Government is like a bad marriage you can’t get out of. An arranged bad marriage you didn’t even once upon a time think was a good idea that turned bad over time. You were forced into it – and you can’t leave it.
Just ask Mr. Lincoln.
So you end up doing your best to “make it work” – and are grateful for whatever small occasional concessions you can manage.
They are better than nothing, as the saying goes.
And yes – it could have been worse. For instance:
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Our Worser Half was going to force us to buy nothing but hybrids and electric cars – by jacking up the price – via fines – of any new car that didn’t average at least 46.7 MPG – which is every car that isn’t a hybrid or an EV – by the 2026 model year.
This would have had a seismic effect on not just the cost of cars but also the choice of cars available come 2026. Less “efficient” models would become more scarce as well as more expensive – the one inevitably resulting in the other.
Instead, the arm-twisting will apparently be relaxed – somewhat. New cars will “only” be required to average 37 MPG by 2026. Those that don’t – which is almost all of them except hybrids – will still cost more.
But a bit less than they would have otherwise.
Be grateful?
Yes, surely. In the manner of Stalin’s chicken. It is of a piece with being grateful that the county “only” increased the tax assessment on your home by 3 percent this year instead of 5.
How about zero?
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Never mind.
Our Worser Half has been decreeing MPG minimums – styled Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency standards – since the 1970s on the basis of a very strange and morally despicable argument, which is rarely – if ever – questioned.
It goes something like this:
The car companies must be forced by the government to offer what buyers are clamoring for – i.e., “fuel-efficient” cars – else they would force people to buy nothing but “gas guzzling” cars.
This is of course absurd, both historically, logically – and actually.
