The Obama plan dilutes the company’s focus. Instead of thinking obsessively about profitability and quality, G.M. will also have to meet the administration’s environmental goals. There is no evidence G.M. is good at building the sort of small cars the administration demands. There is no evidence that there is a large American market for these cars. But G.M. now has to serve two masters, the market and the administration’s policy goals.Serving two masters is a notorious recipe for failure. How long before we are federally subsidized to buy one of Government Motor's little eggshell enviro-cars? The 18-wheelers won't get any smaller, just the passenger cars; imagine the results. The domestic highway carnage will dwarf what the left whined about in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Environmentalists will drive tiny cars and die in substantial numbers while those who avoid small cars survive in greater numbers. Over time something like the Roe Effect may occur, I find it positively Darwinian.
I'm going to keep driving a full-size pickup truck.
