Forgive me if I'm less than excited that the "Cash For Clunkers" bill passed the House.The bill awards cash vouchers of $3500-$4500 for those willing to trade in a vehicle rated at an EPA estimated 18 mpg or less for a vehicle rated at a marginally better MPG.
If you can hear my cynicism bleeding through this writing then that would be because I consider this bill poor social engineering if you're trying to get more fuel efficient cars on the road. A better use of these limited federal funds would be to renew now defunct tax credits for the purchase of the most popular Toyota and Honda hybrids.
It seems to me that the environment would be better served by getting more city folks from marginally good MPG cars into excellent MPG hybrids than it would getting rural folks from sucky MPG trucks or SUVs into slightly less sucky MPG trucks or SUVS.
I realize that a big part of the push behind this bill has nothing to do with the environment. The idea is to give the U.S. auto industry a boost by moving some of the surplus sitting on lots as soon as possible. Great.
But if you REALLY wanted to help the U.S. auto industry long term then wouldn't this 4.5 billion be better spent on developing a hybrid or electric car that's affordable (i.e NOT a $40k Chevy Volt?)
Take a loss on the crap sitting on lots at the moment by drastically discounting it and selling it. Then start actually working to position itself for the rest of this century by focusing on inexpensive, environmentally sound cars.
But then I'm just some poor schlub blogging on the internet and not a politician. What do I know?
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9 comments:
baby steps, man, baby steps.
Of course, what do the do with the piles of Hummers after this?
Arkonbey,
Good question although I don't think many hummer owners will be taking advantage of this since even in today's market they can get a lot more in trade.
What to do with the piles of Hummers? Melt some down, save a few others for some avant-garde art project. But save at least a few to put in museums so the offspring of Kirk can see just how shortsighted we were way back in the Era of Bush. Oh, and a couple to turf Cheney's lawn.
I don't like cars. But they're a necessary evil.
That is all.
no hummer jokes.. please.
Glad to know I wasn't alone in feeling like that bill was pretty useless as an energy incentive.
It's incredible how many useless bills are going through these days. And the bill only requires you to get a car that gets FOUR mpg more than the "clunker" you're trading in -- "marginally" is right. What a waste of time and money.
The whole problem is that americans have been lied to and deceived by politicians collecting money on both sides of the fence. The american auto industry, along with other american companies, have the politicians saying what they are told to say to keep collecting bribes from those companies (lobbyism, to those that dont read between the lies) and those politicians collect campaign "contributions" from an ignorant american public that is so set in their republican and democratic ways that nothing in the form of real progress will ever be made. The bottom line is money. Nobody gives a f@%k. Hummers are for yuppie chickensh@ts who want to make people think they either have fought for this country, or actually care about the USA in general. Fake, worthless people. Just like the presidential bush family.
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