How much energy in all its forms is used in building, transporting, and selling one new car? If we take a perfectly good used car off the roads five years before its time, then are we really saving any energy with this program? And we, the American taxpayers are paying $4,500 for every one of these transactions! Now, I understand that if everyone was like me, the economy would slow and car production would be drastically reduced. But still should we be really going all out like this to push people to discard perfectly good cars that could at least have been used by people who cannot afford new cars?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cash For Clunkers
The Cash for Clunkers program has cleared out new cars from dealerships across the country. That's a good thing, I suppose. But the postings by a Facebook friend who works for a California dealership got me to thinking. The utter waste that is involved in this program as hundreds and hundreds of perfectly good engines are destroyed with a chemical solution added to the engine. As someone who believes in using things until their useful life is over, this just seems so wrong.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I did a little more reading of my Facebook friend's page. He doesn't just work at a dealership, he OWNS a couple! So, his perspective is certainly different than mine as he is absolutely personally benefitting from this program. He even advocated more programs such as a No Dent Rule which would keep body shops working or cause more cars to be junked. So, it's safe to say that I don't agree with him on these issues, mostly from a libertarian point of view.
Post a Comment