Al Gore's car company gets $528 million government loan to produce cars in Finland
The US government is subsidizing Al Gore to produce cars in Finland? Is this serious?
A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000. . . .
The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.
"This is not for average Americans," said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. "This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It's status symbol thing." . . .
Labels: Environment, GlobalWarming, stimulus
posted by John Lott at 1:50 AM
7 Comments:
The U.S. treasury is now managed as a bottomless purse. I have little doubt that it will blow up. You can raise taxes as much as you want, we won't be able to pay for all this insanity.
"Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed."
Henrik Fisker has great credentials, and this effort may lead to a more fuel efficient, low cost automobile for everyone.
I do agree that the DOE owes Mr Redmond an explanation, and that the process needs to be more transparent.
Dear Don Sharpe:
If this is a good investment, the government doesn't need to subsidize this. What reason is there for the government picking one company to invest in versus another?
John,
Good Gov't travels a fine line (in my opinion) between being run like a business and performing work for the common good.
Too much lean either left or right is detrimental to the ideal.
If a federal grant to Fisker can provide competition in the auto industry and help result in an otherwise unreachable goal of ending our dependence on foreign oil, then that's a good investment.
Ford got $8 billion, and don't they currently have a huge unfunded pension liability?
I agree the Democrats have some shady donations from related sources, and that's worth looking into. I'm enjoying your posts, and just ordered 'Freedomnomics'. Thanks for your insight and efforts.
Thanks for subsidizing industry in my country. We're at around 10% official unemployment, so I guess this helps.
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That's a lot money for producing cars in Finland. Are they going to have a car financing service as well? Or they'll just stick with manufacturing?
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