One Two Several of my loyal disloyal interested readers informed me that I’ve fallen behind in my self appointed goal of beating the Chevy Volt to dust. My gosh they’re right.
It has been 27 days since I bitched about how my money has been pissed away on a car nobody wants. I was busy baking bread and denying the existence of Primary Campaigns (Good grief 300,000,000 Americans to choose from and the Republicans turned up…them? Really? How? Am I on Candid Camera?)
In those 27 days did the Volt take off? Did it gain wings. Did the Rainbow Faeries make it profitable? Did Solyndra figure out a way to charge them? (Yeah, it was a cheap shot but it was fun.) Maybe the Volt just needed a little love. Maybe mean old Curmudgeons aren’t giving it a chance. After all, the price of gas is rising faster than a skirt at Spring Break. Wouldn’t right now be the time when Rainbow Cars can shine?
Nope. You cannot make shine out of thin air. Life is cruel that way:
Its an economic reality two-fer. The invisible hand of the market is delivering a predictable and unavoidable dope slap to yahoos who keep spending my taxes on bullshit. Dope slap number one is the failure to sell that which the consumer didn’t demand. To whit I say…”Duh”. Dope slap two is a tragic demonstration that “green jobs” aren’t sustainable like “actual jobs”.
I’ve mentioned Green Jobs before (credit is due to Rhymes With Cars And Girls for the definition).
green jobs (n.): A category of employment properly viewed as belonging to the realm of mythology or fantasy, like the chimera, leprechaun, or centaur; jobs not tangibly observable in the real world but existing in the dreams of ‘progressives’.
I was even taken to task for my misanthropic attitude toward green jobs. Indeed my insistence on reality is an unpopular buzz kill in the age of Obama.
The whole thing can be summed up in a Curmudgeonly Gem On Insight:
“If you make something people don’t want, you shouldn’t stay in business. If you make something people want, that’s a ‘job’, not a ‘green job’ and by definition it won’t require a subsidy.”
Lest you think I’m a heartless cretin (or mysanthrope) I do have sympathy for the folks who bet on the Volt and are now unemployed. Being broke sucks. I sincerely hope they all adapt and persevere.
A.C.
P.S. Some of my other thoughts on the Chevy Volt are below:
- The Chevy Volt Is Still Shovel Ready: Jobs Money Quote
- The Chevy Volt Is Still Shovel Ready: The Great Leap Forward
- The Chevy Volt Is Still Shovel Ready
- The Chevy Volt (As Expected) Continues To Bleed Money
- Smart Car Follows The Chevy Volt Down The Rathole
- The Chevy Volt’s Slogan: FAIL Of The Century
Slightly off topic:
About Solyndra:
I wish to hell that I thought that the Volt was going to be allowed to die, but I know perfectly well that Our Betters (or so they believe) won’t let it. It’s the car we SHOULD want. The car they would buy themselves, if it weren’t for the fact that they absolutely NEED a mercedes, or an SUV, or whatever.
I don’t suppose we could get some troublemaking Republican to slip language into the inevitable “save the Volt” bill requiring any fool who votes for it to drive one?
In the definition of “Green Jobs”, the most important of examples was left out. Unicorns. :>)
Car design was always best left up to young American hot rodders, passionate Italians, eccentric Englishmen, practical Japanese, and Germans (with the occasional Frenchman, but he needs to work for Cirtroen).
Sadly, now cars are designed by American Accountants and Belgan Bureacrats as a sort of combination tax scam and jobs program.
My day job is doing boring paperwork for a car dealership in Detroit. The Volt is an ongoing joke at work. Everytime someone buys one the owner of the dealership just laughs all the way to the bank. Did you know you would have to drive that thing for 12 years before you break even? After 12 years you will start saving money on fuel. By that time the car will be a a rusted pile of junk in the backyard.
There is one over riding principle that you definitely need to keep in mind ….
You cannot polish a turd
Mythbusters proved that one wrong. You can in fact polish a turd.
Maybe the lipstick and pig analogy would work better.
You sure that wasn’t “Dirty Jobs”?
The Volt is not a bad looking car. The concept design looks cool. If it had an efficient gas engine (no hybrid) it would sell. That being said, it is a government mandated car. Although I don’t see the government purchasing the car for their GSA fleet.
Glad to see you back on task.