Federally Funded Program Would Help Working Poor Get Cars

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | February 20, 2004 | Scott Williams

[Chummy]

Have at it. Now those who work hard and try to provide for their families will be funding auto purchases for "the working poor."

[farmfriend]

This will not work in CA. All the old, cheap cars are being removed from the roads as gross polluters. I have always maintianed that the smog laws were biased against the working pour.

[ikka]

Will they be required to provide proof of US citizenship?

[Wheee The People]

Kool...I need a Porsche. Candy Apple red please...

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Will they also be provided with free car insurance?

[Seruzawa]

If the govt guarantees "X dollars" to buy a car then the price of used cars will become "current price + X dollars". Bank on it.

I guess it's not enough to give free drugs to the richest people in America - the elderly. Now we gotta give cars to "the poor". Ever been through a "poor" neighborhood? They could afford cars if they didn't have to sport the latest fashions.

[heylady]

And I suppose they will get a break on their car insurance too. After all we can pay a little more to make up the difference.( I don't really have to put a sarcasm note now do I?)

[cyborg]

The madness is neverending. I think government has syphillitic dementia.

[international american]

It wont work anywhere. Good idea, horrible implementation.
The "iron lot" dealers will RAPE the buyers.

[Seruzawa]

One more thing:

But advocates say Ways to Work would help the working poor improve their quality of life by giving them easier access not only to employment, but also health care, child care and other basic needs.

Then let the advocates get togther and buy cars for the "poor". Leave me out of it. I'm already in enough financial trouble through having to afford private school in order to keep my daughter out of the hands of the filthy criminal Ritalin pushers.

[farmfriend]

I think government has syphillitic dementia.

Lol! I thought that was only in Canada. Aren't they having a problem with this up there?

[Dianna]

And I suppose they will get a break on their car insurance too.

What about repairs?

[SAJ]

Oh, the taxpayers simply **must** subsidise repairs and inspection and licensing fees, too. How could you even be so heartless as to think otherwise?

[cyborg]

Well knowing how politicians of the same sick ideology love to get in bed with eachother, I wouldn't doubt they're infected too :)

[LizardQueen]

We have a program up here that's not gov't funded but works pretty well. It's a non-profit that takes donations of old cars, fixes them up, then gives them or sells them cheap to poor people who need a car to get to work.
They also use the garage where the cars are fixed up as a training ground to train people as mechanics.

Everyone wins - donor gets a tax deduction, mechanic gets training, poor person gets car. And the gov isn't involved.

My only beef with it was they wouldn't take my husbands 13 year old Golf or my 12 year old Acura when it came time to get rid of them. They only take cars under 10 years old. It bugged me to think that it was apparently good enough for me to drive but not good enough to give to someone carless.
But where I live the rust starts to take hold after 10 years so maybe they're just protecting themselves from having to deal with major body rot in the donated cars.

LQ

[freeangel]

And how are they then going to pay for insurance, gas, maintenance and tags? Let me guess, they won't--we will.

[Fresh Wind]

There already is a program in Pennsylvania in which the taxpayers get to buy the car, and then pay for repairs and insurance. I think the bennies last for two years, and it is a total give away (no loan involved).

[martin_fierro]

This'll just put a bunch of uninsured, judgment-proof drivers on the road.

Let 'em stick with:

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[SamAdams76]

Great idea. Now the "poor" can be introduced to such joys as auto insurance, gas, tires, parking tickets, oil changes, parking garages, towing charges, transmission overhauls, brake work, registration fees, battery replacements, highway tolls, inspection fees, windshield wiper replacements, parking meters, tunnel and bridge tolls, speeding tickets and other moving violations, and all the other expenses that besiege the modern driver today - especially those with second hand cars.

Just reading that last paragraph makes me pine for those long-ago days when I was "poor" and had to take the subway to work.

Welcome to our world!