Cars and Freedom

I talked some last time about unintended consequences. Where the government attempts to solve a perceived problem and ends up creating several worse problems. That really relates with our cars.

You probably think you are free to buy a car with the features you want. WRONG!! You are free to buy any car on the market with the features closest to what you want. The difference is that your government has told the cars makers certain features that cannot be included and certain features that must be included. The car makers only make the cars they are allowed to, so your freedom(and maybe your life) is limited by the government.

CAFE is a federal law requiring all cars to meet certain gas mileage standards by certain dates, or pay fines added to the price of the car. To comply with this law the carmakers had to make smaller and lighter cars. The quit making large family cars and station wagons. The consumers didn't like smaller lighter cars so guess what, the consumers demanded and the automakers provided SUVs that are family size, but the CAFE standards don't apply to them. Of course they are more expensive and get worse mileage than the cars they replaced. But; that's not all, smaller lighter cars are also more dangerous. You are much more likely to be killed or seriously injured in an accident in a small car than a SUV. So either you can afford a SUV that is bigger and gets worse gas mileage than the car you would have bought, you buy a small car that get's great mileage but is more likely to kill you, or you can't afford either so you keep your old car that get's bad mileage and puts off more emissions but you can afford. Some freedom of choice.

What about safety, we can't compromise on safety can we? Well the federal masters imposed airbag rules that required a very powerful airbag to protect a large man with no seatbelt. Guess what, those federally mandated airbags were so powerful that they killed small adults or children. So the gov change the rules to allow lower powered airbags, but only after many people died and then sued the automakers for the airbags. So the cost of the lawsuits was added to the cost of the safety improvements and cars moved further out of financial reach. So again, more people drive older cars with no airbags because the new ones are too expensive.

I could go on all day, but you get the picture. Every requirement put on cars by government raises the price of the car, and many of the requirements don't even help the problem they are intended to solve. Often they create more numerous and more serious problems. Really each regulation is saying that consumers aren't smart enough to make their own decisions. So some beaureacrat will make the right decision for you. But sometimes their bad decisions can kill you.

Freedom includes the right to make wrong decisions.