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I think that large government subsidies are inevitably going to be needed if you wish to start a car company these days. They may be inevitable if you just want
by nmcfarl 13y ago
I think that large government subsidies are inevitably going to be needed if you wish to start a car company these days. They may be inevitable if you just want to keep one running - very few car companies have made it through the last decade without some form of government help.
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Plus I'm pretty sure the WSJ would be decry Tesla's stupidity if the left this money on the table. These incentives weren't designed fir Tesla, they just take advantage of them.
- ams6110 13y agovery few car companies have made it through the last decade without some form of government help. So keeping dinosaur companies on life support with tax dollars is a good thing?
- jaynos 13y agoIf the alternative is not enough supply to meet demand,yes. Private capital might be better, but how much would private firms be willing to risk on a new company? Also, could that company scale up to build 1 million cars per year to supply American demand? GM was not run very intelligently in the '90s (and '80s and '00s), so I definitely feel the urge to let them die, but the economic damage of the 100,000+ layoffs would cost more than the auto bailout.
- refurb 13y agoI don't understand this line of thinking, particularly from the Hacker News crowd. Nobody seems to care if taxi drivers lose out from services like Lyft and Uber. It's called "disruption" and is apparently good for the economy. A dinosaur like GM loses market share to imports and the same crowd thinks gov't subsidies are required to keep an inefficient industry alive.
- nmcfarl 13y agoBoy was I not saying that. I’d was rather pointing out that the whole industry was so dysfunctional that if you are so much as surviving in it, you are most likely taking part in that disfunction.