The difference between bad business and bad government
Jeff Nolan on the broadcast industry’s attempts to disable fast-forward functionality in DVRs:
I always find it ironic that large and successful businesses seriously think they can compete by restricting customer choices and benefits. It reminds me of the RIAA’s near decade long fight against downloadable music. Rarely have we seen so much money spent on a technology, DRM, whose sole role it was to restrict customer behaviors and provide no ancillary benefits. As we sit here today on the verge of the music industry abandoning their failed DRM attempts, the broadcaster and cable industry is poised to start another war on the consumer that will too end in failure.
Still, at least those companies are only pissing away their shareholders’ money and creating the space for more successful competitors whose products will be embraced by customers. You can never say that of idiotic government moves, which taxpayers pay for whether they want to or not, and which so often restrict better alternatives emerging through competition. This one, also highlighted by Jeff, is a doozy. As he says of the public transportation body in California:
If I told you that new car was going to cost you 32 times more each time you filled it up and you wouldn’t be able to repair it, well you probably would pass on it… not the VTA.
He’s not exaggerating:
Zero-emission buses - or ZEBs - cost $51.66 to fuel, maintain and operate per mile compared to just $1.61 for a 40-foot conventional diesel coach. They break down much more frequently, and replacement parts are next to impossible to order, according to the report.
Anyone want to try to tell me again why transportation is best run by politicians? Please, I need a laugh.
Filed under: Life
Its a shame shareholders are punished not for making back stock decisions, but arbitrary decisions from politico’s.
GM is spending billions for hybrid technology in spite of the fact that the newest generation of common rail diesels will get the same MPG and cost thousands less per vehicle to purchase and have less operating expenses.
All to appease the government and the environmentalists.
The politicians should not be involved in market manipulation, this has been the continual downfall of Detroit for years.
“Anyone want to try to tell me again why transportation is best run by politicians?”
Because we want unsustainable transport which occasionally splats old people and children and involves 100 times more pollution to build than a fleet of Hummers?