Goodbye Clunkermania

So those brilliant masterminds behind the Cash for "Clunkers" spending frenzy have finally thrown in the towel. None of it made any sense, economically or otherwise, but the program was nevertheless given another 2 billion dollars to throw down a rat hole after the first billion was exhausted so quickly (hey, a billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon we're talking real money, right?).

The cars turned in under the program had to be turned in for scrap, which means it was unlikely any newer vehicle worth more than the maximum $4500 offered for the trade-ins would have inspired any Hummer owners to permanently take their gas guzzlers off the road. So we see instead scenarios like the following (from a gentleman I spoke to): A couple owns a 1986 Ford Van and decides to trade it for a new Toyota. But the guy admits that even though they use the van they hardly ever drive it. "Only once in a while, so we really don't get much use out of it" he confessed. So now the van, which is supposed to be environmentally harmful and fuel inefficient, gets replaced by a new vehicle that will be driven, most likely, daily, and therefore actually end up using more fuel than the old van that just sat there most of the time, harming nobody.

Was there any economic stimulus? Well, of course. When you give money away, people are going to take it. I am disappointed and disheartened, however, by the enthusiasm of ordinary people for getting their share of the stolen loot. I wonder how many of those who took advantage (there's a perfect word to describe it) of it were tea-partying type Republicans. Did their "principles" hold up under the temptation of big daddy government hand-outs? I don't know why anyone would expect that, considering the hypocrisy of "conservatives" during the years of the baby Bush presidency.

Also sickening were the auto companies and their dealers. They lobbied hard for the CARS program and its extension, then advertised it like there was no tomorrow. This is why so many are disgusted with the poor, downtrodden businessman. It's because he is not now and never has been in favor of free markets.

The car dealers are complaining that they have lots full of "clunkers" that the government hasn't paid them for yet. I wouldn't care if they never got "their" stolen cash. It would serve them right, first for campaigning to take more tax dollars and then as payback for the decades of underhanded, dishonest, snake oil sales techniques that cheated untold millions of consumers out of their hard earned wages. The auto company bailout of GM and Chrysler, and now the Cash for Clunkers fiasco, is simply the auto industry up to its old tricks.