Comments on: Alan Blinder: "Cash for Clunkers"

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:13:00 +0000

I have a company that consults charities on automobile donations. One of the charities we consult current has a program in place where they smog, recycle and sell the cars back to low income families. Currently, they do this to about 5,000 cars a year. The average selling price of these cars is between $2000-$2500.

I think the concept of the governments program is heartfelt with great intentions – but this is already being done on the charity level and not costing the tax payers while creating jobs at the same time. I can understand fixing something that is broken, but I’m not so sure it is in this case.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:00:00 +0000

It seems as if the government is going to be in the used car buisness. At most state and Federal auctions held by the government they do not smog their cars when sold to the general public – this is thousands of vehicles a year, as is the case in Davis, California (ALL SMOG RELATED REPAIRS AND CERTIFICATIONS ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BUYER) LINK: http://www.ofa.dgs.ca.gov/Auction/TermsAndConditions.htm Maybe before we let them help us get greener we should let them pratice getting there own cars greener first!

By: Yves Smith

Yves Smith — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:21:00 +0000

I'll grant that there are some elements of this program that can be argued to be sus, and there is a good probability that any version of Federal legislation would be hijacked by the auto industry.

Having said that, it has been proven repeatedly that a very small number of cars produce a very high proportion of emissions. Cleaning up or getting rid of those cars will have a vastly bigger impact on pollution than tightening requirements for new cars (not that we shouldn't do that too, but I am giving you a sense of importance).

Now it is fair to argue that age may be too crude a proxy for these bad cars. A few places have installed cameras to capture the license plates of offenders and make them clean up. Allowing someone to sell the car could be an alternative.

Also, Blinder in his example discussed $3500 per car. You don't buy much in the way of new car at that price.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:19:00 +0000

ha, ha i spelled petit bourgeois wrong both times and he din’t catch it even though he is one.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:11:00 +0000

Hey, higher taxes are like running with ankle weights. If you can’t take it, I guess you’re not really smart and capable enough to stay rich. Social Darwinism has weeded out your petit-borgeois loser genotype and all your rich friends are going to snicker at you behind your back.

By: roger

roger — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:19:00 +0000

My notion of a stimulus involves the government simply expanding its practice that, at the moment, helps the poor, tax soaked rich by kindly lending financial institutions money at 2 percent interest, with which they can loan back the money to the government at 2.5 percent interest, and simply opening the window to the hoi polloi. If the government made available loans to everybody, instead of the poor, beaten down rich (who work so very, very heard to earn their compensation packages in the kind of management and administration decisionmaking that a computer could do for one thousandth of the price), I figure credit card balances would start getting paid off, savings would rise, and we’d all be richer. Since the Fed has become the kindly loan office for the wealthy, why not just extend the window?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:02:00 +0000

Isn’t socialism fun. There are so many fun ways of taking money from those that earned it, and give it to people who aren’t as productive or motivated as the “rich”.

Just another take away!

By: S

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:41:00 +0000

Why is it that the ideologues are never short of an idea that wraps their agenda in a flag and call sit a solution. We need more “solutions” like another bullet in the head.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Look, while we all understand being poorer than some, the idea that the wealthy will ever “pay” is retarded. You will never touch them, or get within 500 yards of them. So many have seen this coming and have the means with which to repel the “Golden Hordes” and most are paranoid and neurotic as it is. I get paid to get them to their G-5 so as they can leave this place for another safer place, and you are deluded to think otherwise. Violence begets violence, and trust me, cash talks and you will lose. Start thinking like an 1800’s pioneer, and you will be fine.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:13:00 +0000

I hope that he is being sarcastic .