“How Can We Fail When We’re So Sincere?”

Growing up, I was a fan of the Peanuts comic strip. It was always a joy to see Snoopy aboard his Sopwith Camel, Schroeder channeling Beethoven or Linus quoting Kirkegaard.

It was also Linus who annually lamented the failure of the Great Pumpkin to appear: “How Can We Fail When We’re So Sincere?”

I had reason to think of Linus again after an interesting exchange  with some Chevy Volt enthusiasts after my “Chevy Volt: RIP” post, which was my feeble attempt at humor after GM suspended for six weeks production on the high profile “green” car. Linus’ lament seems like an apt metaphor for the whole green energy mania (see “Solyndra”).

Via Twitter, the first question was “Have you driven a Volt?”

I had to answer that the question totally missed the point of my blog, in which I stated that I’m in favor of the development of alternative energy sources, but they must be practical, cheap, and plentiful. In other words, the Free Market must be allowed to decide.

Of course the Central Planners who currently reside in the government consider the Free Market to be an obstacle to be overcome, rather than the path to success for any endeavor.

For the life of me I can’t understand why the Central Planners (liberals, leftists, socialists, communists, fascists, et al) insist on going against nature. As I said in a post a long time ago (actually a “pre-blog” essay) “Natural Capitalism”, Capitalism is natural because it works WITH human nature. Central Planning is unnatural because it works at cross purposes with human nature.

I’m reminded of Saul of Tarsus and his Damascus Road vision in which the Lord says to him, “Why do you kick against the goad?”, referring to an oxen bound to a wagon but which stubbornly continues getting stuck by the sharp stick rather than go with the flow.

My point about the Volt was that if it’s really better, it won’t need government subsidies and artificially increased gas prices in order to succeed. But the fact is, the economics don’t work. Hybrid cars are getting about 50 miles per gallon. But my six-cylinder Toyota Avalon, the biggest car they make, gets 26 in the city and 30-33 on the highway! Hybrids need to do a LOT better than they currently do.

And in practical tests the Volt has only been able to go 25 miles without a charge. Plus, since the sticker is north of $40,000, only the true believers — who make more than $170,000 — are buying them.

In other words, you need more than Sincerity.