{"id":1261,"date":"2009-03-27T23:04:38","date_gmt":"2009-03-28T03:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=1261"},"modified":"2009-03-27T23:04:38","modified_gmt":"2009-03-28T03:04:38","slug":"us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>G.M. and Chrysler are asking the politburo in Washington for more rubles (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/03\/28\/business\/economy\/28auto.html?hp\">nytimes<\/a>).\u00a0 Between the 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks (SUVs) and direct cash infusions, it seems likely that the U.S. taxpayer is being bled to the tune of $100 billion over a 2-3 year period.\u00a0 What does the taxpayer get in return for this money?\u00a0 The right to continue to purchase GM and Chrysler vehicles for $20,000-60,000 each.<\/p>\n<p>What else might we do with $100 billion in this industry?\u00a0 Assuming that we could get a wholesale price of $2000 per car, that&#8217;s enough to buy 50 million four-passenger 54 mpg Tata Nanos.\u00a0 The fuel savings from driving Nanos to the 7-11 instead of monster SUVs would save taxpayers $100 billion every year (i.e., the initial investment in the Nanos would be paid back with one year of fuel savings).\u00a0 Current predictions are that the U.S. car\/light truck market may shrink to 10 million vehicles per year.\u00a0 Thus with a $100 billion federal expenditure we could give everyone who had intended to buy a car or SUV a free Nano for the next five years.\u00a0 Fifty million American households that had expected to go into debt and make monthly car payments would now have $400 extra every month to buy other things ($240 billion per year).\u00a0 The total amount free for investment in the U.S. economy would be $340 billion per year.<\/p>\n<p>[Note: fuel savings are based on 12,000 miles per year driven.\u00a0 The Nano uses approximately 1000 gallons less than a 10 mpg SUV.\u00a0 With gasoline at $2\/gallon, that&#8217;s $2000 per Nano per year.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>G.M. and Chrysler are asking the politburo in Washington for more rubles (nytimes).\u00a0 Between the 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks (SUVs) and direct cash infusions, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"G.M. and Chrysler are asking the politburo in Washington for more rubles (nytimes).\u00a0 Between the 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks (SUVs) and direct cash infusions, it [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-28T03:04:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-28T03:04:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\"},\"wordCount\":267,\"commentCount\":14,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\",\"name\":\"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-28T03:04:38+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"description\":\"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\",\"name\":\"philg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2047,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"philg\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","og_description":"G.M. and Chrysler are asking the politburo in Washington for more rubles (nytimes).\u00a0 Between the 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks (SUVs) and direct cash infusions, it [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/","og_site_name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","article_published_time":"2009-03-28T03:04:38+00:00","author":"philg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"philg","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/"},"author":{"name":"philg","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"headline":"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos","datePublished":"2009-03-28T03:04:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/"},"wordCount":267,"commentCount":14,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/","name":"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-03-28T03:04:38+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/27\/us-support-for-detroit-would-buy-50-million-tato-nanos-per-year\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/","name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","description":"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e","name":"philg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","width":2047,"height":2560,"caption":"philg"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg"},"url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paokyZ-kl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}