History has shown us time and time again, that economies which are centrally planned fail and that economies which offer freedom of choice and competition provide not only wealth, but long term stability.  We may expect that this lesson will be repeatedly ignored by Marxists and their ilk, but it is shocking to see it ignored by leaders of what use to be called, “the free world” (a term which we have not heard since the fall of the Soviet Union).  Perhaps it is time for the leaders of the Western world to go back to school and take some lessons on basic economics.

At the current time, one in seven workers in the United States earns their living by being connected to the auto industry.  One in seven, that is about 14%. In Europe, the auto industry provides employment for just over 6% of all workers and about 8.5% of all manufacturing jobs.  Those numbers represent a huge portion of the tax revenues of the U.S. and European economies. Economies which have successfully lifted millions out of poverty around the world by offering competition and choice.  Yet we see today central governments attempting to mandate a product which can only be sustained at this point by huge amounts of corporate welfare and adjustments to wealth distribution. This product offers a developing technology and while it may in the future become viable, those same central governments are not creating the infrastructure to sustain the product they see as the wave of the future.

Consider these facts:

• Ford announced that it will lose $3,000,000,000 (billion) on EVs in 2023
• Ford spends $220,000 to produce each Rivian electric pick up truck which it then sells for $81,000
• Ford plans to make 2 million electric cards every year by 2025, but,
  • Ford only sold 61,575 in 2022
  • In February 2023 it sold 3,624 EVs
• GM loses up to $9,000 for each electric Bolt, it’s “affordable” EV
• GM plans to sell 1 million electric cars by 2025, but is sold less than 40,000 in 2022

How would you like to be the marketing and sales manager facing those sales goals?

Additionally, with high interest rates, a slowing economy and what looks like major job layoffs and a possible recession, the centralized planning from government faces a daunting task.   

If anyone is in doubt as to the impact this war will have on employment, loss of taxes and basic freedom, one need only think back to the last time one in seven workers were involved in another “wave of the future”, that being the implementation of “Obamacare”.  Since then, we have seen hospitals close, many doctors leaving the health care industry, premiums increase and for the first time, a decrease in the life expectancy of certain portions of the citizens it was designed to serve.

If a product is truly good, it does not have to be mandated.