
shatteredegg asked: makes it too expensive, but instead they reward tabacco growers for knowingly growing a money-losing crop with corp. welfare. Why is the ‘free market’ failing to respond to the demand for Prius plug-in cars? http://www.sciencefriday.com/kids/sfkc20050422-2.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid_electric_vehicle Why aren’t solar panels dc like the cell phone/iPod solar chargers? Instead you have to buy a whole lot of components, which prices using
solar power too high for too many people. The bamboo bicycle in Sunset mag costs a thousand dollars http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/bamboo-bikes Oil was & still is being subsidized, like tobacco, & too many other things, why are they dragging their feet & acting like the horse & buggy crowd & holding on to the past, instead of investing in the future? Arnie out in CA could take Detroit’s auto industry away & start creating jobs making better, more efficient cars-why hasn’t he? The Tesla electric sports car is made in CA
Ludenie 
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THELMA
Wow, that is a lot of stuff. I can answer one part of your question at least partly. The ‘free market’ is snapping up Prius’s like hot cakes where I live, near San Francisco. If I drive a couple of miles anywhere around here I will see 3 or 4 of them. I drive one myself. We pay one of the highest prices in the nation for gas and so that probably drives demand.
One other measure of market demand for the Prius is resale value. The Prius has the highest resale values of any car and other hybrid models are in the top ten for resale value too. See the link below.
Most of your other issues relate to market structure. Tobacco and Oil have been the economic engines of the United States for about 200 and 100 years respectively as a result there are a lot of vested interests in these two commodities and therefore a lot of political support. Newer technologies have fewer political supporters and so we see things that are unfair as you point out. But as more and more people demand change, like you, change will come.