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How Car Dealership Lobbyists Successfully Banned Tesla Motors From Texas
Funksaw writes "In a political op-ed on his blog, long time Slashdot reader and contributor Brian Boyko (the guy who did that animated Windows 8 video) — now a candidate for state representative — explains how lobbyists from car dealerships successfully banned Tesla Motors from selling cars in Texas. From the article: 'Tesla Motors doesn't just present a case study of why a lack of campaign finance reform blocks meaningful reform on the issues that Democrats care about, like climate change and health care. A lack of campaign finance reform blocks reforms on both the Left and the Right. Here's the big elephant in the room I'd like to point out to all the "elephants" in the room: With a Republican-controlled legislature, a Republican executive, and many conservatives in our judiciary, why the hell don't we have free markets in Texas? Isn't it the very core of economic-conservative theory that the invisible hand of the free market determines who gets what resources? Doesn't the free market have the ability to direct resources to where they can most efficiently be used? I'm not saying the conservatives are right in these assumptions; but I am saying that our broken campaign finance system makes a mockery of them.'"
The free market here is in politicians, not autos.
Texas is trying to convince Space-X to build a launch facility near Brownsville, TX. Someone may have forgotten that Elon Musk runs both Space-X and Tesla.
They're not saying that Tesla can't sell their cars in Texas. They're saying that Tesla can't deal them without using a third party dealership.
Its one of the old monopoly laws. Another one would be movie theaters. They used to be owned almost entirely by movie studios. That is, universal, etc would literally own the theater. They broke up most of those relationships and now you have to have separate corporations for many of these things.
Tesla could probably sell their cars just fine if they contracted with the local dealerships. Why they don't... I do not know.
Regardless, I agree that companies should be able to sell their products directly. After all, doesn't Apple have Apple stores that sell apple laptops directly? And then there are all the direct internet retailers. I can buy a computer direct from dell or a pair of socks direct from the gap. And the gap "makes" those socks. They're "gap" socks.
So I agree, the law is dumb. But it is actually very easy to get around it by just dealing with the dealerships instead of setting up your own.
AGAIN... I agree... it s dumb. But its manageable.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Laws go to the highest bidder. What could be more free market?
The invisible hand of the market determines who gets what resource by slipping fat checks into the right persons pockets.
I want to be a corrupt crony, you insensitive clod!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I call that the invisible hand job.
This is like saying that because the only restaurant in town is McDonalds I should suck it up and accept that shit as food. Fuck that, I'd rather keep fighting the good fight and driving to the next town hoping one day my town will get a Taco Bell.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's the other way around.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Here's what the Tesla site says: http://www.teslamotors.com/advocacy_texas
Here's the Dallas Observer's discussion: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/09/tesla_crushed_by_car_dealer_lo.php
And Auto News: http://www.autonews.com/article/20130909/RETAIL07/130909878/how-texas-dealers-slammed-the-door-on-tesla
Could you put that into a car analogy for us?
...
( ducks and runs for cover )
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Its a computer with a really nice set of wheels :-)
Greed is the root of all evil.
I want to be a corrupt crony, you insensitive clod!
This is the internet, you're going to have to settle for being a corrupt brony.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
For a concrete example, consider farmer Bob deciding whether to sell his corn to Archer Daniels Midland for $4.75 per bushel. Look at his options: - Sell at the offered price. - Not sell at all. That will probably cause him to lose his farm, because without this sale, he doesn't pay off the bank. - Try to sell to someone else. But since there's no one besides ADM who buys corn in his area, the only way Bob could pull this off is to invent his own transport and distribution network, from scratch. So what you have is not a free market, but a ADM-controlled market that is only free to ADM.
Wait, what? Please don't make contrived little examples to prove your point, without explaining the context from which they arise. Are you seriously telling us that some random guy called "Bob" decides to buy a giant/large farm in the middle of an area where his only potential customer would be "Archer Daniels Midland"?? Really? That is the single best concrete example you could come up with to prove your impression of libertarianism? You don't think that maybe Bob is an idiot for making a really really REALLY bad business investment?
How about another example. "Jack" the builder decides to open up a construction business. He invests capital and buys equipment, and he chooses the base of operations for his new business to be in the middle of the fucking Sahara desert. His only options are:
- Not sell at all.
- Hope to holy $DEITY that someone decides to want a building in the middle of the fucking Sahara desert.
Good, okay. Now that we have the silly concept of stupid examples to prove our point out of the way. What you describe may be a free market, but it's a free market where Bob and Jack are both free to be as stupid as they like in their business investments/decisions. I bid you farewell, statist.