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Who's To Blame For Rules That Block Tesla Sales In Most US States?
cartechboy writes The common assumption among Tesla fans seems to be that state auto-dealer lobbyists are working with Republican legislators to enact laws banning direct sales of Tesla's electric cars to retail buyers. Is it true? The New York Times published an article with some data points that assesses the supposition. While the article mainly focuses on the conflict between Uber and the Republican party, some quotes could be easily applied to Tesla. For instance, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus said, "It should be consumers, not government bureaucrats or legislators, that deicde what companies get our business." The author of the article, Josh Barro, wrote that 22 states permit direct sales of automobiles by Tesla to retail buyers, and of those the majority--14 of them-- voted for President Obama. He suggested that Democratic California, Illinois, and New York "have freer markets in auto retailing than Texas," which is presently Republican. When looking at a five-year-old article by Nate Silver that looked at political donations by car dealers, fully 88 percent of those donations went to Republican candidates, and just 12 percent to Democrats. That possibly suggests a propensity among Republican state legislators to support the interests for car dealers over those of electric-car buyers. Is the small bit of evidence enough to make a case?
Good background on the current system of dealership sinecure can be found in this short 2009 Competition Advocacy Paper from the U.S. Department of Justice, which delves into the history and effects of the dealers-only system which still prevails.
How about the Liberal Democrat leaning unions back in the 1960's-1970's?
The reason these laws exist is dealers were getting shut down, jobs lost, and company owned dealerships were opening up, bringing down wages and sales commissions to what they think was fair. Labor unions came in hard, lobbied for laws to "protect" their workers, got these laws passed. Now years later, the words are twisted and it's those "Evil Republicans" fault somehow.
Truth of the matter it's not a political deal, blaming Republicans or Democrats makes no sense as the laws banning car manufactorers from owning their own dealerships benefits everyone but those buying cars. Workers are happy because Big-Boy Car Manufacturers can't come in and say a;; Toyota or Chevy dealer techs get minimum wage and be happy with it. (If you aren't aware techs and such cant just shoot over to a dfferent brand dealer down the road too easy. Yes, simple things like oil change, alignments, etc you can do on any car, but there are tons of little quarts and certifications and training per each brand before they let you touch the advanced stuff). The dealership owners and sales people are happy as the car maker can no longer force them to sell the car for X amount, so they can bump up the sticker prices, and get whatever percent commission they want.
Who benefits from banning [X]? With near certainty those are the people who bought off whoever is in power (the partisan nonsense in TFS is a smokescreen to keep you distracted). It doesn't matter if it's the UAW or the Auto Dealer's Association that is behind the corruption - you should be disgusted that politicians deign to tell you what kinds of cars you may purchase. "Yes, massa."
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
People with Turf will try to protect it.
They will spread the money around, contribute, etc. as needed to protect it. Since at this point in time the majority of the States are run by Republicans, then they are the ones that are being lobbied by the Dealership lobbyist the most. Make no mistake, the Democrats are also being lobbied in states they run.
This all amounts to a big "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo" to the Republicans by the New York Times, which fighting to remain relevant.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
The Republican Party has become a simple Rural Party. They protect rural interests, because they found a way to gerrymander rural districts into a majority of congressional districts, despite the majority of the population living in urban areas.
Car dealers are more rural than car manufacturers - as rural areas need more dealers per person than urban dealers, while car manufacturers in a single urban environment can supply the entire country.
As such, the GOP will support the car dealers at the expense of the car manufacturers.
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