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Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

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Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#22
post #8

What's not very clear in this article is that Texas has always been pretty good about keeping politicians out of office. So depending on your view of government, that's either a really great thing or really terrible one.

That doesn't make any sense. Are politicians born with a magic birthmark that allows one to differentiate them from non-politicians?

Politicians adapt themselves to the carrots and sticks of their environment, just like CEOs, blue-collar laborers, and everybody else. For better or worse, they are a reflection of their constituency.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#24
post #5

All too often, the media as well as average people mistake support for corporate interests as support for "free enterprise." When large corporate interests are essentially writing bills for lawmakers, "free enterprise" is precisely what is not being practiced.

Other car manufacturers can't sell directly. Why should Tesla get special rules?

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#25

Was there a mistake in the article? It said that the legislative body would not meet again until 2015? Also, I wonder what affect Big Oil had on the outcome?

Texas has a part-time legislature. There's also no need to go looking for pantomime villains; car dealers are hugely powerful in local and state politics. They're the rock that Tesla will founder on.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#26
post #14

Funny how similar it is to the alcohol situation. Its illegal for a brewery to sell beer directly to the public in Texas, they have to go through a middleman (distributor) that doesn't really provide value. Although in the last legislative session the rules got relaxed somewhat ( especially for brewpubs ), its still pretty similar.

This isn't just a car issue, it is a "protecting local business" issue. Every state has some industries that they mandate a middle man. They either do it through licensing or just straight up saying the manufacture cannot sell direct.

Shallow articles like the link don't really help the situation. We really need to start looking at removing the government from business models when there is no actual public safety aspect(1). This is a much wider problem.

1) I do believe Florida is one of the state that licenses interior designers on the theory poor interior design could kill someone. This too should be revoked as it is among the stupidest safety concerns ever.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#27
post #14

Funny how similar it is to the alcohol situation. Its illegal for a brewery to sell beer directly to the public in Texas, they have to go through a middleman (distributor) that doesn't really provide value. Although in the last legislative session the rules got relaxed somewhat ( especially for brewpubs ), its still pretty similar.

Funny how you single out Texas for doing this. How is this different from other states?

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#29
post #5

All too often, the media as well as average people mistake support for corporate interests as support for "free enterprise." When large corporate interests are essentially writing bills for lawmakers, "free enterprise" is precisely what is not being practiced.

Other car manufacturers can't sell directly. Why should Tesla get special rules?

Tesla shouldn't get special rules. Instead, no car maker should be compelled to use dealerships.

Re: Texas won't allow Tesla to sell electric cars directly

#30
post #5

All too often, the media as well as average people mistake support for corporate interests as support for "free enterprise." When large corporate interests are essentially writing bills for lawmakers, "free enterprise" is precisely what is not being practiced.

Other car manufacturers can't sell directly. Why should Tesla get special rules?

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