[mrt0mat0]

It blows my mind that in a country that preaches a free-market economy, the government is preventing a company from selling a superior product. I'm pretty sure people will still buy the car if they want to, and in time, those car companies will go under anyway, but why slow down progress?

[cylinder]

Remember that the US is not pro-business, it's corporatist. It's a government that is able to be easily captured by incumbent, monied interests. Starting businesses and operating them on a small level is much easier in other developed nations.

[bfe]

Acting in favor of individual businesses is usually orthogonal or antithetical to acting in favor of the free market.

Big businesses and the politicians who love them often rely heavily on erasing the perception of that difference.

[mncolinlee]

It depends whether you're describing "the free market" religion or "the free market" reality.

In practice, most politicians mean an economy tilted in favor of multinational corporations when they use these dog whistle terms. It is an offense to everything Adam Smith stood for, but it's what they really mean by "free market." The real Adam Smith believed modern-style multinational corporations were a recipe for corruption.

"The directors of such [joint-stock] companies, however, being the managers rather of other people’s money than of their own, it cannot well be expected, that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own.... Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company."

[stcredzero]

dog whistle terms

That's a great phrase. I look on in trepidation at the almost mechanical way folks in their teens and 20's react to memes. I find parallels in the way programmers parrot half-truths and untruths. And of course, there's the joke that passes for political discourse on TV.

Really, we 1st world people aren't that much more sophisticated than 19th century Russian peasants chanting "Constantine and constitution" thinking "constitution" was Constantine's wife.

[bjt]

The relevant government in this case is the state of New Jersey, not the United States of America. There is a lot of variation between state governments.

[lutorm]

Like the Economist wrote about George W Bush: "Being pro-business is not the same thing as being pro-market".

[gutnor]

> the government is preventing a company from selling a superior product

There is some bias there. You judge Tesla a better product, so of course all the regulation that are against its sales are going to feel unjust.

I have difficulties to really follow this whole stuff (I live in EU, the whole buying a car in the US seems a very 'exiting' experience, at least when reading about it on Reddit), there does not seem to be any sort of nice non-partisan explanation of the problem and why those regulations where put in place.

Actually Musk is the clearest answer that is not either: "Tesla great, fuck the regulation" or the opposite, "Musk dick, cannot follow the regulations like everybody else", but what's PR and what's factual ?

Edit: Just realised why it irked me this time. I was reading about EU decision of standardizing the power plug for smartphone to micro-USB. People were all happy for regulation there. When people complained that now the we would get stuck with micro-usb forever, people dismissed it saying the EU will just change the plug when a better one comes up as if the EU/US hadn't got an awful track record at keeping their regulation and spec up-to-date, like in this case for example.

[ChuckMcM]

"If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door, unless its run by mice." --me

[baddox]

I think it would be better to say "unless it's run by the current mousetrap manufacturers."

[atmosx]

Hm, I thought that by now most people would have got that:

* Free-market is for the poor (in every sense: money, political power, etc.)

* The rich (again in every sense) know that in order for you to become obscenely rich you need a state-protected, but not state-owned monopoly.

That's how wall street works actually: We share the loses, they get the winnings... It's risk free win-win for them.

[ethikal]

Because existing businesses are afraid of change and politicians are afraid of possibly eliminating jobs. People are afraid of change because it means that they will have to adapt.

[baddox]

There's a big difference between "preaching a free-market economy" and "preaching a free-market economy except in cases where I think there shouldn't be a free-market economy." The latter is the norm in the United States and every other country in the world that I know of.

[njharman]

> preaches a free-market economy

Those who preach, rarely practice.

Only some portions of the electorate and politicians preach free-market economy.

[djKianoosh]

while "superior" is subjective, i agree it's best to let the market decide naturally, instead of putting up barriers...

[cheald]

Things like the Consumer Reports ratings and the Motor Trend "Car of the year" award are pretty objective. You're right that it's subjective, but there's empirical evidence that a lot of people feel it's superior.

[djKianoosh]

I dont trust either. I dont know who paid off who to get a good rating. ;-) And who knows what biases are there in the reviewer?

Besides, I may not purchase a vehicle based on any of the same factors as the average person that these ratings/awards are targeted to. To some people a car has to have a certain feel. How much more subjective can that be?

It's like product reviews on the internet. Almost wish they didn't exist they're so fake most of the time. we digress...

The quality of awards/ratings aside, that shouldn't even matter here. Tesla or any other manufacturer should be able to sell directly to the consumer if that's the way the two parties want to do business. I can buy apple products directly from Apple and not have to go through Best Buy or anyone else. Why do cars have to be different, still, in 2014?

[nawitus]

I wouldn't call Consumer Reports that objective. They probably have a significant pro-United States bias.

[noja]

It doesn't blow your mind, it happens the whole time. Car imports are a similar example.