When I see a Tesla, I emote four feelings that, surprisingly for me, do not contradict each other: pride (I am a member of a species that can conceive of such machines), admiration (for the investors, managers, and workers who make these machines), optimism (tailpipe emissions are slowly going somewhere else), and vituperative jealousy (McMahon has a Tesla? He’s underwater on his mortgage, so where did that loser get the money?).
So it was last week: I was driving in a post-pandemic traffic jam from IAD to the 270 that was every much as brutal as the pre-pandemic version. It took me fully 90 minutes to get from Reston to Democracy Blvd. At some point I started driving behind the Tesla pictured below, which I believe is a Model Y Dual Motor.
While all Teslas are special, this one is super special because it has a sticker allowing the vehicle to take advantage of the HOV lanes. Sure enough, as we approached the Beltway’s big curve, the vehicle entered the HOV lane and zipped out of sight.
Aside from vituperative jealousy, two aspects of my marginally invasive surveillance reveal the following inconsistencies:
- We’ve already discussed that MoCo’s progressives are opposed to toll lanes along the I-270 for various reasons, one of them is environmental justice. Tesla owners are apparently exempt from environmental justice; they can use the HOV lanes without ensuring that benefit is equally available to all. Is that reasonable? If we really are for environmental justice, we should review the Tesla exemption on the HOV lanes to ensure that all get access to that precious road capacity in an equitable manner—or cancel the exemption entirely.
- The list price of this vehicle is $50,490 (as of today), but federal and state tax credits bring the price down to $36,390. A resident who has that kind of cash gets tax credits of $14,100! Why should someone with excess savings get that kind of free money? If we really cared about environmental justice, we would give half that credit to the car buyer, and half to those who can’t afford a new Tesla.
From this comparison and many others, my conclusion is that MoCo’s progressives manufacture all sorts of rules, claims, exemptions, and accusations that cannot possibly be applied consistently and cannot possibly lead to a socially just society. Social justice, a goal that I wholly support, is possible only when the county’s residents can freely exchange with each other to achieve their needs and wants.
