Comments on: Cash for Clunkers by the numbers

By: admin

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:38:00 +0000

directed rebate of taxes?

I think not. Those revenues were already spent four times over times 10

This was funded by printing new money that we don’t have.

Your point about spending six times the amount to get the faux rebate argues against your defense of Obama you paint into a corner of treating oil and other big business more favorably with better hand outs

By: JS

JS — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:33:23 +0000

Actually since the major winners in the Clunker program was Toyota, Honda, Hyundai these were basically not automotive union plants.
The initial focus of the article was what we were getting from it. One way to look at the program was that a mass of people were given some of their taxes back if they were willing to put in 3-6 times as much of their own money to buy a car. When we give billions in tax breaks to a handful of Oil Companies who are already making billions (and have massive foreign ownership) people do not get as hot and bothered as the case of hundreds of thousand of Americans getting an a directed rebate of their taxes.

By: CCR

CCR — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:28:56 +0000

The clunkers were useful to people who needed a cheap form of transportation. Too bad they were needlessly destroyed. Older cars often have a long life ahead of them for students and low income people. Everybody can’t afford a new car.

By: BGR

BGR — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:28:31 +0000

“put them into play” very interesting phrase, as if there is no cost for the new or value to the old. It is better to create new jobs with $3B than to spend state subsidies to favor one sector and state favored unions.

By: Edi Birsan

Edi Birsan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:18:23 +0000

The cost (in energy) of replacement cars is an interesting point, however, that would imply that ANY replacement of a car with a new car is negative factor. Yet we know that we need to replace cars as an economic reality. The cash for clunkers simply took the existing stock of already made and idle new cars and put them into play while removing the older stock permanently.

@Tom at least some of the commentators did fail to bore us with their personal attacks.