Gus Van Horn blog Posted September 9, 2014 Report Share Posted September 9, 2014 A car salesman, who wishes that "more of my peers would accept the tenets of free enterprise", writes of collusion against Tesla Motors via regulatory capture by car dealers and state legislators: [R]ight before Labor Day weekend, when the Georgia Auto Dealer Association filed a petition with state officials seeking to cancel Tesla's license to sell its cars in the state of Georgia. Tesla's crime? Selling 173 cars directly from a factory-owned store located 25 miles away from Atlanta, the only Tesla retail location in Georgia. The dealers say Tesla can only sell 150 cars a year from the shop under state rules, and therefore should lose its dealer license entirely. "It's just very simple -- we want them to comply with the law the way others are," Bill Morie, president of the Georgia dealers association, told Automotive News. [format edits] What Moore, like a stereotypical shady used car dealer, is hoping nobody will notice, is that the whole idea of someone needing permission from the government to sell cars -- let alone being told how many he can sell -- is wrong. Licensing laws violate the whole purpose of government, which is to protect individual rights, including the right to enter contracts. The above episode, by the way, is just the tip of the iceberg of government corruption that has been victimizing consumers in Georgia and other states for some time, thanks to the "extremely tight relationships with statehouse legislators" that car dealers and others in heavily-regulated occupations enjoy -- and that Steven Lang's timely article demonstrates. Read the whole thing. -- CAV Link to Original Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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