I guess I don’t pay much attention to the TV. This commercial for the Chevy Volt aired during the Super Bowl, but I hadn’t noticed it until today as it is being shown regularly during the NCAA tournament games.

It is somewhat ironic — and misleading — that the Chevy Volt is placed here along side the work of the great innovators Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Bill Gates, especially considering the regulatory oppression and unfair favoritism shown by the federal government today.

Benjamin Franklin’s operation would have been shut down due to unsafe work conditions.

Thomas Edison’s invention would be outlawed because it does not meet energy efficiency standards.

And could Bill Gates even have been able to start Microsoft out of his garage with all the government regulations, red tape, and fees required for one to start a small business?

Then you have the Chevy Volt, a product that nobody wants, made by a company that would have gone bankrupt if not for federal bailout money. On top of that, the government is trying to create an artificial demand for such a vehicle through vehicle efficiency standards and having an energy policy that causes gasoline prices to necessarily skyrocket.

The more the government intervenes in the realm of technology and innovation, the more inferior and expensive new products will be. Let the market (the people) decide what products and technologies we want/need. This type of freedom of innovation resulted in the advancements shown at the beginning of this ad, and it will produce the next great innovation, if we will just go back to trusting the people, rather than the government.