Adrian wrote:
"Dave Liquorice" gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

No more so than oil filters, headlamps, tyres, windscreens. Should they
all be forced to be one of four or five basic types? How about front
wings or bumpers?

Why not? This is only a car, something to move you from one place to
another, not a fashion accessory.

shrug
OK, so some central authority starts to control design and production of
cars. What after cars? Power tools? After all, there's far too many
different designs of electric drill available. Nobody needs more than a
basic drill, do they? How about wall tiles?

Isn't it starting to look just a bit centralised command-economy to you?

which is exactly where you end up when you start saying what the world
SHOULD be like, instead of merely addressing the places in which it
clearly and consensually broken.

Theocracy, military dictatorship, Soviet style communism, all these star
with a preconception as to what is right and will work, and attempt to
create people to fit the perfect system,and thise ultimately end up
being totally repressive.


Market based economies at least do not second guess societies shape:
what works tends to flourish and what doesn't falls by the wayside.

Its not perfect, but it possibly is the lesser of all evils.

Like evolution, it doesn't guarantee perfection, or even the optimal
solution: merely the removal of inadequate solutions.