“[R]eckless initiatives like the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep offer to subsidize gasoline for three years for people who buy its gas guzzlers are the moral equivalent of tobacco companies offering discounted cigarettes to teenagers.”
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I don’t understand.
Is Friedman equating cigarettes and gasoline?
That doesn’t make sense.
I don’t get it either. I think it’s a pretty good sales pitch.
I think the point is that, instead of giving incentives to keep guzzling up the limited gas we have left, auto companies should be producing vehicles that consume less gas, or even no gas at all. That’s where the incentives should lie if we are ever to solve the problem of dwindling petroleum resources, as well as our need to control the Middle East, even if it bankrupts us.
Therefore, to encourage people to keep wasting gas is akin to encouraging teen-agers to smoke. Get them hooked and they’ll keep consuming the product.
It is not unrealistic to suppose that the corporations that produce gas-guzzlers are in cahoots with the corporations who make a fortune selling gas. Remember the basics of economics: The smaller the supply, the greater the demand, thus the higher the price.
The fox is still in charge of the hen house, after all.