Brought to you by the Cato Institute (named after a really crotchety, conservative Roman politician):
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/12/15/bill-of-rights-day
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
The Rule of Idiots - or - Why the new fuel economy standard is asinine
So Congress is getting ready to raise fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles. Here's a story on it: http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/01/news/economy/fuel_efficiencysat/index.htm
What does it really mean? That our politicians are morons and our citizens fools. Consider that the only vehicles that currently meet the 35 mpg standard are the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid. Not even compact, economy cars like the Honda Fit achieve this new standard. Are people so misguided as to believe that automakers have some magic button that they can press to increase fuel efficiency? The CNN story compares the new standard to Europe and Japan, which is a flawed comparison for a variety of reasons. First, cityscapes in both are fundamentally different from those in the United States which leads to fundamentally different requirements for transportation and driving styles and frequency. Second, Japanese and European (and Canadian) methods of measuring fuel economy are less stringent than our standards. That is, a given car with the same engine, transmission, and gearing in Japan or Europe will be rated as more fuel efficient than in the United States. Moreover, the new fuel economy standard raises the mileage per gallon from 25 to 35, but doesn't take into account the fact that the new EPA method of measuring mileage is much more rigorous. Do politicians care about any of this? Of course not, because this legislation is just another easy way to garner votes and keep them in office. The cost burden of this increase is estimated to be an additional $2 - 3000. Advocates maintain that such a difference will be made up by increased fuel efficiency. But guess what? The people who will feel that additional cost most are people who are already burdened by a lack of money and who would be buying fuel efficient (cheap) cars anyway. People with the financial means to afford large, inefficient vehicles could give two shits about the cost of gas. The increased cost won't affect them one bit, while those living on meager means will be hit once more with governmental bullshit. Oh, and another thing. Trucks are exempt from the new standard because of a loophole classifying them as "work vehicles". Brilliant. Why should anyone buy a more expensive, less powerful vehicle when they can just go buy a pickup that doesn't have to adhere to the new mileage standard? The squeeze of increased fuel costs is pushing people to buy more fuel efficient vehicles like "crossovers" such as the GMC Acadia or Honda CR-V. By requiring these vehicles to adhere to the new standard, but not trucks, there is less incentive to purchase the more efficient of the two. Automakers like Toyota and Honda have done good jobs increasing the power, safety, size, and weight of their vehicles while simultaneously increasing their fuel efficiency. Take the new Honda Accord. It's now a full-size sedan, not a midsize, that can be had with a 268 horsepower 3.5L V6 engine. Thus, it's the most powerful and largest Accord ever, but also the most efficient because it achieves 19 | 29 miles a gallon on the city | highway respectively. (Compare that to the 4-cylinder version that achieves 23|31.) Other federal legislation requires greater safety from vehicles, a good cause. However, safety features add weight, which decreases fuel economy and increases cost. Consider the legislation requiring all vehicles to be equipped with stability control now. What does that do? It increases complexity and cost while separating the driver even more from responsibility. If the government was really concerned with the financial burden of gas costs, they'd stop taxing gas. But that would decrease the amount of money they get to waste and with which to fatten their pockets. There are better ways to encourage increased fuel economy. Tax credits for hybrid vehicles, for instance. Positive reinforcement is a better way of doing things than negative punishment, most of the time. Anyway, I've lost my train of thought so this has been a mess of a post. The point is that the government grows ever larger and the populace ever stupider, with no remedy in sight.
What does it really mean? That our politicians are morons and our citizens fools. Consider that the only vehicles that currently meet the 35 mpg standard are the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid. Not even compact, economy cars like the Honda Fit achieve this new standard. Are people so misguided as to believe that automakers have some magic button that they can press to increase fuel efficiency? The CNN story compares the new standard to Europe and Japan, which is a flawed comparison for a variety of reasons. First, cityscapes in both are fundamentally different from those in the United States which leads to fundamentally different requirements for transportation and driving styles and frequency. Second, Japanese and European (and Canadian) methods of measuring fuel economy are less stringent than our standards. That is, a given car with the same engine, transmission, and gearing in Japan or Europe will be rated as more fuel efficient than in the United States. Moreover, the new fuel economy standard raises the mileage per gallon from 25 to 35, but doesn't take into account the fact that the new EPA method of measuring mileage is much more rigorous. Do politicians care about any of this? Of course not, because this legislation is just another easy way to garner votes and keep them in office. The cost burden of this increase is estimated to be an additional $2 - 3000. Advocates maintain that such a difference will be made up by increased fuel efficiency. But guess what? The people who will feel that additional cost most are people who are already burdened by a lack of money and who would be buying fuel efficient (cheap) cars anyway. People with the financial means to afford large, inefficient vehicles could give two shits about the cost of gas. The increased cost won't affect them one bit, while those living on meager means will be hit once more with governmental bullshit. Oh, and another thing. Trucks are exempt from the new standard because of a loophole classifying them as "work vehicles". Brilliant. Why should anyone buy a more expensive, less powerful vehicle when they can just go buy a pickup that doesn't have to adhere to the new mileage standard? The squeeze of increased fuel costs is pushing people to buy more fuel efficient vehicles like "crossovers" such as the GMC Acadia or Honda CR-V. By requiring these vehicles to adhere to the new standard, but not trucks, there is less incentive to purchase the more efficient of the two. Automakers like Toyota and Honda have done good jobs increasing the power, safety, size, and weight of their vehicles while simultaneously increasing their fuel efficiency. Take the new Honda Accord. It's now a full-size sedan, not a midsize, that can be had with a 268 horsepower 3.5L V6 engine. Thus, it's the most powerful and largest Accord ever, but also the most efficient because it achieves 19 | 29 miles a gallon on the city | highway respectively. (Compare that to the 4-cylinder version that achieves 23|31.) Other federal legislation requires greater safety from vehicles, a good cause. However, safety features add weight, which decreases fuel economy and increases cost. Consider the legislation requiring all vehicles to be equipped with stability control now. What does that do? It increases complexity and cost while separating the driver even more from responsibility. If the government was really concerned with the financial burden of gas costs, they'd stop taxing gas. But that would decrease the amount of money they get to waste and with which to fatten their pockets. There are better ways to encourage increased fuel economy. Tax credits for hybrid vehicles, for instance. Positive reinforcement is a better way of doing things than negative punishment, most of the time. Anyway, I've lost my train of thought so this has been a mess of a post. The point is that the government grows ever larger and the populace ever stupider, with no remedy in sight.
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