state of affairs

This car has alot to say about our current state of affairs in the United States. We are in a recession, depression, slump... whatever you want to call it and "bailout" is our new favorite word. It's funny, that word "bailout", my Grandpa used to say it all the time. He picked it up in WWII flying in B-17's... it's what you did right before your whole fucking plane went down in flames. It was about saving yourself... not the system you were apart of. Ok, so big businesses are getting bailout packages, and for this moment I don't care how or why, what I do care about is how they got into the position to need such packages.

Enter the Chevy Volt. Here is a little tidbit from GM's website about the volt.

"Seventy-eight percent of commuters drive 40 miles or less to and from work.* If we could change the technology behind these daily drives, imagine how much gasoline and money we could save while helping reduce emissions. It might be possible with a vehicle capable of running on electricity, E85, and gasoline fuels — in other words, a vehicle powered by GM's innovative E-Flex Propulsion System, like the Concept Chevy Volt."

Imagine a car that could go 40 miles per charge and could be refueled by plugging it into an outlet when you got home at night. Zero emissions, NO GAS, low maintenance, and a car that could drive using sustainable energy such as solar and wind. WOW!!! How come nobody thought about this before?? Oh, actually somebody did... it was GM...over 12 years ago!


Enter the GM EV1. This is from Wikipedia "Introduced in 1996, The EV1 electric cars were available in California and Arizona as a lease only, as well as through a Southern Company employee lease program in Georgia, and could be serviced at designated Saturn retailers. They were discontinued after 1999 and subsequently removed from the roads in 2003 by General Motors (except for a few). The car's discontinuation was and remains a controversial topic."

So what does any of this have to do with a recession and bailout packages? Well now the Big 3 automakers are in trouble... anyone want to guess why? Because they are behind the times, of their own volition. Honda and Toyota just keep chugging along because they change, they expand, they're inovative. GM had that chance, the chance to be the first in what would have been a HUGE market and they turned their backs on it. Why? Well there are all kinds of arguments. To get a better understanding of them may I recommend the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The point is that these large companies have important decisions to make everyday, and some days those decisions may determine the future of the company. And if by chance (more like certainty) they happen to make the wrong decision, why is that we the public, we the taxpayers, we the working class have to suffer for it? But more importantly... WHY THE FUCK SHOULD WE BAIL THEM OUT?!!