Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#81

Post by jokoon » Sat, Aug 24, 2013, 11:40 AM UTC

Aqueous wrote: post #26

jokoon wrote: post #21

some people want to kill the electric car

don't think it's about being against the electric car, but against a world where car dealerships are unnecessary. car dealerships will eventually go the way of the book store. they don't want a world in which they aren't the very profitable middle men between the consumer and the manufacturer. tesla's direct consumer sales threatens their existence, so they want nothing to do with it.

So basically the law mandates that salesmen are not out of work. Brilliant.

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#82

Post by rtpg » Sat, Aug 24, 2013, 2:34 PM UTC

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #38

jtoeman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

like Airbnb getting sued in New York? or Uber/Lyft/etc having to go through extortionary-like procedures in California? ...

I'm not arguing that US is universally free-market today, rather that it was less free-market 50 years ago.

I'm really tired of people trying to set an equivalence between free markets and lack of regulation. I don't know if that's exactly what you're trying to do but:

A free market is a very specific definition, there are things like atomicity of actors and whatnot. Loads of regulations can help meet that, for example:

-Governments handing out tax credits to new companies helps free markets

-Governments setting in anti-trust laws helps free markets

-Governments setting disclosure regulations helps free markets

Some regulations harm free markets (namely things like entry controls), but others protect it. We need to learn to make the distinction

Re: Tesla is unable to sell its vehicles directly to the public in Texas

#83

Post by grecy » Sat, Aug 24, 2013, 6:57 PM UTC

hearty778 wrote: post #77

grecy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is "since the 70's" some sort of ironic joke? No. Some time ago the United States was a world leader in terms of the standard of living for the average citizen. Now it's dead last among developed countries, and by many measures, it's solidly among developing countries. I, personally, think that fall from grace began around the 70's (ish) when the "We're the greatest" mentality put a stop to innovation. Basically, t…

This is completely false. What measure of standard of living are you using?

The US is at or very near the worst among OECD countries, and often comparable to developing countires in: infant mortality, child poverty, child health and safety, life expectancy at birth, healthy life expectancy, rate of obesity, disability-adjusted life years, doctors per 1000 people, deaths from treatable conditions, rate of mental health disorders, rate of drug abuse, rate of prescription drug use, incarceration rate, rate of assaults, rate of homicides, rate of firearm deaths, rate of accidental firearm deaths and injuries, income inequality, wealth inequality, and economic mobility.

See for yourself: http://www.oecd.org/statistics/