Gas engines are considerably less efficient than Nuclear or Coal for the amount of energy that comes in to what is converted to usable energy. Consider how much energy that sits inside a gallon of gas is wasted as heat and drive-train loss. That's why we don't put gasoline in our power plants and drive electric cars.…

Taking the Toyota motor out defeats the purpose of buying a Toyota. I know BMW makes a great I6 and all. . . but what prevents me from buying a sweet used M3 or M5, M coupe etc is the nightmare of out-of-warranty repairs. It's also why those cars sell so cheap used (I think a E60 M5 is in the $20s now).

Any amount of mess in that van and you're trip will be miserable. These exersises in space confined managemnt are always fun to see, but I can't imagine that you would want to take small children in something like this.

Yeah, fuck the internet, the interstate transit system, and public police and fire services. The damn government aint never not created nothing.

There's no such thing as a "free market". Anywhere. Ever.

I like that idea, turn it from the government paying you for not working to the government paying you a shitty wage for doing manual labor. McDonald's doesn't seem so bad when you get paid $6/hr for picking up trash for your welfare benefits.

Yes and no. Those "Shovel Ready" jobs never really panned out. Mostly because the welfare system isn't set up in way that getting off of it isn't advantageous. To the jump from free money/benefits to paying taxes is a pretty firm line, it needs to be more gradual. For instance, it is better to be on welfare than it is…

Clarify? OK. I want you to prove my rant wrong, since you're such a believer in faith-based economics.

Unfortunately, conservatives stand to gain from bad infrastructure because it makes the government look bad and then they can say, "Hey look at this smooth new private road! You don't want the government wasting your money on those shitty roads, do you?" Conservatives stand to benefit from destroying the government as…

You've been very fair, don't listen to this guy. Too much Fox News is known to cloud cognitive faculties.

A true free market has no interference from the government. There are a lot of ways the US government interferes with the economy, especially starting after the Great Depression. Things like child labor laws, anti trust laws, tariffs, environmental protection. Without some oversight we'd probably be living in a world…

Provide one instance where it worked. With attribution. From a legitimate (non-right wing conspiracy) source.

Gotcha. Sorry if I sounded touchy, the "bias" and "slant" complaint is a pet peeve of mine. You hit the wrong button, but thanks for reading and thanks for the discussion.

Private capital has zero interest in electric cars. Does that mean they shouldn't be built? Private capital has one interest - profit. Government's interests are different. Promoting certain things that private capital cannot or will not do, but is in the public interest (we really need to wean ourselves off…

I don't have to advocate against it. Plenty of people will do that. We thought this was a more novel approach.

Hey, I never said I agreed with the idea of government loans to car companies. Like I noted in the story, I think it's an idea whose merits are extremely debatable, especially since economic conditions are very different now than they were in 2008. My point is that since they are bringing it back, they might as well…

Our market is hardly "free" and hasn't been for quite some time, for good reason.

Funny how some people will say this and say "Mr. President, where are the jobs?" in the next breath.

Doesn't investing in infrastructure create jobs?