Romania’s former Car Czar tells us what happens when government nationalizes industry and directs production toward politically preferred products.
He writes about how the East German bureaucrats who directed production of the Trabant purposely made the car small and boxy to “give it a proletarian look.” It’s always been the case that as cars get more fuel efficient the more proletarian they look – and this applies to cars made anywhere. (Who is responsible for the Toyota Echo anyway? A truly hideous proletariatmobile.) I listened to a fella on NPR the other day, and essentially, he was trying to answer the question of why “green” cars are so darn ugly. I agree with his assessment that it’s because the people who relish these cars are a different crowd, and they like the fact that the body styles represent simplicity – it’s their kind of “trendy.” To them, the ugliness of compact cars is so ugly as to be attractive and sexy.
But it goes much further than that. Greenmobile types tend to glamorize socialism and the collective-proletariat “look.” They like ugly. Ugly cars for boorish people. The Prius, a horrifyingly ugly car, presents that look very well. The green socialists, or EnviroCommunists as I call them, don’t mesh well with style and modern innovation – those are the very things they despise. For them, the symbolism of being proletariat, collectivist, and frugal is far more important than the actual substance of things. Think of multi-millionaire Ed Begley, Jr. in his photo ops with politically-correct green cars. Those people will never buy a “green” car styled like a Stealth or Mustang because the symbolism they feel a need to convey will be lost. The entire EnviroCommunist movement is about the symbolism of hating humans, western civilization, wealth, and progress.
Until the carmakers get it that the average person does not fit into the aforementioned category, people will continue to reject greenmobiles based on performance, utility, size, and looks.
