Last March, I initially wrote about, the Chevrolet Volt,  the “All-Electric” battery operated car. In that article my main emphasis was regarding the cost of re-charging the batteries; that someone had to pay for the electricity used to make it go.

Recently that same vehicle has gone under the microscope of the news media, regarding the sales, or lack of, since its release. According to Chevrolet, sales are far under the projected 10,000 units, and for that reason production has been put on hold and hundreds of people laid off until such time that sales catch up and they have disposed of the current surplus inventory.

Additionally, there has been a lot of criticism about the design engineering of the production model. One can only drive 40-50 miles on a full battery charge. And, obviously the faster one drives the quicker the charge is used up. And, there have been occasions of or potential for fire within the battery system. To replace a battery “pack” would cost the owner in the neighborhood of $8,000.00. Certainly  the original battery has a warranty period but eventually, after the warranty, the pack would have to be replaced, as the current smaller, cheaper battery in your present car!

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This vehicle, along with the Finland-built Fisker has been promoted by the current Obama administration and heavily funded through tax-payer money to the extent of $539,000,000. The Fisker has an affiliation with a venture capital firm that includes Al Gore, former Vice-President, among others. The Fisker selling price starts at $97,000 and only two have been sold, one to actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Another auto firm, Tesla Motors of California, is tooling up under the same $1,000,000,000 grant from the Department of Energy. Tesla Motors has as its backers the founders of PayPal and Google.

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I have made a point during the past 3 1/2 years to state that “history DOES repeat itself”; the above is just one more example.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler gave an order to Ferdinand Porsche to develop a Volkswagen (literally, “people’s car”).  Hitler required a basic vehicle capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph). The “People’s Car” would be available to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings scheme, or Sparkarte (savings booklet), at 990 Reichsmark ($265), about the price of a small motorcycle (an average income being around 32RM ($7.50) a week).  Das auto!

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Obviously neither of the two vehicles now “available” under this U.S. Government grant are within the price range of average citizens. These are NOT “people’s cars”!

The question remains, whether it is “healthcare for the people” or the “people’s vehicle”, are we willing to tolerate our “representative” government making our decisions for us (and squandering “our” tax monies flagrantly), OR do we clean house and get people into office who will care for us and not their personal whims and projects?

Hey, are those “goose steps” I hear outside my door ???