"Cash for Clunkers" - A Bad Idea

I watched a video earlier today of a New Jersey car dealer who was ecstatic to the point of wetting his pants because of all the business the Cash for Clunkers program was generating for him.


Featured was a young couple trading in their vehicle - blue book list of over $3000 - for a box-like SUV. The thing that struck me was the obvious good condition of the vehicle they were trading in to be destroyed. There is a large portion of the population that couldn't afford such a nice, shiny car. And that's a shame.

An update of that same story told the story of an agency in Arlington TX that relies on donated vehicles for their at-risk kids program, with the vehicles supposedly providing transportation to work for disadvantaged kids and young adults. There was also an interview with a used car lot manager, who was struggling to keep from going under.



The problem I have with the program is it is targeting the better off in our society - the segment that can afford to buy a new car - but at the same time makes it harder for the disadvantaged by taking used cars and used car parts off the market.



Let's face it. Low income people, and in particular the working poor, are the ones driving the true clunkers because they can't afford to drive anything else. These same low-income citizens are also living in leaky sub-standard housing where they are saddled with high heating bills (and a big carbon footprint); are using old, inefficient appliances because they can't afford the up-front costs of getting new energy-efficient ones, etc, etc.



This segment of our society is apparently invisible to the politicians in Washington - including the President - in that the policies are harmful to the less advantaged. And if the Waxman-Markey bill passes the Senate, that'll really lower the hammer on the low-income families with dramatically higher electric bills.

Although these politicians are under the sway of special interests, they still must be voted into office by the people. Unfortunately for the less well off, they are also the ones least likely to vote, primarily because they already feel disenfranchised.