Robert Weinstein

Cash for Clunkers May Cost Up to $45,354 Per Vehicle

Does anyone give any thought to what this does to our economy???

Look, I understand some in DC would say don’t worry about taking away all the cheap affordable cars off the market for people who may not be able to afford a more expensive car. After all we will give the poor people money and handouts and they will be fine.

I for one am not fine with this and not only is it a total waste of money but its filled with unintended consequences like distorting the used car market. How many jobs (think mechanics, used car lots, auto parts shops and salvage yards) will be LOST as a result of this giveaway. A a very minimum lost wages and lower income for people that service used cars will happen. While no numbers yet exist and maybe hard to calculate I have to wonder what the net result is for AMERICAN jobs/income. After all some of the cars being bought are foreign made cars and most of the jobs/income being lost are American jobs.

As I understand it many of the new ‘purchases’ would have happened anyway with our without the government handout(Duh).

Whats gonna be the next great idea? How about we start burning down houses that were built before 1975 with less than 10 inches of insulation if you buy a new energy star house. That would give firefighters plenty to practice on (first controlling the burning and then putting the fires out in a controlled method) as well as take a lot of houses out of the marketplace that dont have as high of conservation levels.

You could give the new home buyer a $25K credit and that would make buying a new home more afforable. That would put a lot of people to work building new homes and get rid of a lot of excess homes on the market.

You just need to ignore the facts that it would raise the deficit (wont it be great to tell the children how their future was mortgaged away so we could destroy cars and homes) and lower the total assets that America owns but lets not get facts in the way of change.

The real scarry thing as I write this is wondering how many people will read the home burning concept and actually think it might be a solution to the housing problem......

DC should rename itself to UC (Unintended Consequences)

Want to see what they are doing with the cars to make sure no one drives a “Clunker” again. take a look at the youtube video. If your a taxpayer and this doesn't make you mad than I don’t think your paying attention.

www.youtube.com/watch?...

Auto Industry: Can We Get a 'Twofer'?

The whole idea of spending (forget loaning this is money gone baby gone) on companies that have not been able to execute a plan that offers cars/trucks that people want to buy at prices people are willing to spend FOR YEARS is simply obscene. As I wrote in my blog these jobs are gone with the way management has run the companies and having the federal government step in will not only cost the taxpayers a lot of money (already has in terms of congressional resources) but will delay the ability of the auto makers to get back on solid ground and start producing a product that people want to buy.

Its too bad congress thinks they know better than the capital markets as they are bringing America to its knees a lot quicker than need be.