P.J. O’Rourke has some pithy and insightful comments about the auto industry and government regulation in this interview conducted by faithful Antiplanner ally Ted Balaker.
In part 1, O’Rourke blames Detroit’s problems, in part, on “volatile government regulation,” which made it hard for car companies to predict what kind of cars people will want to buy.
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Part 2 is less oriented to transportation and more to O’Rourke’s path from a left-wing student to a libertarian adult. This interview is nearly a year old, but it provides nice filler while the Antiplanner is on the road.
It’s kind of ironic, that the Reason Foundation talks about individualism, yet in reality it’s very conformist & paternalistic in its own right.
ROT:“In part 1, O’Rourke blames Detroit’s problems, in part, on “volatile government regulation,†which made it hard for car companies to predict what kind of cars people will want to buy.”
ws:He didn’t provide any specifics and just said “government regulation”. That’s such a cop-out statement. As far as I’m concerned, had some of the car companies been building higher mpg models like Toyota and Honda, they wouldn’t have tanked, especially with the “energy crisis”. But they’ve been fighting any such regulation for years now.
WS, the very auto industry that pays the anti-planner at the same time has planned obsolescence with their products.
Planned obsolescence?
Cars have been driven longer as time goes by.
Look at avg age of cars, vs 1960s.
Is there a considerable dif in durability of US vs imports?
Regardless of this supposed planned obsolescence, people don’t buy cars to last 15 years. It’s price that is too high.
Blame the UAW.
What kind of payment does O’Toole get from the auto industry? Are there deals to fabricate?
Planned obsolescence with their products? What is meant by that? That my battery doesn’t last forever? That a timing chain needs to be swapped out every 150,000 miles or so? Or that the exhaust manifold gaskets may go after 100k? Or maybe 200k?
Prk166 you know damn well what the I mean, you crook!
Its about spending more money on products then you should really have too.
Hman,
Products aren’t supposed to last forever. Even over a decade can be considerable.
You seemed to miss my point in #4, too.
The gov often likes to replace capital, long before its useful life has ended. That was very prevalent in the cash for clunkers (CARS).
“Prk166 you know damn well what the I mean, you crook!
Its about spending more money on products then you should really have too.” – Highwayman
Actually, i don’t. I know, amazing, I can’t read minds especially of people I’ve never met.
I don’t understand what is meant by claiming that planned obsolescence means that more money on it’s products than you should really have to. How much someone spends on a car, buying a BMW instead of a Hyundai would seem to be a separate issue than if a manufacturer is purposely building something to wear out and fail long before it needs to. How are they similar to each other?
I’m curious because I don’t see it. A gasket is a gasket. With the cut throat level of competition for cars, you’d think it would happen. After all having people running around talking about their Toyota lasting to 200k did wonders for them being able ot sell cars. If someone could build a transmission that almost never failed for 200k miles or an engine that didn’t have gaskets that failed after 100k, 150k miles, surely someone would because they’d be able to grab market share and charge a premium price.