Everybody who wants a car that gets 100 miles per gallon, raise your hand.
Me too.
The Progressive Automotive X Prize is an international competition that will award ten million dollars to the first team to produce and market an affordable 100-mile-per-gallon car.
Many groovy possibilities are in the works. One prototype would be powered by compressed air. Another is an all-electric automobile slim as a motorcycle. Another runs on gas fumes.
I like the contest even though I dislike some of the ideas of some people who also like the contest. Modern “green†activists — as opposed to blue or yellow — too often pursue their goals by trying to block human exploitation of nature that they disagree with. They often treat property rights as an annoying impediment.
Free markets are vibrant because they provide so many ways for producers to reach us with goods we are willing to pay for. We are willing to pay for something when we’re persuaded it would be of value to us. So, it’s great when economic entrepreneurs test new products in the marketplace. Not so great it when political entrepreneurs try to impose new products on us by force. Or try to stop us from using viable alternatives.
Frankly, I’d go for a decent-priced car that gets 100 miles a gallon even if politicians and environmentalists weren’t trying to tax oil and gas out of existence.
That’s just — well, this is — Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.