Italicized to emphasize the fact as well as the grift.

A new Chevy Tahoe stickers for $52,600 to start. This is typical for a vehicle of this type. And they routinely "transact" – that is, sell – for upwards of $60,000.

For what?

A vehicle like the Tahoe is not an elaborate or expensive to manufacture vehicle. It has a steel frame onto which the body is bolted. It is powered by a V8 that is not fundamentally different from the V8 that Chevrolet introduced in 1955. The current V8 is cast in aluminum rather than steel and it is fuel injected and has some other "modern" features. But it is still recognizably related to the V8 Chevy unveiled almost 70 years ago. Both have a single camshaft actuating two valves per cylinder via pushrods. Nothing fancy – or expensive – about it.

Nor the Tahoe's frame. Nor its stamped steel (mostly) body panels. The wowza electronica inside the cabin – e.g., the LCD digital displays and so on – are the cheapest things about it. So why is it – the Tahoe – so expensive?

Well, it isn't.

What it is is profitable.

Unlike, say, EVs. They are money-losers, each one costing GM (and everyone else who makes them) money on each "sale." GM CEO Mary Barra recently admitted this. And someone's got to pay for that.