Mississippi Republicans hate the free market

[Santander]

This seems to be more about protecting dealerships than anything else.  Protectionism is always bad.

The fact that cars are seemingly the only consumer good sold via this method never made sense to me. Why can't I order a car from Amazon or buy one from Costco or Walmart?

Other than their private label products, Amazon, Costco and Walmart are dealers. You don't buy frozen pizza directly from the manufacturer. And you do see the franchise dealer model for many other consumer goods, it is just less visible. The only difference is there are state laws enforcing the franchise model for new cars, whereas you could theoretically buy frozen pizza directly from the manufacturer.

[Torie]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

No one ever had any respect for Elon except for weird libertarians.

Elon Musk is less famous than you think, but every poll ever conducted shows more Americans have a favorable than unfavorable view of him. Of course, this might have less to do with his personal qualities and more to do with Americans' favorable views of billionaires generally.

This feels like a very stupid regulation, but it doesn't...actually...even restrict electric car sales? (Except in the sense that it restricts all car sales, since the regulation also applies to non-electric cars.) If you read the full text of the article and not just the headline, online electric car sales are not being regulated at all, and in-person dealerships are required to be run by franchisees rather than the company directly. Tesla -- and Toyota and Ford for that matter -- are free to open franchises in MS. This feels very dumb but it isn't an individually noteworthy decision, or worth getting into a giant huff over.

What's to prevent someone from buying the electric car in another state?

Nothing even prevents you from buying the electric car in Mississippi.

Yeah, but if the care and feeding pf car dealers makes the sticker price more expensive than otherwise, given the cost of the item, it seems that the protectionist effort will prove a fail.

[Vosem]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

No one ever had any respect for Elon except for weird libertarians.

Elon Musk is less famous than you think, but every poll ever conducted shows more Americans have a favorable than unfavorable view of him. Of course, this might have less to do with his personal qualities and more to do with Americans' favorable views of billionaires generally.

This feels like a very stupid regulation, but it doesn't...actually...even restrict electric car sales? (Except in the sense that it restricts all car sales, since the regulation also applies to non-electric cars.) If you read the full text of the article and not just the headline, online electric car sales are not being regulated at all, and in-person dealerships are required to be run by franchisees rather than the company directly. Tesla -- and Toyota and Ford for that matter -- are free to open franchises in MS. This feels very dumb but it isn't an individually noteworthy decision, or worth getting into a giant huff over.

What's to prevent someone from buying the electric car in another state?

Nothing even prevents you from buying the electric car in Mississippi.

Yeah, but if the care and feeding pf car dealers makes the sticker price more expensive than otherwise, given the cost of the item, it seems that the protectionist effort will prove a fail.

Yeah, I agree. I just think the reporting here is sensationalist, and the headline exaggerates the article's contents so grossly as to basically be a lie; most new regulations which will probably-although-not-certainly raise the price of some good are not reported as 'some good banned'.

[Torie]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

No one ever had any respect for Elon except for weird libertarians.

Elon Musk is less famous than you think, but every poll ever conducted shows more Americans have a favorable than unfavorable view of him. Of course, this might have less to do with his personal qualities and more to do with Americans' favorable views of billionaires generally.

This feels like a very stupid regulation, but it doesn't...actually...even restrict electric car sales? (Except in the sense that it restricts all car sales, since the regulation also applies to non-electric cars.) If you read the full text of the article and not just the headline, online electric car sales are not being regulated at all, and in-person dealerships are required to be run by franchisees rather than the company directly. Tesla -- and Toyota and Ford for that matter -- are free to open franchises in MS. This feels very dumb but it isn't an individually noteworthy decision, or worth getting into a giant huff over.

What's to prevent someone from buying the electric car in another state?

Nothing even prevents you from buying the electric car in Mississippi.

Yeah, but if the care and feeding pf car dealers makes the sticker price more expensive than otherwise, given the cost of the item, it seems that the protectionist effort will prove a fail.

Yeah, I agree. I just think the reporting here is sensationalist, and the headline exaggerates the article's contents so grossly as to basically be a lie; most new regulations which will probably-although-not-certainly raise the price of some good are not reported as 'some good banned'.

Welcome to Atlas, the go to Tabloid of choice. Spicing up headlines of the OP is job one. Granted, given what comes out of the mouths of some politicians, to merely quote them seems like spicing up a headline, when it isn't. We live in interesting times.

[Yoda]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

My first thought was about this as well. Elon is pretty much daily using twitter to insult Tesla's customer base, while chiming in with with tweets of giddy affirmation/support to the most bizarre and obviously false right-wing conspiracy theories and random stupidity. I've said it before but some serious Tesla competitors have started to hit the market and over the next 1-2 years there are going to be a lot more (better and cheaper) options for democrats to go electric who don't want to own a Musk vehicle.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

This seems to be more about protecting dealerships than anything else.  Protectionism is always bad.

The fact that cars are seemingly the only consumer good sold via this method never made sense to me. Why can't I order a car from Amazon or buy one from Costco or Walmart?

Other than their private label products, Amazon, Costco and Walmart are dealers. You don't buy frozen pizza directly from the manufacturer. And you do see the franchise dealer model for many other consumer goods, it is just less visible. The only difference is there are state laws enforcing the franchise model for new cars, whereas you could theoretically buy frozen pizza directly from the manufacturer.

You can buy frozen pizza directly from the manufacturer in some cases though. Some local pizza places also sell frozen versions of their pizzas through grocery stores. You can also buy it at the source. Similar to how breweries and ice cream shops sell take home versions of their products.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

All the ballyhooing about "Republicans" in this thread is quite grand.

The bill passed the MS Legislature with bipartisan majorities.  39-13 in the Senate and 105-9 (!) in the House.

18 of the 22 no votes against the bill in the Legislature were from Republicans.  Democrats overwhelmingly supported it LOL 

Well it's a stupid bill regardless and Reeves is stupid for signing it.

[dead0man]

This seems to be more about protecting dealerships than anything else.  Protectionism is always bad.

The fact that cars are seemingly the only consumer good sold via this method never made sense to me. Why can't I order a car from Amazon or buy one from Costco or Walmart?

indeed.  You can buy houses and other large buildings without needing a "dealer", but for "reasons" most states force you to buy new motor vehicles from one.