MacGuffin
Forum Addict
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 8,329
- Location
- Wilhelmshaven, Germany
- Car(s)
- '17 Ford Mustang GT Fastback
I read his words as saying that the whole idea of going on a crusade against Volkswagen by accusing them of causing asthma in children is ludicrous and populist. Air pollution exists outside of VW and of its diesel engines, and children would have had asthma even without this fraud.
And in this he is right:
If VW is to be punished, which it is, the reason is not asthma for children, but willingly cheating on a governmental emission regulation and lack of care about the environmental footprint of their products. There is a crime, there are laws, there is punishment; they need to be enforced. The children's asthma attributed to a foreign, minoritarian producer of scarcely sold diesel engine in a country running on wild energy overconsumption is quite disgusting populism.
But you (we, everyone) need the little children to be able to move the public opinion enough to get things done. General talks about environment, energy consumption, pollution and consequences on our world are too far from the lives of a too many people to have any effect whatsoever on lifestyles with a willful inertia to changing; most of the world is like this, it is human. So, children are used. Which doesn't really solve the problem, just exploits it.
Thanks, SirEdward.
It's quite irritating when every attempt to bring the VW fraud into perspective, is interpreted as an attack against the American way of doing things.
How big do I have to choose the size of the letters to make it clear that I am not defending Volkswagen and that I am not criticzing the US system but just trying to be rational and down-to-earth in this sometimes emotionally charged discussion, where the main motivation of some forum members seems to be that they finally found something to mock VW (and the German car industry) about: "Haha, VW is fucked now that they will experience the merciless legal system of the USA!"
Sorry that I am not that superficial While some of the people in the hearing made an intelligent impression to me and asked some justified questions, some others made the impression that they were drawn right from the stage of X-Factor with their silly remarks and questions. If that is US politics, then I understand why the Americans don't trust their government.
Let me make it clear once and for all: Yes, VW will have to pay for what they did. Dearly. They deserve that. But in 5 years they will have come to terms with everyone and still be as strong as they are now, maybe stronger.
Why, you ask?
Because despite all the flustered state now, it is really not the most important news in our time. And as we all know: The public memory is extremely short-lived.
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