[cranekam]

It clearly is. As the article makes out, the tax code and regulation favours large vehicles. Gas is cheap. Acting alone, there are few reasons to buy a smaller car if you can afford a bigger one. This is exactly the market “working” and why regulation is necessary to change it.

[imglorp]

Gas is artificially cheap, but it's at enormous expense to the global community.

The US spent $2T on the gulf wars to secure this, and globally spend at least $7T a year on fossil subsidies. This needs to end immediately.

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2023/08/22/IMF...

[animal_spirits]

More rules aren't going to fix the problem that more rules created. We need to reduce the amount of regulation on vehicles, specifically the CAFE regulations which are the driver behind large vehicles, and let the real market forces play out. Whenever governmental regulations get involved, the market forces are distorted to what the regulations incentivize, rather than what the people incentivize.

[baq]

That’s literally the point of regulations and why civilization invented them.

You want to get rid of bad regulations, obviously. You really don’t want to get rid of all regulations.

[brendoelfrendo]

Only if you think that the market should encourage everyone to buy the most expensive thing they can afford. Larger cars are popular with manufacturers and dealers because of higher profit margins. A consumer should be able to pick a smaller, cheaper vehicle if they want it, but this makes their business less desirable. Just because there are few reasons to buy a smaller car does not mean there are no reasons, nor does it make it illogical to prefer one.

I don't know if this is an economic concept that exists, but I'd call it an "accidental cartel." Corporations noticed that serving a particular customer base was less profitable than giving customers fewer, more expensive choices, so the market participants aligned themselves around this strategy until there are no cheaper, lower margin options left. In theory, that leaves an open market for a competitor, but to occupy that niche would be to spend resources on attracting a lower-quality customer (one who is less able to pay more, less interested in paying more, less susceptible to marketing, etc).