Tuesday, July 08, 2008
She Gave Me A Hummer
“We can’t sell our cars in China today because we don’t meet the Chinese emissions standards.”
This same lie has been repeated ad nauseam by every lunatic left-wing environmentalist nutjob on the planet. Unfortunately, like most of the lies these people spew, it’s complete bullshit.
When General Motors announced this month that it might sell Hummer, the brand of military-style sport utility vehicles whose sales have plummeted in the west, it seemed that soaring oil prices were halting the era of the big, gas-guzzling car.
Drivers in China have other ideas, however. Even though GM does not officially sell Hummers in China, a booming grey market has developed. In Beijing alone, more than 15 car dealers are selling the tank-like vehicles to China’s army of new car-buyers.
Hummers have become particularly popular among the wealthy urbanites who like to spend their holidays on long driving treks across the country.
Of course, on paper the Chinese are worthy of all the praise that the world’s lefties can heap upon them.
China’s drivers have one other argument against US critics of its soaring fuel demand: emissions and fuel economy standards for cars are higher in China than they are in the US.
Of course, its safety standards are also far lower. Chinese cars crumple like tin cans when they get in accidents. And, despite the belief that government can solve every problem everywhere by benign fiat, all this proves is that the more government is involved in these types of things the more likely that the powerful and connected will be able to game the system to their advantage. Case in point: China, which subsidizes oil to keep gasoline prices lower.
Speaking before the latest Sino-US economic talks that began on Tuesday, Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, said he would urge Chinese officials to use higher prices to limit oil consumption – although the Chinese government argues that the weaker dollar is one of the main causes of surging oil prices.
Closer to home, critics say the oil price controls are distorting demand and favouring the wrong people.
“The oil subsidies do not make sense, as they end up subsidising the rich rather than the poor,” says Frank Gong, head of China research at JPMorgan financial services. “The effect of sustaining low oil prices is higher car imports and more big cars.”
Wow, look at that. When you artificially keep the price of something low people will use more of it. When the price goes up people will (gasp!) use less of it. My God, who could have ever imagined such a preposterous idea? Oh yeah, capitalists like me.
So when the Goracle or some other socialist twit tells you about the wonderful, magical power of government to wrap its snuggly arms around us and solve all the world’s problems, just look at China. You’re all going to get a front row seat for how wonderful government is in about 32 days when the Olympic Games open.
