Part of Barack Obama’s socialist “clean energy economy” program was to have government planners in his Auto Team and Department of Energy design and build an entirely new industry making battery cars. Channelling JFK’s call to land a man on the moon, President Obama promised: “With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”
To achieve his dream, Obama borrowed and spent $2.4 billion to build factories just to produce the batteries for his new vehicles of the future. For some perspective on how much of our money was spent on battery factories, Chrylser’s estimated total market value is $7.5 billion.
The problem with socialism is that government industrial planners produce what they desire and not what the citizenry is willing to buy. Obama’s battery cars are so unpopular with Americans that our nationalized automakers almost have to give them away at substantial losses because these underperforming cars make no economic sense to buy.
Because “Government Motors” cannot sell it’s battery cars, the government’s subsidized battery manufacturing plants are increasingly going idle and the taxpayers stand to lose the $2.4 billion President Obama “invested” on their behalf.
The best laid plans of socialist governments…
