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Nov. 18, 2006 Early in the twentieth century the most common form of urban and suburban transportation in big cities and even moderately-sized towns was the street car, an electric car that ran on rails. They were convenient and cheap for consumers who could save money because it wasn't necessary to buy and maintain an automobile. General Motors bought all the street car systems across the nation and dismantled them so they could sell buses to cities and cars to suburbanites. The people didn't protest or even recognize how insidious this was. General Motors was like a drug dealer and Americans became addicted to automobiles which in turn led to our addiction to oil. The elimination of street cars was not in the public interest and had little benefit at all. Some seventy years later, places like California were choked with smog created by the mass traffic jams of internal combusion engines, and the state finally decided to do something about it. The state passed a rule that within a certain time frame ten percent of cars sold in the state had to be electric. Electric cars were quiet, required little maintenance, and best of all produced no direct pollution. They did have their drawbacks--a limited range and no infrastructure for recharging batteries. But they were a good car for driving to work and running errands. General Motors developed a quality electric car called the SV-1, and there was a long waiting list of people interested in buying them. Without a doubt there was a market. Both General Motors and big oil didn't like it. Electric cars weren't as profitable for General Motors because they were low maintenance. The engine was much simpler and didn't need as many replacement parts such as oil filters, spark plugs, etc. A big part of the profit General Motors makes is selling replacement parts that wear out. Consumers, of course, benefit from low maintenance vehicles, but big corporations do not care about consumers; their God is money. They also resented being forced to comply with a government regulation. The reason oil companies didn't like the electric car is obvious: lessened demand for oil. General Motors and big oil delivered the one-two punch that knocked out the SV-1. The oil companies formed a group that was supposedly consumer-oriented, but actually was a dishonest lobby that pressured politicians to outlaw the construction of electric recharging stations. Incredibly, General Motors also created a dishonest lobby that invented ridiculous propaganda about how the electric car was bad for the environment. This is a common business practice. Industries get together and form lobbyist groups with deceiving names like "Friends of the Environment," which in truth come up with psuedo-scientific information that defends their industry's polluting practices. General Motors didn't put much effort into marketing the SV-1. The commercials they made were almost scary. There was no footage of the car in action, no sexy models climbing on board. Instead, the commercials were shadowy, frighteningly sci-fi. Furthermore, they didn't even let anyone buy the car. Consumers were only allowed to lease them. To make matters worse, the initial batch of SV-1's were provided with an inferior battery with only a seventy-five mile range even though a quality battery with a three-hundred mile range was available. Texaco bought the company that made the good battery and had the power to shut the plant down, if the car became popular. Eventually, General Motors successfully pressured California to rescind the rule making them sell the electric car and despite consumer opposition, every single SV-1 was recalled and destroyed. This case study demonstrates why the free market economy needs to be heavily regulated. Electric cars would have been beneficial to consumers and the environment. Politicians have an obligation to protect the public interest, not bend over backwards for the big corporations. Otherwise, their horrifying greed destroys our quality of life. On a positive note Toyota feared the SV-1 and they developed a hybrid car that runs on gas and electricity and gets one-hundred-eighty miles per gallon. Looks like Toyota's going to whip GM yet again. ------------ About the author Mark Gelbart: My book, Talk Radio, is a black comedy about a radio talk show host who gets kidnapped and psychologically tortured by a loser. www.mark-gelbart.com Email: agelbart@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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