Cash for clunkers is a stupid idea. Minimal environmental impact. Destroying perfectly good assets in an attempt to make us wealthier. Bailing out the car companies...again. Ya know it costs energy to actually make cars, right? Here's a good non-partisan article on it. http://www.slate.com/id/2224306/ "Was spending $1 billion a particularly cost-effective way to achieve those CO2 reductions? Probably not. Assuming the above calculations are correct and that each consumer keeps his or her car for 10 years, then the total savings should be a little less than 5.7 million tons of carbon dioxide. That means each ton of carbon dioxide would be worth about $175.53 to the U.S. government. As the Washington Policy Center pointed out on its blog in June, a ton of CO2 currently goes for about $17.50 on the European Climate Exchange. " Great job! Hey, at least the Republicans and Democrats came together to give away more taxpayer dollars. At least they can agree on something, as long as it increases the defecit.
Oh you’re such a good little sheep, stay good now cause if you don’t will send our union good ol’boys to beat you down. Just like we’re doing to all proponents of our great Health Care bill, in town hall meetings across our great country.
then what is the point of this program? because to me it looks like it is inticing people to take on more debt to save a few mpg's.
but the economic effects are relevant. New car sales are up, used car sales are down. robbing peter to pay paul. and for what? cleaner air?
that $4500 HAS to be used on a new car. you can't purchase an used unit with this program. it also stipulates that the engine of the "clunker" be siezed and any drivetrain parts be destroyed. This is taking a ton of used cars off the market prematurely and skyrocketing the price of pre-owned units. I have a small fleet of 2005 Toyota Tundra trucks (4) vital to keeping my small business alive. I can get these older program trucks at wholesale auctions for next to nothing...... now that they are being taken off the market....more people are going to be in demand for these fleet models, which inflates their value. Sucks for me the small business owner. Great for you the tree hugger. what auto dealers love this program? please give me one specific dealer. Every single dealership I work for says this program is marginal at best. Great for new car sales, terrible for pre-owned. Do you know how much a dealer makes off of a pre-owned unit vs. a new unit? Believe me, they NEED to push those pre-owned units as well.
Here you go. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEmb2EMLOVU65o_uen3j4ihr3lOwD99U9K581 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-clunkers-0801-aug02,0,19623.story I think these articles mention some problems, like the paperwork, and not everyone qualifying, but one of the main problems seems to be that the program is too good for sales and they weren't prepared.
I understand what you are saying about getting even more fuel efficient cars, but I don't think we should be the enemy of good in order to try and get perfect.
Your definition of good and perfect are skewed, that's the problem. 4mpg isn't good and 40mpg isn't perfect. 40+mpg is good and and the prius with 45+mpg is perfect. What I'm saying is I'm the enemy of bs, and this program, that gives you $3500 for getting a car that has 4 more mpg than your last car had, is bs, and is bad. It's handing out free money, my money, for not doing something it said it would do.
Why not pay people for being already fabulously wealthy? "we need tax cuts and incentives for immediate spending!!!111" "i oppose cash 4 clunkers because we're spending money so that others can spend their money!"
They are getting rid of less fuel efficient cars and buying more fuel efficient cars. That's good. I'm saying perfect would be if they were buying even more fuel efficient cars like the 40mpg you mentioned. But just because the cars being bought aren't 40 mpg doesn't make it bad. It's still good, just not as good as it could be. But even putting all that aside, there are still other benefits to the program. It's strange how much opposition we are hearing to something that is helping the economy, and increasing energy efficiency.
What you don't understand is that we are not helping the economy and this program has next to zero effect on energy efficiency. Those who are driving paid off cars are doing it because they either can not afford to buy a new car or because they are waiting for the right deal. I certainly shouldn't be subsidizing someone's new car because they intended on getting a new car anyways but chose to put off for this deal nor should i help subsidize people who might get their car repoed in a year from now.
The idea of a stimulus is to get money flowing into the economy. That is exactly what is happening. People said the stimulus wouldn't be good because it wouldn't really help businesses operating in this economy. This program is doing that incredibly well. Just read the testimony from the auto dealerships. Now this is one part of the stimulus that is working incredibly well, and people are going out of their way to criticize it.
Of course dealerships like it, they are getting tons of money! I'm not going out of my way to criticize it just because it's popular. It is a bad idea, but it's popular because people are getting free money.
