I have just started reading a very good book by Nic Frances called, The End of Charity. In itself the book is very interesting and Nic sounds like a very cool guy but it was something he said near the begining that got me thinking about this car industry subsidy debate that we are not really having.
How do we create a market for positive change? For a start, we have to price the things we want to achieve according to their value and the cost of not having them. They cannot be priced according to ideology or historic preference. For example, subsidising the cost of electricity generated by brown coal, a major polluter, while not subsidising hydro, solar or wind power or energy efficiency to the same extent forces us to remain polluters and undermines the market’s ability to self-correct.
It is too late in the evening now for me to finish this post with a long winded rant about the rich man smacking you with the ‘market decides’ argument on one hand and asking the government for money on the other hand because the market decide they should fade away.
Anyway, you can check out the book here: The End of Charity and/or thanks to google read the first few chapters here.
I think your post is better without the rant