Published
3 years agoon
Remember the children’s fable about the wolf who was attempting to capture and consume the three little pigs?
If a pig refused to admit him or come out of its house, the wolf threatened: “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in.”
California’s buying power? It’s pretty puny, when one looks at the numbers.
Californians, including governmental agencies, are on track to buy 1.9 million new light vehicles this year, according to the California New Car Dealers Association. About 800,000 will be passenger vehicles, sedans mostly, and the remainder pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The state purchased 2,672 passenger vehicles in 2018, with Chevrolets from General Motors about 1,000 of those. Those cars amounted to $27 million in sales, not even a flea bite for a corporation that makes and sells about 3 million vehicles a year worldwide.
The state’s purchases from other holdout companies, such as Fiat Chrysler and Toyota, are minuscule.
“In court, and in the marketplace, California is standing up to those who put short-term profits ahead of our health and our future,” Newsom puffed. But in reality, it’s nothing more than a symbolic gesture, on a par with Jerry Brown’s infamous ban on providing plastic briefcases to state bureaucrats when he became governor in 1975.
As trivial as it might be, however, Newsom’s attempt to blacklist General Motors, et al, carries a deeper implication. It’s using governmental power to punish or coerce companies for taking political positions that don’t happen to square with the governor’s.
Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He has written more than 9,000 columns about the state and its politics and is the founding editor of the “California Political Almanac.” Dan has also been a frequent guest on national television news shows, commenting on California issues and policies.
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