Buggywhips and the Green Car Challenge

Jay Leno is back on the air, and I'll admit I usually like listening to him. Last night, though, his guest was Rush Limbaugh, one of the most widely listened to radio hosts in the USA, who also (in my opinion) is an ignorant right-wing ass. OK now I got that out of the way, I will make my own comment on the appearance, as I finally decided to watch, in a very close decision.

Jay took issue with Rush's criticism of Obama for bailing out the auto industry. Jay's point was that he wanted cars to be made in the USA. Rush's point was that you had to let the market take its course, and Rush was certain that whatever the market did would be good. I am not sure that sending all the manufacturing jobs to China would be the best outcome, which is exactly what Jay was worried about too. Jay Leno represents the average American with general knowledge who can also use reason. The Rush came back with an analogy of the type that I love because it is so easy to turn around against the perpetrator.

Rush said that the car industry today is like the buggy whip industry of a hundred years ago. Let it fail, something better will come along if you just leave the free market alone. What Rush appears to not understand about this analogy is that buggy whips are not like cars. Buggy whips are so easy to make that even I could make one. And if you really need to hit a horse, maybe a long stick would do in a pinch. The buggy whip industry died a natural death. But manufacturing a car is complicated, and involves many different processes. From making steel to developing electronics. If manufacturing moves away from the USA, all that will be left is an unskilled and almost defenseless country with no domestic manufacturing. When the factories have gone, they do not come back.

Rush's highly paid job is not a productive one. Rush is more like a parasitic disease on America society - destroying knowledge with disinformation, building up senseless fear and promoting class warfare. If the free market had any say, Rush would be broadcasting only to some county of Oklahoma where nobody knows the name of the first president of the USA. It is the lack of free market competition that allowed Clear Channel Communications to buy out all the competitive radio stations and replace them with the sea-to-sea drone of Rush Limbaugh's ignorant rants.

What Rush has done to radio, he wants to do to the American car industry - destroy it.

But nothing illustrates Rush's lack of character more than the "Green Car Challenge" Jay has set up a race track with obstacles, and he wants some of his guests to drive an electric Ford Focus around the track as fast as possible. Last week, Drew Barrymore was a good sport and did a nice job, missing the cutouts of Al Gore on the second lap. Rush seemed quite a poor driver to me, and refused to wear the helmet. He gave up on the last lap and simply ran back and forth over the cutout of Al Gore, then said he lost on purpose. Jay kept up his cheerful demeanor, but I think I know how he felt.