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Death By DMV

Posted By Gerrit Lansing On April 2, 2009 @ 2:31 pm In Ongoing Priorities | 6 Comments

One of today’s great Chicago architects [1]likes to critique buildings by asking: “If this is the answer, what was the question?”

It cuts to the chase. Imagine standing before this…thing [2] and applying the above critique. The question becomes: “Can you build me a poorly lit maximum-security prison tower to live in? Absurd, right? Just like the result.

Similarly, to properly understand the absurdity of the U.S. Government backing car warranties [3], we must ask ourselves what the objective is regarding the auto industry. Improved sales? Economic viability? Something along these lines, surely, is the answer.

However, due to a decades-old quality gap between Detroit  and their Japanese rivals [4], people will paradoxically be less inclined to buy homegrown cars because taking them to get fixed now means maybe dying a slow death at a DMV-style government warranty bureau.

What was the question, again?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi9XCpSYJbY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org

URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/02/death-by-dmv/

URLs in this post:

[1] One of today’s great Chicago architects : http://www.wharchs.com/site/Leadership01.html

[2] this…thing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38167147@N02/3546348607/in/pool-ugly_architecture

[3] U.S. Government backing car warranties: http://www.foundry.org/2009/03/31/morning-bell-car-salesman-in-chief/

[4] due to a decades-old quality gap between Detroit  and their Japanese rivals: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/resource-center/automakers-bailout/overview/automaker-bailout-ov.htm

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