Comments on: Great Moments in Unintended Secondary Effects

By: Isaac Schrödinger

Isaac Schrödinger — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:23:59 +0000

The Government is Your Friend

Great Moments in Unintended Secondary Effects:1940′sWith wages frozen by government edict, employers begin offering non-taxable health insurance to attract and

By: Mitch

Mitch — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 18:30:07 +0000

I don't want this to be a bad car blog, but let's not forget this attempt to build an Americanized Volkswagen. One of my friends had one, and the fishbowl glass overwhelmed the pitiful AC on mild spring days. And my Dad bought one of these horrors.

By: LotharBot

LotharBot — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:19:29 +0000

Thirty miles to the gallon… zero to sixty… sometimes.

linky.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:07:04 +0000

Ha! I had a Pinto once. A relative who got tired of repairing it gave it to me. It was a very bad car.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:09:41 +0000

Johnathan,

Please write a warning before posting links to such morally disturbing images!

God, how I loathe the 70′s.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:07:30 +0000

Don’t forget that price controls and then windfall profit taxes created the “energy crisis” that wracked the world for over a decade. It spawned wars and economic collapses that killed millions. It kept the Soviet Union and the cold war going for at least another five years longer than it should have. It even help create our current problems with Islamist terrorism by pumping billions into the coffers of the Wahabist in Gulf states.

I think that falls in the “whoops” catagory.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:24:38 +0000

Remember this, this and this?

By: Don

Don — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 12:17:36 +0000

“CAFE fuel economy requirements cause carmakers to build smaller, lighter vehicles. Consumers react to the space shortage and crash dangers by buying SUV’s.”

Just amend that since stationwagons were defined as automobiles for fleet mileage determination, manufactures kill production of suburban stationwagons and use truck designs for their new ‘SUVs’ a.k.a. Urban Assault Vehicles.

Personally, I thought the government interference in the free market during the 70′s gas crisis brought this on. Since Detroit and the unions pressured Washington to shut off the massive loss of market to cheap ‘well’ built fuel efficient Japanese cars, the motivation to clean up their market act has taken nearly thrity years to get into play. Washington jawboned the Japanese government-industry to restrict imports of the cheaper brands which only resulted in the Japanese sending more of the middle cost cars which Americans continued to buy. The unintended result was that Americans with less income had to buy poorer made and shorter life American models, the throw aways.

By: Lex

Lex — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 02:05:06 +0000

Somehow, this piece about the most underrated inventions seems tangentially related to this post's topic.

By: Michael Hiteshew

Michael Hiteshew — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:39:42 +0000

1970 – Massachusetts becomes the first state to pass “no fault” car insurance regulations. By the mid 1970′s fully regulated rates are in place for auto coverage.

But wait…

2005 – Massachusetts continues to be among the states with the lowest number of insurance providers. It’s citizens also pay the highest rates in the nation for their demographic category.

Now why didn’t that work?? Well, if you ask them, which I have, they plead ignorance to the cause, but will then assure you that if the market is deregulated and allowed to be competitive their rates will go up. (I’m not making this up.)

If you show them charts and graphs of their rates versus other similar states who enjoy lower rates, which I have, they are baffled.

Would it make sense to require one year of macroeconomics for high school graduation?