Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

The Cash for Clunkers program is such a huge success that GM is increasing production for the rest of the year. Yippee!

Oh wait - the government owns GM. So, the government used the cash for clunkers to incentivize people to buy cars from the government and now the government has decided to increase production. Capitalism at its best!

Don't get me wrong - it is a good thing that car companies are selling more cars. But it is a short-lived improvement. Once the clunkers money dries up (or car dealers stop accepting trade-ins because the government is not reimbursing them), the car sales will dry up too.

Or worse - people are smart. They will think: why buy something now when I can stop buying and force the government to give me a cash incentive to buy? Maybe car sales next year will be worse than they would have been without the Clunkers program this year.

Buy hey, at least some of the government money is coming back to the taxpayers - government money goes to GM, GM improves, America wins - right?

3 comments:

Karen M. Peterson said...

There are so many things wrong with the Cash for Clunkers program that I don't even know where to start.

For one thing, I'd sure like $4500 for a new car. Oh, right. My 12 year old Toyota doesn't qualify for the program...I'm so glad my tax dollars are paying for someone else to drive something new, though. I can feel better about myself.

Karen M. Peterson said...

BTW, I'm so glad you're blogging again! I've missed it!

MDP said...

well the one thing about Cash for Clunkers that no one is talking about...and you kinda scratch the surface of...what group of people is more likely to have a car that qualifies for the program? Take a guess - it's not the rich and probably not most of the middle class. That's right - the poor. It's just another example of spreading the wealth around.