Republicans Suck at Math, and Hate the Chevy Volt

Obama in a Volt, or, "Evil in a Failure!" Image from
Wonkette.

I remember when the movie Superman Returns came out, and from the beginning the reports were that the movie would have to make more than $200 million in order to make up its development costs. The movie did clear that hurdle, but was still widely considered to be a failure for not reaching Iron Man or Avengers-level money, in order to make money on top of its investment. Well, it was also derided because people didn't like it (I did, but I'm in the minority). But it was saddled with all of the money wasted on early drafts and hired-then-fired cast and crew from aborted earlier treatments.

The Chevy Volt is getting a bit of that seemingly unfair treatment at the moment. First, it had a lot of development costs. Second--for some reason--conservatives, led by Rush Limbaugh despise the car.* So, just like conservatives will believe just about anything that makes President Obama look bad, no matter how far-fetched, the calculations about just how much each Chevy Volt is losing is a bit of a stretch. When I heard Limbaugh bloviating about it today on the radio, I knew there had to be more to it. There always is. The bad math comes from assuming there will never be another Volt (or derivative), and dividing the development and production costs between each existing model. Which isn't very honest.

It would be at this point that I should point out that Rupert Murdoch lost millions of dollars on FOX "News" for years, and years, before it posted a profit. Sometimes you have to pump money into a project for a while before it bears fruit. Hopefully, General Motors produces less rotten fruit, though!

[Excerpt]

No, GM Is Not Losing $49K On Every Volt; Reuters Just Fails at Basic Business Math

If there’s one characteristic that distinguishes conservatives from liberals, it’s business acumen, right? Libruls may occasionally be able to sell some patchouli-scented hemp-based iPod cozies at the Lesbian Sisterhood crafts fair, but conservatives are the folks who REALLY understand how Bidness works! That’s pretty much the premise of every Republican campaign in the last 30 years, after all. So how is it that when a journalist made a pretty obvious error in a story, the supposedly business-savvy folks in the right-wing blogosphere went nuts passing on the story’s erroneous conclusions? . . .

Read more at: Wonkette


* Obviously, conservatives dislike anything Obama has done, even if he was enacting conservative ideas. Everything. And even thought the Volt--as the story above mentions--was started in 2007, they link its perceived failure with Obama. But doesn't it bother anyone that Limbaugh is leading the parade of hatred not just against our President, but against an American institution like GM?