Christie caves to lobbyists... You may have heard this story already, though probably with a different headline. Earlier this week, Governor Chris Christie signed a bill that forbids Tesla Motors from selling their cars direct to consumers, without a dealer being involved. The proffered reason is risible: that it was for consumer protection. The real reason is obvious to all: the dealers didn't want to be cut out of the action, and the dealer's association is a very powerful and wealthy lobby. Essentially, they bought their desired outcome – and they will benefit, not New Jersey's consumers.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, has posted a characteristically excellent explanation of all this in the form of an open letter to the people of New Jersey.
One can't help but admire the libertarian underpinnings of Elon Musk's letter. I agree with all of it. But I will note something here that Mr. Musk does not: there is a whiff of hypocrisy about the tone of his explanation, and I don't mean because his company is negatively affected here. Mr. Musk is basically complaining about the government intervening on behalf of his adversaries (the dealers) in this case – but he fails to mention that the profit of his company (Tesla Motors) is completely dependent on another form of government intervention in the marketplace, with his company as the beneficiary. How? There's a good explanation here of one form which provided 12% of Tesla's gross revenues last year, and Tesla's own web site lists the direct (tax credits) incentives provided by both the federal and state governments.
Mr. Musk is having it both ways: on the one hand, he wants the government to butt out of his sales process – and on the other hand, he's happily accepting the (substantial) cash benefits that government policies about electric cars provide. He's a libertarian of convenience, at best...
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