Quote:It's not really GM, it the US government. Yes, scarcity is an issue, since it takes time for the other manufacturers to fill the void. Once the other manufacturers step up production and fill the channel, GM can also step up production and drive the price down. If you can do this enough times, you drive your competition into bankruptcy. Of course, then the government can just buy them up. Rinse repeat.All this would do would establish a *very* expensive subsidy on cars. Why would the government want that? They'd lose money on the deal hand over fist, and car prices would drop, increasing consumption. And if they ever stopped with the subsidy, to actually try and get people to stop using them (the whole original idea!), foreign competition would immediately fill the gap. To drive every last competitor out of business, and prevent re-entry, they'd have to do what I said earlier: corner the global auto market. That's just not feasible, not even for the US government.
This idea just does not function. What they'd have to do to get car consumption down by creating scarcity would be to establish high tariff walls and tax the hell out of cars. Owning GM would be irrelevant.
Quote:And, speaking of conflict of interest... Who negotiates trade for the US government?That seems to me to be the least of the problems. Governments negotiate trade for themselves or for trusts all the time.
-Jester