Another thing to recall about the Cash for Clunkers program is how it hurts the poor. The program will take these clunkers off the street and give them to the government to destroy. But these are precisely the kinds of cars that poor or fixed-income people tend to purchase. Most of these clunkers are of course in fine shape, but they are not green enough according to government determinations. So poor people who cannot afford to purchase new, government-approved (and thus artificially expensive) automobiles will be told to go take a hike literally!
The government having melted down these clunkers, the market in low priced used cars will dry up, thus driving up cost and further hurting poor and working people as well as seniors and others on fixed income. Grandma who just needs a cheap old car to get down to the pharmacy for her prescriptions will thus be forced to walk or hire a cab, as the finance companies will take a look at her social security income and say next!
Cash for clunkers is an attack on the poor for the benefit of government-connected Big Auto big-wigs and GMAC-style bankster/moneylenders. As with most government programs, the poor get the short end of the stick.
From the videos I’ve seen, Volvos, Jeeps and the like are being destroyed — good used cars. The cheap new cars are Kia and Hyundai. This seems like a stimulus program for Korea and an America highway uglification program.
I envision a scene in my mind where the auto dealers conduct a sacrifice of the vehicle. They ceremonially destroy the car while dancing, chanting and praying to the earth-god asking her to spare us from global warming.
And how much energy will be used and pollution generated to destroy perfectly good cars? This is a bad idea no matter how you look at it! Even if I were a die-hard environmentalist, I'd be hard-pressed to find the benefit of this program.
That’s exactly right. I was reading about that 1988 BMW getting murdered (haha) and I was thinking “Man, I would like to have that car to put around town”.
Like the eco-wackos care about the poor not having affordable cars