The latest nonsense in our litigious society: Toyota owners are suing Toyota—but not because of mechanical problems. They are suing Toyota on the grounds that the resale value of their cars has dropped dramatically because of the recent recalls.

NOTE TO TOYOTA OWNERS (and ALL other car owners, for that matter): The minute your car leaves the showroom floor it drops in value. Your car is not an investment. It’s a machine that automatically depreciates in value the older it gets and the more it is used—just like your TV, your computer, your vacuum, etc.; and there’s no magical “minimum” price that it is worth farther down the road (pun intended).*

Actually, I’m wrong. I think that, just like the employment-destroying minimum wage laws, we should have guaranteed minimum resale values—on everything. That would really be a market “stimulant.”
______________________________
*Here’s a thought experiment: If tomorrow we were to declare war on Japan, and, like good jingoist sheeple, we shunned Japanese products (Remember “Freedom” fries?), should owners of Japanese cars be able to sue the United States government because its actions have precipitated the decline in value of Japanese cars due to the fact that many prospective patriotic sheeple buyers would probably shun them? Actually, the owners probably would think they should be able to sue the government!