On the weekend on Movie Central I watched a documentary called "Who killed the electric car? In the documentary director Chris Paine chronicles the life and demise of the GM EV1.
The old adage, "what goes around, comes around" suddenly has a whole new meaning to me. As we watch the entire world economy going into a massive depression we hear of the car makers lining up to the public trough expecting their portion of taxpayer's money to save their industry.
The arrogance of these corporate gluttons has been and still is unfathomable. They had the audacity to appear in front of the U.S. Congress cap in hand while having flown in on their own personal private multi-million dollar jets. Only after they were sent away to reconsider their position did they return in less auspicious modes of transportation.
However I am wondering why Americans, who now have a large vested interest in the Automobile industry, don't take it over completely. Instead they keep investing in the luxuries of the corporate elite and wondering why the economy doesn't improve. Meanwhile the worker's are asked to make sacrifices. It is shameful.
Back to the GM EV1. These same executives killed the electric car. In doing so have also put the lives of the entire world at stake. They could have contributed to a reduced environmental footprint in a very short time had these vehicles been allowed to enter the marketplace and sold in substantial numbers. But they never got the chance.
Instead these very same corporate gluttons chose to create the Hummer and marketed gas guzzling SUV's using their propraganda advertising machine. Supported by the Bush government everything they did was to maximize their personal profit while wrecking our eco-system. Now that they are facing the huge downturn in sales they are crying for the taxpayer to bail them out.
Instead of bailing them out the government's, both Canadian and American should buy them out, charge the executives with the crimes of fraud and conspiracy, then change their production lines towards recreating a new line of EV class vehicles. But that is an evil "Socialist" solution like universal health care and public education.
At least we would know our hard earned money is going towards building an economy instead of building an individual's private jet collection.
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