The “cash for clunkers” idea is out of money. One billion dollars has already been spent, and the Senate is trying to pump another two billion into the project because it has been so successful. But is it REALLY successful?
For those that don’t know what “cash for clunkers” is, it is a new program where the government will reimburse the car companies for giving you 4,500 dollars for a car that is no older than an 84 vehicle, gets 18 mpg or less, and can run. The new car has to be a vehicle on the government list, I’m sure you can google it to find out the standards if you are interested. I disagree with this plan ideologically mostly because if it smells like a hand out, looks like a hand, and sounds like a hand out, the odds are is that it’s just another government hand out. To me, it seems like the government is realizing that they can throw bail out money and take over these car companies all they want but at the end of the day, the failing economy prevails and nobody has the means to purchase a new vehicle. In fact, I predict a spike (perhaps small spike, but a spike none the less) in car repos in a year or so because a lot of people are jumping on this deal even though they may not have the means to make the car payments in the future.
But enough on what we can’t change. Ideology aside, there are some problems that I have with this program (and liberals should as well) and some inefficiencies that I think could be easily corrected.
First of all, the vehicle that you bring in (your “clunker”) gets destroyed. That is a part of the requirements that the dealership must meet in order to be reimbursed for the 4,500. Now, I know that the government is wasteful, but that is ridiculous! Why destroy the vehicle? Why not donate all of the “clunkers” to public schools that have an auto-mechanics class let the students fix them up? Then, take the fixed up vehicles and sell them dirt cheap to poor people who need a vehicle and can’t afford one. This should be infuriating liberals! Being a conservative, I’m not required to care about the poor (that’s a joke) but the fact that these vehicles, even though they are old, are just being destroyed defies all logic. If somebody could explain why destroying them is a better idea than mine, please, inform me.
Secondly, I don’t think the government is thinking about what they are going to be doing to the scrap metal trade (inadvertently, of course). Already scrap metal is at rock bottom price. This happens naturally with a recession, since more people become unemployed or more people have to tighten their belts, they start picking up scrap metal and saving aluminum cans to sell to the scrap metal yards for cash. In fact, tomorrow is garbage day, and I expect the same gentleman to drive by and dig through my garbage to retrieve any scrap metal I may have thrown out just like he has the past few weeks. And that is fine! Better that than starving or stealing my rims off my car. But regardless, the prices dropping on scrap metal is simple supply and demand. If the scrap yard has more metal than it needs, they aren’t going to pay top dollar. So imagine the amount of scrap metal that is going to pushed into these yards, making that guy that digs through my trash collect that much less in cash.
Lastly, there is the environmental aspect. Once again, being a conservative, I don’t care about the environment (again, a joke), but I wonder what will be done with the gallons upon gallons of fluids that will come from these “clunkers”. Gasoline, oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid…the list goes on and on. Wheres all this going to go? I’m going to assume that the government has an idea as to where these fluids are going to be properly disposed at, but I haven’t heard anything about it on the news.
Regardless, there are a lot of problems with this program that need to be addressed, and I hope that they are before the Senate puts 2 billion more tax dollars into it.
For those that don’t know what “cash for clunkers” is, it is a new program where the government will reimburse the car companies for giving you 4,500 dollars for a car that is no older than an 84 vehicle, gets 18 mpg or less, and can run. The new car has to be a vehicle on the government list, I’m sure you can google it to find out the standards if you are interested. I disagree with this plan ideologically mostly because if it smells like a hand out, looks like a hand, and sounds like a hand out, the odds are is that it’s just another government hand out. To me, it seems like the government is realizing that they can throw bail out money and take over these car companies all they want but at the end of the day, the failing economy prevails and nobody has the means to purchase a new vehicle. In fact, I predict a spike (perhaps small spike, but a spike none the less) in car repos in a year or so because a lot of people are jumping on this deal even though they may not have the means to make the car payments in the future.
But enough on what we can’t change. Ideology aside, there are some problems that I have with this program (and liberals should as well) and some inefficiencies that I think could be easily corrected.
First of all, the vehicle that you bring in (your “clunker”) gets destroyed. That is a part of the requirements that the dealership must meet in order to be reimbursed for the 4,500. Now, I know that the government is wasteful, but that is ridiculous! Why destroy the vehicle? Why not donate all of the “clunkers” to public schools that have an auto-mechanics class let the students fix them up? Then, take the fixed up vehicles and sell them dirt cheap to poor people who need a vehicle and can’t afford one. This should be infuriating liberals! Being a conservative, I’m not required to care about the poor (that’s a joke) but the fact that these vehicles, even though they are old, are just being destroyed defies all logic. If somebody could explain why destroying them is a better idea than mine, please, inform me.
Secondly, I don’t think the government is thinking about what they are going to be doing to the scrap metal trade (inadvertently, of course). Already scrap metal is at rock bottom price. This happens naturally with a recession, since more people become unemployed or more people have to tighten their belts, they start picking up scrap metal and saving aluminum cans to sell to the scrap metal yards for cash. In fact, tomorrow is garbage day, and I expect the same gentleman to drive by and dig through my garbage to retrieve any scrap metal I may have thrown out just like he has the past few weeks. And that is fine! Better that than starving or stealing my rims off my car. But regardless, the prices dropping on scrap metal is simple supply and demand. If the scrap yard has more metal than it needs, they aren’t going to pay top dollar. So imagine the amount of scrap metal that is going to pushed into these yards, making that guy that digs through my trash collect that much less in cash.
Lastly, there is the environmental aspect. Once again, being a conservative, I don’t care about the environment (again, a joke), but I wonder what will be done with the gallons upon gallons of fluids that will come from these “clunkers”. Gasoline, oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid…the list goes on and on. Wheres all this going to go? I’m going to assume that the government has an idea as to where these fluids are going to be properly disposed at, but I haven’t heard anything about it on the news.
Regardless, there are a lot of problems with this program that need to be addressed, and I hope that they are before the Senate puts 2 billion more tax dollars into it.
