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Besides the thumping given to Ariana Huffington by George F Will on ABC’s This Week (Sunday April 5, 2009) another column by Will ‘drives’ home the point that government meddling in the private sector or attempting to force the public to do what it doesn’t want to do is as ‘feckless’ as other liberal dreams held by those like the HuffPo Queen. (referring to harmony as being inevitable from the roundtable discussion)

Public isn’t buying into auto policy
By George Will
Washington Post Writers Group
Sunday, April 05, 2009

The stunning shift in consumer preferences that should make the White House’s freshly minted auto experts feel vulnerable has been reported under headlines such as “Like a Rock: Hybrid Car Sales Plummet” (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 9) and “Hybrid Car Sales Go from 60 to 0 at Breakneck Speed” (Los Angeles Times, March 17). Absent $4 gasoline, customers do not want the vehicles the politicians want them to want, even with manufacturers now offering large rebates and other incentives. The two best-selling vehicles in America this year are large pickup trucks. (click here to read the rest)

Through Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush (41), Clinton and Bush (43) nothing has been done to address the initial ‘heads up’ that oil is vulnerable or that other energy policy and use could benefit from having more options. Beyond the common criticism or debates on who is to blame or why alternatives have not been pursued effectively is the stubborn reality of bringing a product or service or commodity to market. It must be economically viable to succeed.

Just like peace on earth and goddwill toward men, it’s a nice sentiment but won’t happen until enough people want it. The same goes for alternative fuels, hybrids, electric cars or, to borrow a pet phrase from Obama, ‘a host of’ other issues.

Government rarely considers that the millions of people in this or other countries have millions of varying needs and problems to solve on a daily basis. And that government actions and their one size fits all mentality fails to impress. What’s worse is that whatever meddling politicians choose to be interested in is always paid for by the people that do not want it.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 4:10 am and is filed under Public Affairs, Money Matters, wordpress, Politics, oil, obama, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.