Carousel for Clunkers
Posted on 08/01/2009 7:21:58 AM PDT by freemike
From TheNewYorkTimes:
“Nick Clites, who is in charge of used cars for the dealership, was prepping a 1988 BMW 535IS, with 214,000 miles on the odometer, for its death. He drained the oil, then donned a silky blue protective suit, goggles and gloves and poured a sodium silicate solution into the engine. He revved the car, and within a few seconds, the solution hardened into a glass-like substance, the engine seized up and the car was dead.”
Yes, This is an evil program. There is something very diabolical about it.Libertas
(Excerpt) Read more at jellytoast.wordpress.com ...
It was said at one time that Americans loved their cars. That the car was the closest thing to a living being man could make. Now for a price, they are taking them to the back lot and dumping poison down their throats and having them chopped up into little pieces. Call me paranoid,, I do not care. This is the beginnings of something evil.
I posted last night how Orwellian this was. It is Orwellian.
You have the government now owning GM,,, and now you have the same government starting a program to buy cars and then destroy them. These programs never get smaller. They only expand. Think of ethanol. Think of the school lunch program.
What if the next time they didn’t give you a choice, but mandated you HAD to trade that so called clunker in. And what is a clunker?? Words are wonderful things aren’t they. Why,, a clunker can be a perfectly good running 1988 BMW 535IS, or a fine old 57 Chevy. No allowances are made,, all must be destroyed. This is more than just taking old clunkers off the streets, this is erasing American culture and art. This is about changing mindsets. Americans have affections for their cars. But for a price,, we see now how quickly things can change.
1984, From Part 2, Chapter 5
In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.
Yes,, there is something evil about this.
It’s just another form of wealth redistribution. How long before they have a program to burn down your existing house in order to qualify for a low-interest loan on a new one to stimulate the housing industry? It makes as much sense.
It’s a good thing they don’t think there’s a need to stimulate the mortuary industry...
“It was said at one time that Americans loved their cars. That the car was the closest thing to a living being man could make. Now for a price, they are taking them to the back lot and dumping poison down their throats and having them chopped up into little pieces. Call me paranoid,, I do not care. This is the beginnings of something evil.”
Put the caffeine away and go get some sleep. People have treated cars like appliances since the car first came out. You really think that if the socialists LBJ or Carter came out with a program like this that thousands upon thousands of Americans would not have busted up their cars then too?
who the heck traded in a 1988 BMW - for $4500?
Isn’t it worth that much in the oen market?
Interesting point.
The poor could have used those vehicles. THis is about Obama giving his Greenie Weenies what they want: Destroy those EVIL SUVs!
Once again, the poor get shafted and the taxpayer pays more.
Obama’s fault.
Cash for your old books.
Cash for your old PC.
Cash for your old guns.
Cash for your old photos.
Cash for your old memories.
Cash for your old grandma.
Evil? Thats a bit of a stretch. Stupid? Yeah, definitely. My well to do neighbor just traded in his truck for a slightly smaller one on this program. The government just GAVE this guy $4500 bucks. In the meantime, other neighbor, who is really struggling, wont be able to qualify for a new car loan at the moment, so he is screwed.
I question how this is going wind up hurting the poor. Everybody can’t afford a new car - some have to drive “clunkers”. It also takes a lot of used parts out of the system. It strikes me as crazy to destroy something that still works.-—JM
Alexis de Tocqueville
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Walt Kelly
Here is something else, I know it has been touched on before. But, I was about ready to start looking for an old car for my son who was soon to turn 16. I was looking for an old boat, old Buick or something. A $1000. around town kind of thing.
Well,, now I am wondering,, that $1000. car just shot up in price to $4500.??
Carousel for Clunkers
“Well,, now I am wondering,, that $1000. car just shot up in price to $4500.??”
No, you have to own the clunker for a year before you can turn it in, so probably no effect there.
Somehow they have to keep us consuming. The minute we stop, everything is going to change.
i’m not sure that word means what you think it means
It’s the fallacy of the broken window. A thug breaks a window in a store. The store owner buys a new window. Presto, the economy has benefited because the glass seller has a profit.
NO!
The storeowner would have bought something else with the money for the window, say a new accounting program to make his life easier. He would have had the window and the new accounting program and been better off, while his spending would have been the same.
In this case a new car is sold and an old car is destroyed. The tax money to overpay for the old car and destroy it could have been spent on something useful — so the economic effect would be the same — and we’d still have an old car on the road for people that can’t afford a better auto.
Course, the money for Cash for Clunkers comes out of your pocket, so it is your business.
I don't know if it's true or not, but I read a couple of studies that said the energy required to manufacture a vehicle was more than the vehicle would consume in fuel during it's entire life span. It makes sense to me that after the vehicle is manufactured, the most intelligent thing to do as far as energy consumption is to run it for it's entire life span. I think the same thing about light bulbs. I will wager that florescent screw in bulbs actually use more energy than incancesdents when you consider the manufacturing energy used.
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