Slashdot Mirror


Tesla Motors Sued By Car Dealers

An anonymous reader writes "Car dealers in New York and Massachusetts have filed a lawsuit that seeks to block Tesla from selling its pricey electric vehicles in those states. The dealers say they are defending state franchise laws, which require manufacturers to sell cars through dealers they do not own. Robert O'Koniewski of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association says, 'Those dealers are investing millions of dollars in their franchises to make sure they comply with their franchise agreements with the manufacturers. Tesla is choosing to ignore the law and then is choosing to play outside that system.'"

3 of 510 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fuck those greedy bastards. by fnj · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Mouse finger spazzed out, hit wrong button. Here is the real content:

    The deficit is the bleeding. The rate of blood loss. The debt is the pool of blood on the ground. The cumulative AMOUNT of blood lost. You fixate on the stream of blood gushing out if you like. I'll look at the pool on the ground. That's what counts. The guy can lose a half a liter or even a liter of blood in a great scary rush and his body can still recover on its own if the rush is stopped at that point. When the loss hits two liters, the guy is in danger of dying unless he gets a prompt transfusion. There is no transfusion for nations. When the debt gets too colossal, about all you can do is hyper-inflate it away. It's still X number of trillion dollars, but if you want you can make that the price of an ice cream cone. But then you've got other problems (Weimar Republic, anyone?).

    An aside. Federal budgets are reckoned in these moronic things called Fiscal Years just to confuse people. They run from October 1 to September 30. FY 2013 ENDS on September 30, 2012. It BEGINS on October 1, 2011. It works out that FY X is for practical purposes pretty much calendar year X. It's just offset by minus three months. OK ...

    The following are deficits in billions of constant 1983 dollars. What year you pick doesn't matter. What matters is that you compare apples with apples.

    Bush:
    FY2001 75
    FY2002 234
    FY2003 302
    FY2004 315
    FY2005 283
    FY2006 285
    FY2007 241
    FY2008 472
    Total contribution to debt 2207 = 276 per year

    Obama:
    FY2009 879
    FY2010 758
    FY2011 550
    FY2012 535
    Total contribution to debt 2722 = 681 per year

    The pool of blood belongs more to Obama than Bush, though neither one is a fiscal winner. And it's going to belong a lot more to Obama by the time the next four years passes and the two can be compared on an equivalent eight year basis.

    Now, FY2009 (and 2001) don't really belong completely to their Presidents, because the budgets were passed during the term of the previous incumbent. OTOH, though the incoming Presidents could not have vetoed them, have could have changed them within 4-5 months, so they own them to a certain extent. Another monkey wrench is that the last two Bush years were with a Democrat Congress, so that awful last year is to an extent up for grabs.

    My personal opinion? Neither guy and neither party is a winner. Bush left Obama an awful mess, but Obama hasn't cleaned it up with appropriate vigor, either. If you ask me about these two clunkers together, they have been a colossal unmitigated disaster for the American people. But you know what? The 200+ year bubble that was the American economy was due to burst anyway. And Congress gets at least half the blame. Some would say the House gets ALL the blame. Not a single dime can be spent that isn't appropriated by the House.

    Reference:
    http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/deficits.html

  2. Re:Fuck those greedy bastards.. by ganjadude · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    how can we say he lowered spending when we havent had a budget in 4 years?

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  3. Re:Fuck those greedy bastards.. by 7-Vodka · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    If you think obama lowered spending you are SORELY mistaken.

    Neither of the two parties even proposes lowering spending. They only propose cuts to INCREASES in spending.

    There is a significant difference.

    How do you like your fictitious world?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skw-0jv9kts

    --

    Liberty.