See the problem is the invisible hand isn’t what forced us to buy big cars. Auto regulations determining fuel economy by vehicle footprint is what killed small cars in general, including the smart car which is far too inefficient given it’s footprint to be sold in the USA. Cars as small as the smart car would need 70+ mpg to be sold under current regulations, so instead manufacturers make larger vehicles to fit inside of the regs. There’s a reason EVERY car model in the USA has only gotten larger every passing year, and it’s not just cuz “durrrr merican need big car”, although that is probably a good half of it… Here’s a random chart I found, not sure how accurate but u can search if your interested it’s all public info.
No, the regulations are not too strict for small cars, that is what the car industry wants you to think. The regulations for obese cars are far too weak and there is zero enforcement against commercially used car categories being sold for pure end consumer use.
That is by design due to a breakdown of proper functioning of institutions and massive degradation of regulations by neglect and massive loophole exploitation, even widening those loopholes instead of closing them.
That said, footprint based emission rules without strong safeguards are inherently flawed. There is a strong case against making emission standards relative to size for end consumer vehicles. A combined approach could work though, make footprint based emission a fix reqirement and then add meaningful cost to total emission, indepedendent of footprint. Exception for commercial vehicles are fine but only if commercial use is strictly enforced and not massively abused by actual end consumer use.
That tells you a bit about how fantastically well the “Invisible Hand” is working, isn’t it?
See the problem is the invisible hand isn’t what forced us to buy big cars. Auto regulations determining fuel economy by vehicle footprint is what killed small cars in general, including the smart car which is far too inefficient given it’s footprint to be sold in the USA. Cars as small as the smart car would need 70+ mpg to be sold under current regulations, so instead manufacturers make larger vehicles to fit inside of the regs. There’s a reason EVERY car model in the USA has only gotten larger every passing year, and it’s not just cuz “durrrr merican need big car”, although that is probably a good half of it… Here’s a random chart I found, not sure how accurate but u can search if your interested it’s all public info.
No, the regulations are not too strict for small cars, that is what the car industry wants you to think. The regulations for obese cars are far too weak and there is zero enforcement against commercially used car categories being sold for pure end consumer use.
That is by design due to a breakdown of proper functioning of institutions and massive degradation of regulations by neglect and massive loophole exploitation, even widening those loopholes instead of closing them.
That said, footprint based emission rules without strong safeguards are inherently flawed. There is a strong case against making emission standards relative to size for end consumer vehicles. A combined approach could work though, make footprint based emission a fix reqirement and then add meaningful cost to total emission, indepedendent of footprint. Exception for commercial vehicles are fine but only if commercial use is strictly enforced and not massively abused by actual end consumer use.