[American Know-how] For all you free-market fetishists out there, here's an example of market forces at work:General Motors is seriously considering dumping the Hummer from its inventory. Gas prices climbing to $4 a gallon and beyond have had their way at last. Sniff, sniff! If the deal goes down as GM officials are saying, we won't have urban road warriors sitting atop three tons of steel to kick around anymore. People simply aren't buying them.
More proof of the free market skipping along: U.S. automakers are deeply concerned about their lines of big trucks and SUVs. How concerned? Well, Ford and GM have been furiously turning out hybrid versions of the Chevy Tahoe and Ford Explorer, giving Americans a few more miles per gallon. But truth is, it isn't out of some heartfelt scramble to win over the green consumer. Both companies have bloated inventories of gas-guzzlers and had to find some way to dump them on the market.
Keep climbing, gas costs! Bring on $5 a gallon! If Americans are really as ingenious as we were taught in junior high school civics class, we'll figure out a way to cope. The saddest thing out of the GM announcement, of course, is that some 10,000 auto plant workers will get the ax.
(Holly Mullen)
