radical public utility

Over this weekend I have read a lot and given over much of my time to thinking about some of the unspoken barriers to adopting the hydrogen economy.

One question really dominated my thoughts, but I couldn't define whether it was a barrier or a socialist plot creeping under my skin.

What if car companies everywhere were deemed public utilities?

Phrased as a question the words seem almost ludicrous. Why would a car company become a public utility? The roads and the garbage are already taken care of by most governments. Besides, car companies operate without the kinds of political or cultural borders that governments do. Being a public utility would mean radical change -- everywhere a car is assembled or a part is sourced to complete a design.

In fact, if car companies became public utilites it would probably mean that design would be done by consensus in a manner that those companies couldn't resist. It might even mean that car design would be accomplished by consensus.

As it is, bringing car companies together over standards and managing to convince that any kind of change is necessary is a costly endeavor put forward by government on behalf of the people who bought the cars in the first place.

Just who is governing who around here anyway? So much for competition in the marketplace...