Defeat the right-wing step 3 according to It Could Happen Here podcast…
We do not need so many layers of nonsense profiteering and protectionism in the inefficient car industry. And apparently the money is put into Republican campaign funding.
It Could Happen Here Podcast – How to Stop the Far Right in Three Easy Steps September 9, 2024 • 30 mins Mia and Robert discuss an unlikely electoral program to defeat the far right: an MLM crackdown, supplement regulations, and legalizing direct car sales.
Even if it’s not gonna do anything against the right-wing, nobody likes car dealerships, and we all know it’s because the whole system is set up dubiously. I don’t even understand this situation entirely, even after listening to this podcast that explains it well enough, my eyes just start to glaze over and start seeing red when I think about the car sales industry. It’s kind of confusing because Ron Desantis signed a law for cracking down on direct car sales and made an exclusion for electric cars. I believe this exclusion is made in Pennsylvania as well. This gives an advantage to EVs and Tesla of course. That might seem appealing to some people who want more EVs and aren’t thinking things through, but it’s not like we have a lot of choices right now, and the entire situation is unequal.
And who among us ordinary folks loves getting layers upon layers fees and dealership hard sells and whatnot?
My letter to reps:
Stop bans on direct car sales. Nobody loves the layer of profiteering or the shenanigans of car dealerships. It’s inefficient and tiresome for consumers. And it’s costing us more than it should.
Feel free to use my examples for your own letters to your elected representatives.
I did find this article about the Ohio campaign against Sherrod Brown, citing a Slate piece, which lends more evidence that a lot of Republicans are fueled by car dealer money…
Car dealers will decide America’s future The nation’s gentry could finish Trump’s revolution Michael Cuenco March 28, 2024 Unherd A 2023 account of these car dealers by Slate’s Alexander Sammon recounts the awesome scale of their collective wealth and influence on Republican politics: “Auto dealers are one of the five most common professions among the top 0.1%”; they (along with other gentry professions like gas station owners and building contractors) make up “a majority of the country’s 140,000 Americans who earn more than $1.58 million per year”; members of the industry association donate to Republicans “at a rate of 6-to-1”, through which they have worked “to write and rewrite laws to protect dealers and sponsor sympathetic politicians in all 50 states”. Such figures help to make sense of Moreno’s and his fellow car dealers’ status as the cream of the crop among America’s local elites.
I’m sure there’d be disruption, but just like with the people running private healthcare insurance companies, if we got single payer, they’d probably just move to another business. Sort of like how real estate flipping isn’t so big anymore… But nowadays they’re flipping nursing homes. Yeah that’s actually a thing. And it’s still lucrative even after all the horrors of the past 4 years. Private equity has also gotten into veterinary practices – if you’ve wondered why there’s no longer any animal hospitals within a reasonable distance (I found that out the hard way), and there appears to be a shortage of vets.
So I get the sense that there’s a problem on the next layer up that’s the actual problem here. But hey, whack-a-mole in the meantime.