The Big Three have spent the last few days asking for an additional $25 billion in federal money on top of the $25 billion they got earlier this year to re-tool their factories. The irony is that many of the same people advocating the bailout are also the ones trying to kill automobiles.
Those on the left argue that the Big Three are too big to fail and that allowing them to go bankrupt would cause economic hardship. Robert Tracinski of Real Clear Markets finds this gem of a quote that sums up the position of many arguing for the bailout:
Susan Helper, a professor of "regional economic development" at Case Western Reserve University tells the New York Times "From a social point of view, even if GM is not providing a return on investment, it is still providing a lot of good jobs."
The problem is that while we're looking to spend $25 billion to save the auto industry, we're also taking steps to kill the auto industry -- $22 billion just for Sound Transit in the Puget Sound. Let's be clear that the goal is not simply to increase options but, in fact, to force people out of their cars.
For example, when I told the Seattle P-I that to effectively reduce CO2emissions from cars we needed to focus on improving the fuel efficiency of cars rather than mandating behavioral change to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT), I received a sharp rebuke. Doug Howell of the National Wildlife Federation accused me of relying on "miracles," saying:
There are two fundamental ways to reduce global warming pollution from transportation: cleaner vehicles and fewer of them. Transportation is nearly half our pollution problem. Cleaner vehicles and fuels can reduce much of the problem. But no matter how we do the math, there is no way for Washington to reach its climate goals without reductions in VMT. This argument holds true for Hummers and hybrids. The bonus: Strategies to reduce VMT also create efficiencies that benefit commuters and businesses.
Put simply, unless we force people out of their cars, we'll never achieve the CO2 reductions we want. I think Doug is simply wrong because 1) he underestimates the pace of technological change and 2) he overestimates the ability of government to force people to change their behavior (witness the fiasco known as the Seattle "Car Free Days" program). There are a couple of other fundamental problems with that view, but I'll leave it there for now.
The Sightline Institute, an ideological traveler of the National Wildlife Federation notes that there is an additional inconvenient truth: forcing reductions in VMT means, fundamentally, getting the poor off the road so the rich can cruise. In discussing comprehensive road tolling to get people off the road they note that:
The "losers" would include people priced off the roadway—folks who’d prefer to drive, but can’t afford to—as well as those who would keep on driving, but pay more in tolls than they receive in time benefits.
There is one problem with this logic. If someone is continuing to drive even when they pay more in tolls, they are deciding that, in fact, they are receiving more in time benefits than the cost of tolls. The "cost" of something varies from person to person. The concept that there is a single true cost of something is emblematic of a viewpoint that believes government can calculate and impose the best strategy.
In the end, the logic of these activities is that we need to spend $25 billion to save an industry that we are spending $22 billion locally to kill and the result will be to allow the rich (driving big cars) more space to drive the open road.
