Friday, April 2, 2010

NO SUV FOR YOU!!

Obama announced his new MPG standards for 2016. And if you live in Elkhart, Indiana....you better start looking for a new line of work.

Here's how it will work. Every manufacturer that sells cars/trucks in the US will have to have an average 35MPG for its entire fleet. Which means that for every 20 MPG truck/suv there will have to be a 50MPG car sold. So the only way that a manufacturer will be able to sell an suv/truck is by selling an equal number of 50MPG+ cars. Or in other words, starting in 2016 no manufacturer will even bother making SUVs or trucks.

So it brings me back to Elkhart. This town is the RV capital of the world. It is one of the few places left in the country where things are actually made. Travel trailers, pop ups, 5th wheels, you name it. All things that need to towed by SUVs or trucks. If someone can figure out a way for a Prius to tow a 10K lb 5th wheel, by all means show me and I will be impressed. But until that happens, say goodbye to the RV industry. And goodbye to the campground industry. And goodbye to all the businesses that rely on RVers like interstate travel plazas, mechanics, companies that make accessories, etc.

But it's all good. We'll be stopping global warming, which never existed in the first place. And Elkhart's unemployment rate right now is about 15%. I suppose all those good paying manufacturing jobs won't have that much of an effect on the town. Nobody will even notice when all those factories shut down.

Indiana did vote for Obama. So as Rev. Wright likes to say, the chickens are coming home to roost.

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

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