Originally posted by btrautman:
Here in texas new auto car dealers tried to get a law passed that only dealers could work on their cars....



Every business you can think of has full time lobbyists who push state and federal legislators to pass laws favorable to that business. Big business is the primary source of campaign contributions to political candidates, and it wants political favors in return for those contributions. Just to take one example: the pharmaceutical industry pays tens of millions of dollars a year in campaign contributions and lobbying fees to ensure that Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world.

Car dealers are no exception. They have a local monopoly on new car sales (and on some replacement parts). But that's not enough for them. Now they want a monopoly on repair and service on used cars too?

Isn't it funny: those Texas car dealers are almost certainly Republicans. They probably howl all day long about how the government is too big and intrusive, and how big-government liberals are trying to overregulate everything. But at the same time, they want the government to step in with new laws that distort the market in their favor. Interesting how they are suddenly in FAVOR of new laws and more government regulation, so long as it makes them richer.

Thank God the dealers in Texas were not successful in passing that law. I guess some Republican power-grabs are so blatant that they can't get away with it, even in Bush country.