Cash for Clunkers Success

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

It was a good article and when numbers are broken down so is Riot & Co.'s euphoria.

For 3 Billion Dollars we save a little under a half's day fuel allotment and a little more than 2hrs out of a year in greenhouse gases? And the saving of the 2hrs per YEAR in greenhouse gas reduction will start 2 1/2 years after delivery of the auto to compensate for gases created in its production?

Heck it would have been to stupid to fall for the con of buying air but would have cost only $32 million to buy the carbon credits or $320 million for 10yrs the average life of the cars of this programme. We could have put the almost 90% of the $3 billon back in the bank to offset the $29.4 million we lose per year in gasoline tax revenue presuming it remains at 18.4 cents/gallon.

The article does concede that it is a successful program on some levels. I don't think that can be argued. The degree of that success obviously can.

My take? Its stimulus. It helped get some people off of the sideline at a time when the auto industry needed a jump start (no pun intended). I could post another article with a greener bent to it and it would provide stats that show the ecological benefits of the program ad nauseum. Any way you look at it, its something.

There is no silver bullet. This is one of many programs that will be thrown out there to help the economy recover. I applaud the efforts of the government.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

There is no silver bullet. This is one of many programs that will be thrown out there to help the economy recover. I applaud the efforts of the government.

The success is modest at best and the amount of economic recovery is that is created by similar (right now imaginary) programs will also be modest at best. This program is the Eugenio Velez of govt programs. Looks great briefly but in the end doesnt really do much.

Hooray Beer!