Cash for Clunkers
Maybe it's just me (and I'm always generally careful to couch my opinions in opinion language rather than fact language) but whenever the government gets into something, we see wonderful examples of the Law of Unintended Consequences. The Cash for Clunkers program is one of these examples.
The intended consequences of the program is to stimulate the economy by upping the sales of new cars that are more fuel efficient and to get the gas guzzlers off the road. As someone who owns two Hondas and wouldn't touch an SUV with a ten-foot-pole, I should be good with that, right? People who turn in their old (there's a certain date and model requirement, I guess) cars get a $3-4,000 rebate off the price of a new car. So we are rewarding good behavior, right? And dealers are moving cars off the lots, right?
Sure, but.....
1. People who were conscious about gas mileage and did the right thing are being directly or indirectly punished. We don't get a rebate or any reward, and our pockets are being picked for this bailout.
2. People who bought gas guzzlers are being rewarded for past irresponsible behavior, and we have no proof of "repentance," that is, that they will buy a fuel efficient car the next time around.
3. Good cars that lower income people could buy (those who can't afford new cars or even late model used ones--those who are known as the working poor and who drive ten-year-old cars--I used to be one of these people) are now off the market. So what are these people going to drive?
4. I am just instinctively opposed to the government trying to engineer behavior. It can be incentivized by tax breaks, but not rewarded with handouts. This only makes us more and more dependent on government, Washington, the state, whatever you want to call it. The governments biblical job (Romans 14) is to punish evil doers and maintain law and order, not to make us righteous.
The recent movie Serendipity (from the TV show Firefly) deals with this subject in startling ways. Very good for popular science fiction. Like the main character, a part of me "aims to misbehave" in regard to this social engineering that rewards the poor victims of their own bad choices and punishes the hard working. As Dennis Miller (who I am not giving to quoting, believe me) says, "I don't mind helping the helpless. I do mind helping the clueless."
The intended consequences of the program is to stimulate the economy by upping the sales of new cars that are more fuel efficient and to get the gas guzzlers off the road. As someone who owns two Hondas and wouldn't touch an SUV with a ten-foot-pole, I should be good with that, right? People who turn in their old (there's a certain date and model requirement, I guess) cars get a $3-4,000 rebate off the price of a new car. So we are rewarding good behavior, right? And dealers are moving cars off the lots, right?
Sure, but.....
1. People who were conscious about gas mileage and did the right thing are being directly or indirectly punished. We don't get a rebate or any reward, and our pockets are being picked for this bailout.
2. People who bought gas guzzlers are being rewarded for past irresponsible behavior, and we have no proof of "repentance," that is, that they will buy a fuel efficient car the next time around.
3. Good cars that lower income people could buy (those who can't afford new cars or even late model used ones--those who are known as the working poor and who drive ten-year-old cars--I used to be one of these people) are now off the market. So what are these people going to drive?
4. I am just instinctively opposed to the government trying to engineer behavior. It can be incentivized by tax breaks, but not rewarded with handouts. This only makes us more and more dependent on government, Washington, the state, whatever you want to call it. The governments biblical job (Romans 14) is to punish evil doers and maintain law and order, not to make us righteous.
The recent movie Serendipity (from the TV show Firefly) deals with this subject in startling ways. Very good for popular science fiction. Like the main character, a part of me "aims to misbehave" in regard to this social engineering that rewards the poor victims of their own bad choices and punishes the hard working. As Dennis Miller (who I am not giving to quoting, believe me) says, "I don't mind helping the helpless. I do mind helping the clueless."
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