What does over half a billion in taxpayer money get you? Cars that only the very rich can afford.
Fisker is sitting on a $529 million government loan guarantee to make electric cars. Great. Never mind they are being built in Finland. The Fisker Karma (which, like a Chevy Volt has a gasoline engine to extend its range but will only go "up to" 50 miles on electric only according the their website) costs $97,000. Very few people can afford that.
Now we could think back 100 years when only the very rich could afford cars. Then Henry Ford came along, used the assembly line, and lowered the price of cars to the point where most people could afford them. Could the same thing happen with electrics? Or, what is more important, will they pencil out and finally be cheaper than a gasoline or diesel-powered car. (I know, in matter of all that is environmentally holy, money must flow like rainwater into the coffers of the goddess Gaia.) I doubt it will happen soon. And in any case, why is government money going to build a car very few can afford? (Yes, I know the government money was not to build the Karma but to build the slightly more affordable Nina which will only cost $57,000 and be built in the U.S.)
So we're taxing Joe Sixpack so Leonardo DiCaprio can ease his environmental guilt. I'd say that's a good use of money, wouldn't you?
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