Politicians Block Tesla’s Big Free Market Move
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U.S. antitrust laws are a fascinating confusion of logic and nonsense. Supposedly designed to protect consumers, the antitrust laws seem to be used just as much to settle battles between dueling retailers or between retailers and manufacturers. [..]
Tesla Motors [..] sells a very expensive all-electric car and its business plan involves direct-to-consumer sales [..] Automobile dealers are not amused, since this leaves them completely out of the process, with no chance to earn profits either from the new car sales or the potential trade-ins. The Tesla sales model does not give me or you a chance to profit either, but the difference between the National Automobile Dealers Association and us is that NADA has access to politicians in state capitols all across the country.
So far, Tesla’s direct sales have been blocked in New Jersey, Texas, Colorado, and Arizona, with battles ongoing in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Georgia, and Ohio. Expect the battlefield to continue to spread as auto dealers use their political power (and campaign contributions) to secure a piece of the action.
Nice.. But this is how biznitch is settled in Baker driven countries.. I am sure Tesla will fight the incumbent forces, and eventually win.
It is said “democracy is the worst form of government, except all other kinds”. Maybe similar goes for Baker driven democracies – they might be the worst form of influence peddling, except all other forms of influence peddling, or even worse, no influence peddling. In this latter case, you’d have Bandits and Bureucrats picking winners and losers as in [insert your favorite 2nd/3rd world country here], and this is no good. That’s why I laughed when I read an excerpt from ex-defense secretary Gates’ memoir where at one hearing Senator Patty Murray is reading from talking points written on a Boeing letterhead, they didn’t even bother re-writing it on a different sheets of paper. It was hilarious.
We are not trying to say big business dominating everyone else, or denying acccess to newcomers is a good thing; this is an ongoing struggle in all democracies. The “upcoming” new system more in tune 3rd Wave will fix most of those imbalances as a natural outcome of its design IMO, and I still believe Baker driven countries are better positioned for that day, when it comes.
Note: The fight between business interests in US effect many things, one being the tax code. Let’s say Sunoco is doing well, growing in influence, they get a guy in Washington and insert a clause in the tax code that says: “if the company’s name starts with letter S and ends with letter UNOCO, that company henceforth shall herewithmyass receive 40% tax relief from the government”. Then if situation changes, let’s say you are Google, the new kid in the block, it is expected you play this game. You get in there, kick some ass, and insert your clause that says “.. except in cases when company name has two ‘o’s seperate from eachother, not together. If it’s seperate you dont get squat. If together then said company gets 60% off”. That’s probably why US tax code is riddled with holes and is unnecessarily complex.