On today's Planet Money:
-- Voters in Lebanon picked a coalition backed by the U.S. over one supported by Hezbollah in elections on Sunday. In the weeks before the vote, Ben Gilbert of Executive magazine (paid sub. requ'd.) says he began hearing reports of people offered plane tickets and even cash to vote a particular line. Gilbert says both sides seem to have been courting voters, at an eventual cost of $1,000 a vote. He explains the economics of buying someone's ballot.
-- An economic puzzle: Automakers wring bigger profits out of bigger vehicles like trucks, SUVs and the GM Hummer, but why? Robert Frank, a Cornell economist and author of The Economic Naturalist, says the dismal science explains everything. Frank answers the Hummer riddle in three and half minutes.
Bonus: Paying more for car repair?
Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: Aqualung's "Good Times Gonna Come." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.
Bill Smith writes from Austin:
My wife's five-year-old Honda needs a new A/C compressor, and the Honda dealer says it will cost $3000 to replace it. That seems like an obscene amount of money.
It occurred to me that car dealers may be jacking up their repair rates to compensate for weak car sales. I Googled around and found this, "Vehicle Repairs Cost an Average 34% More at New Car Dealerships Than Independent Repair Shops." It's a press release about a report by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association.
An article in Detroit Bureau cited the report, adding, "As new car sales languish, dealers are increasing the promotion of repair and collision services to make up for the lost revenue. If you aren't careful, you could end up paying too much for their services."
Maybe we need to spend more time on our bicycles like Laura Conaway.
Finally, my message is getting through.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.