Cannot AfFORD
I’d like to believe we don’t do much in the way of public policy discussion and debate in the United States these days mainly because of the awful celebrity distraction of Donald Trump. But if I’m honest with myself, we don’t do much in the way of public policy discussion and debate because it isn’t exciting enough for the people Eric Hoffer mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. In addition, political psychology being what it is, the people most interested in hearing policy discussion and debate already have their minds made up: they (we) are just looking for the dopamine hit of confirmation.
Nevertheless, one would hope that public discussion and debate would cause our government officials to stop doing things that are obviously destructive and wasteful. An example of one—among many others done in under the claim of saving the global environment—is described in Robert Bryce’s article “Unplugged: Ford Lost $72,762 For Every EV It Sold In Q2”. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. government is borrowing the money against the future earnings of all Americans so that a few drivers can afford to buy battery electric vehicles today.
Bryce analyzes the company’s public reporting of their EV push so far:
In all, Ford sold 212,516 F-Series pickups including Lightning EVs, in the second quarter. (Lightning sales totaled 4,466.) For comparison purposes, I backed out the electric trucks from the F-Series total. As can be seen in the graphic above, during the second quarter, Ford sold about 47 times more F-series [conventional gasoline-fueled] pickups than it did electric ones. While that may not be a fair comparison given that the Lightning is new to the market, it gives a sense of the scale of Ford’s massive truck business and the amount of ground the company will have to cover if it hopes to make a dent in Tesla’s dominance of the EV market.
From the article we learn that whereas Ford stands to net some $8.7 billion to build factories for battery-electric vehicles, other automakers and battery manufacturers will also enjoy eye-watering largesse today on the national credit card. Ford merely serves as one example to demonstrate the immense government effort underway to force an EV onto every driver, Hell or bust.
All of which seems a lot more serious to me than how Donald Trump feels or how disgusted the whole political system is or isn’t with Hunter Biden.
The example instead appears to support Eric Hoffer’s hypothesis that politics isn’t about remedying any problems, but rather leaving them unresolved so as to make sure the stalwarts remain angry and passionate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3A7Qn-06Xc
Daily Dose of Pallas's Cat (in a snit)
I know everyone will be shocked--NOT--but there are sources suggesting that the plane crashed because of an intentional explosion.
Some journalism persons are also wondering why all those other guys, normally very careful about their own security, were on that plane together. That's a good question to be asking.