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Now however outrageous and outlandish that assertion may sound to many, make no mistake about it: PRECISELY THAT genuinely, simply IS the implication of the “new” ELECTRIC / I.C.E. “chimera” automotive architectural concept --- exemplified by the soon-to-be forthcoming (but really much BELATED) Chevy VOLT --- or if not THAT, then by its now equally-far-advanced EUROPEAN counterpart (jovially dubbed the AMPERE) and/or undoubtedly very soon OTHER “entries” into the “development derby” coming from ASIA. The basic idea involves BATTERY POWER carrying the car a number of miles (in the case of the VOLT, FORTY), with an internal combustion engine kicking in if (and only if) the battery runs down. But FULLY THREE-FOURTHS of all personal auto usage “fits” within a forty-mile power budget! You go to the store, bank, doctor, etc., and you come back home AND PLUG THE CAR BACK INTO THE WALL. MOST OF THE TIME THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE NEVER OPERATES!

Actually, BOTH components of the “chimera” are VERY OLD technology. ELECTRIC cars have been around since the EARLIEST days of the automobile. And the I.C.E “fallback” component, involving a petroleum-powered engine coupled NOT to an elaborate, troublesome, expensive TRANSMISSION AND DRIVE TRAIN but, rather, merely to a GENERATOR that supplies the ELECTRIC drive motors (which had been powered by the BATTERY until it ran down) is a paradigm implemented on a much GRANDER scale on the RAILROADS and also in the BIGGEST SHIPS on the high seas! Anybody ever hear of the DIESEL-ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE?? Really BIG-MUSCLE machines have LONG relied on relatively simple, UNbreakable MAGNETIC-FORCE drive elements rather than on complex, fallible mechanical ones --- because “we” simply couldn’t BEGIN to engineer a viable CLUTCH for really HEAVY loads!

I submit that the folks who now dither and blather about “our” financial sector “meltdown” are in reality being DIVERTED AWAY from what really SHOULD be the MAIN object of their exasperation --- which is actually a FAILURE of “our” past MISguided (or maybe more like MISBEGOTTEN!) MIS”leadership” (both “political” and otherwise!) to fulfill its ACTUAL obligations to the membership of this society (and others) --- which would have been to OPTIMIZE THE CHARACTER AND QUALITY OF “OUR” PRODUCTS, RATHER THAN TO MERELY MAXIMIZE THEIR MONEY!

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