who could not or for whatever reason would not provide the means to feed
themselves. EBT card in hand – food stamps being too shaming, you know
– they are now free to dine not only on potato chips and grape soda
sweetened with fructose but also to sup on sushi and steaks, courtesy of the
same tax mules who are mulcted to finance the purchase of luxury-sport electric
cars.
One set the stage for the other,
arguably.
Wealth transfers no longer hide
behind even the pretense of lending a temporary and necessary helping hand to
the less fortunate, to people just barely making it – whether it’s potato chips
and grape drink or high-end electric cars.
The
not-so-poor-anymore are entitled to
eat the same food as the taxpayers who – as a result of this – can no longer
afford to eat as well themselves. Similarly, the guy who is saving up to pay
for the front-end work his eight-year-old Camry needs hasn’t got the money for
the repairs because that money was taken out of his hide to “help” put a San
Francisco Snowflake into a $40,000 Tesla.
The interesting thing is the
supine acceptance of these outrages by the populace. That persons such as
Genevieve Cullen are able to appear in public without a cordon of armed guards.
It is one thing to provide
staples to fill the bellies of people who for one reason or another would
perhaps otherwise go hungry. In principle, it is still morally disagreeable to
achieve this via the use of force and theft – i.e., taxation. But it’s a tepid
affront compared with finding oneself in the checkout line at Whole Foods
behind an EBT’er “paying” for his steaks and sushi and grape drank and potato
chips with your money.
While you wait your turn to pay
for your ground beef patties.
So also with electric cars –
which are the equivalent of free steaks and sushi.
Does your car have heated
leather seats and a huge LCD touchscreen? Does it tout how quickly it can get
to 60?
The Tesla you “helped” your boss
buy does.
And
as obnoxious as that is,
the tragedy is that there would probably be electric cars that didn’t need
“help” were it not for the firehose-diameter IV of government heroin flowing
into the veins of crony capitalists such as Elon Musk.
And
not just him, either. The entire car industry is being corrupted by this
business – and driven to ruin, ultimately. Because it’s not economically
viable. Eventually, as Margaret Thatcher once famous said, you run out of other people’s money.
Take
away not just the $7,500 courtesy-of-your-neighbor discount but all the layers
of subsidization and the focus would return to making an electric car that made
economic sense. It would not be
luxurious or sporty. It would lack heated leather seats and an opulent
oversized LCD touchscreen.
It
would take as long as it took to get to 60.
But
it might actually cost less to
own than an otherwise-comparable IC-engined economy car. People might be
induced to buy such a car – just as people once-upon-atime bought VW Beetles
and Chevettes and Datsun B210s – without using the government as a proxy to mug
their neighbors to “help” them make the purchase.
But
why eat government cheese when you can dine on steak and sushi – and never have
to worry about the bill?
Marie
Antoinette is supposed to have said, “let them eat cake” – and thereby
triggered a revolution and the loss of her own head. Perhaps, one happy day,
the same fate will befall Elon and his fellow tax parasites.
It’s
a cheerful thought, at least.
.
. .
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