Let's do a thought experiment.

Say the govt wanted everyone to buy more Rubik's Cubes (cause they help you become smarter).

Their plan to do this is not to pay the Rubik's company to make them cheaper, but instead to give everyone $5 spendable on Rubik's Cubes only. The cost of a cube prior to this was $8.

The day that decide that, the Rubik's company ups the price of a Cube to account for this incoming onslaught of buyers and get more profit. They can safely up the price without losing sales because A) everyone wants to get smart and B) The overall cost of a cube is still cheaper than before. You can get a $10 cube for $5, which is less than $8.

More cubes are sold than ever before.

Now the market is flooded with cubes.

Now the govt says "Great! Everyone has cubes. Let the intelligence revolution commence!" So they remove the subsidy.

$10 Cubes are now QUITE expensive, so the Rubik's company reduces the price back to the $8 it was before. But wait a second, now the market is flooded and people are used to paying effectively $5 for a cube.

This is what's happened with EVs.

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mckeed 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I think you're right that contributed, but at least the federal EV subsidy was trying to mitigate that effect by also subsidizing used EV purchases. I just bought a used PHEV and got a subsidy right before the cutoff. So the effect might get worse now that the program has ended, though I suppose new EV prices should come down too.

	▲	bentt 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah interestingly, Hyundai recently cut prices on their EVs in anticipation of this. To me, it was confirmation that they had inflated prices in recent years.

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themafia a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> cause they help you become smarter

Solving them is a question of knowing the algorithm and applying it. It makes you better at pattern matching.

> everyone wants to get smart

In most social situations people want to have fun. They'll intentionally consume substances which reduce their "smarts" in an effort to achieve this more easily. They will lie to your face about this because _appearing_ smart is all they actually care about.

> Now the market is flooded with cubes.

That are lower quality than what was being made prior to the subsidy.

> This is what's happened with EVs.

Inflation also halved the value of money. The story seems simple but it's obviously more complex than a simple analysis would allow for.