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America loves its cars. We invented the first mass produced vehicles in the world and the idea that all people should have a car if they want one.
Nowhere else on Earth does this culture exist, including England where I lived when I was young. I still remember in London throngs of businessmen in tailored suits piling up the rush hour roads on their bicycles. It was silly looking to me.
It still is. The rest of the countries are no better.
These are teeny tiny people riding their teeny tiny pedal bikes around their teeny tiny countries. Sorry you all, this is AMERICA. It’s out of you all’s league.
Having a car gives you freedom to move about whenever you want, and this is a huge land mass to cover. If you feel that what you are seeing on TV is “boo-shee” (now my favorite phrase), you can go see for yourself. And yes, you will find “boo-shee.” Lots of it that they don’t want you to find.
So why are all those other countries not like us? Because their governments purposely made owning a car and buying gas priced too high for the working citizens. Driving a tiny 4 cylinder car there costs what a Ferrari does here.
You can guess why. European governments have never been into that “personal freedom” thing. That’s why we landed here, shot 20,000 of them and threw the rest out. And the rest of the world? Way worse.
Now certain leaders of ours would like to copy them. They have no idea the noose they are putting around their own neck politically. Soon: “Buh, bye!”
Because freedom of movement is not the only thing. As I said, we love our cars. We clean them, polish them, have photos taken of ourselves standing next to them. We revel in them. They are big metal toys of joy.
Not being a true “car guy” (I can change a tire if need be) I’ve only owned a couple that fit that category, but I’ve appreciated all of them. In America most every boy (girls too) aspired to own a car by the time they reached 16.
I truly like Elon Musk. He has made great strides for us in space exploration, satellite communications and internet, payment systems (PayPal) and freedom of speech/fighting government corruption and censorship. And the list goes on.
But Elon…DUMP the electric cars! Even your genius and problem solving abilities can’t save that doomed idea. It’s totally a government PR boondoggle. Every month the demand is going down, down, down. Your stock price will eventually do that and disappear.
Just one of the many many on the list of problems that will nix electric vehicles: There is not enough electricity!
A small businessman up in a city up North was thinking about buying a few electric trucks for his business and he applied for permits to put in for chargers. The power company laughed at him in amazement. They denied him, telling him that would take more electric power than they produce for the entire city!
That is not fixable.
There will be a point when the cars that are stored and piling up will have to be sent to the scrapyard or used as artificial reefs off Key West.
Pretty bad that the smallest negative point regarding your product is that they tend to catch fire in your garage. And there’s a long list. Americans are starting to see a scam appear almost bigger than COVID, if that’s even possible.
This is a subject (our love for gas powered cars) that Musk doesn’t understand.
He grew up in South Africa. Nuff said.
This insane pushing for EVs originates from places like New Yawk and Chicago, both of which have a lot in common with South Africa. Those folks didn’t grow up in the same country as you and I.
The poor or working people use buses and the subway in those places, and the well off use Ubers, taxis or limousines. They could care less how people in Mississippi or Florida get around.
Kind of short sighted on their part, seeing as how we grow their food, drive it there and then provide the money to purchase it by reloading their SNAP cards with tax money. Golden goose?
Like my Millennial son who is “pro EV” but drives a RAV 4 (insert laugh here), I will admit shamefully that when I was young like him I leaned to the left hard enough to believe anything they told me. It’s a defect that cures itself with age.
But I NEVER would have given up my car.
And I still won’t.
Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.
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