The current set of government incentives that Tesla (and others) is taking advantage of seems fairly close to what I'd see recommended in econ 101: subsidize goods with a positive externality (assuming that's the case with electric cars, which is questionable).
Of course, I'm not saying there aren't better ways; I'd be curious what you might suggest?
> We should all be concerned about these kinds of issues, even if we like the programs.
And exactly what form should this concern take? Require a ballot initiative on every expenditure over $10,000?
Let's be realistic here.
Whenever you're doing something on a huge scale there are going to be inefficiencies and problems. We have to accept them up to a point.
Now that $8 billion that went missing in Iraq? That's probably something worth being up in arms about.
The small amount of money we're spending on EV credits? Not wasteful and not worth freaking out about. That program is working exactly as intended.
I am sure that lots of people did moan about the money spent on NASA in the 60s and I am also sure that at least some of that money was 'wasted' (i.e. spent inefficiently). We should all be concerned about these kinds of issues, even if we like the programs.