Monday, August 2, 2010

Is your Car like Big Pharma???


What would happen if you had to buy your car from a company that operated in the same way as the pharmaceutical industries?

Cost
-Your car would cost $4.5 million, a 30,000 percent markup over cost.
-The same car would be available in Canada or Mexico for less than $5,000.

Dealing with Competition
-Meanwhile, automakers would be lobbying Congress to outlaw bicycles and airplanes, just as the drug companies try to do with herbs and nutritional supplements.
-All auto imports would be banned. If you drove a Toyota down from Canada, you would be arrested.
-Car dealers would be bribed with money, free vacations, free food, and free cars by automobile sales representatives to push certain cars.

Safety
-Cars with no seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones, or other safety systems would be declared perfectly safe by the FDA, which would instead focus on the dangers of bicycles.
-Driver's ed programs would be cancelled nationwide, and people would be encouraged to buy new cars rather than repair damaged ones or avoid accidents in the first place.
-Safety tests showing that cars were dangerous would be buried, and scientists who produced such results would be prevented from ever conducting car safety tests ever again.
-After being sued by customers injured in the cars with no safety systems, automakers would further lobby Congress to pass laws protecting car companies against class-action lawsuits.
-Any federally mandated warnings about car safety problems would be printed in small type on a tiny label hidden under the driver's seat.
-Driving certain cars would cause side effects like loss of sex drive or full-body muscle pain.

Advertising

-Car companies would heavily promote new models each year, which would be no different from the ones they were selling 30 years ago.
-Car companies would invent reasons for you to buy a dozen or more cars.
-Automobile advertising would be filled with pictures of happy, healthy, energetic drivers, but the cars would break down constantly, fail to perform as promised, and quickly stop working.
-Cars would be sold to you with extra features like a sunroof, air conditioning, or a navigational system, but when the car arrived none of these features would be included, just as drug companies exaggerate the "multiple health benefits" of their products.

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