ZIP,ZERO.....the REASON our system is screwed.

Rick wrote:

ScienceChic wrote:
Did you also disapprove of the tax credit that small business owners received to purchase large, gas-guzzling SUVs back in 2003?

I can honestly say I wasn't aware of that tax break and would not agree with it unless it was for needed commercial vehicles that would help a small business compete with larger ones. An SUV imo should not have qualified unless that SUV was required to transport people, where a smaller vehicle would not have adequate capacity. But once again, you have to look at how bad congress works and how their historically inept legislation process always ends up getting it wrong.

Hmm, I remember quite the extensive discussion about it on PC (LJ had a field day with the stories about Bush promoting people buying Hummers thanks to the law), but maybe you weren't there for that. You'll forgive me if I don't go searching there for it.

Please also correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't a tax credit mean that all us taxpayers simply lose the revenue that would have been collected rather than "paying" for the incentives? I disagree that Tesla wouldn't have been successful if they hadn't existed, because Tesla paid back all of their government start-up loans early and in-full thanks to higher-than-expected sales of their early car, the Roadster, which wasn't priced for the middle class. They've built amazing cars entirely here in the U.S., employing U.S. workers, and yet they still get shit on all the time by conservatives. It boggles my mind. I don't like Musk at all, but I don't underestimate his accomplishments one bit, and if you don't think he couldn't make his company successful regardless of government incentives to buyers, I think you are doing just that.

I believe there is a big difference between providing incentives to encourage the adoption of new technology and providing incentives to save a dying industry. Without our government becoming investors, on the public's behalf, we wouldn't have had the innovation in science and technology that made us the number 1 superpower in the world today, the number 1 patent holder (with subsequent earnings of GDP based on those), and the reputation of being the leader in science and industry. Climate change is one of our biggest challenges to solve and weaning us off of our reliance on fossil fuels is crucial to that - funding the quicker adoption of sustainable transportation, energy use, and energy production is critical to the survival of our economy and species.

Bush's tax incentives encouraging businesses to buy big SUVs they didn't need that had pitiful mpg's was simply a greed-borne gift to his fellow oil industry friends, an industry that is nearing the end of its golden age as a cheap source of fuel, and a huge disservice to the American People that need forward-thinking, proactive leaders.