Cash for clunkers - a waste of taxpayer dollars?

I'm reading more and more from leading environmentalists and economists that the Obama administration's Cash for Clunkers program will not have all the wonderful effects its proponents have been espousing. This issue has hit close to home for us, since my wife and I are now shopping for a new car to replace our Sebring convertible.

According to most experts, the positive environmental impacts being touted are negligible and in fact, may be a net negative. Here's why. Every car we take OFF the road has to be disposed of. Fluids are hazardous waste, plastics have to be separated out, metals crushed and melted, and parts that can't be recycled either end up in a landfill or they're burnt. It all takes energy!

Plus, while you may be saving some amount of fuel in the future by taking a guzzler off the road today, you have actually increased the total carbon footprint required to get someone from point A to point B. Keep in mind -- the clunker is already built!! Replacing it with a new car adds the total carbon it took to PRODUCE the new vehicle back into the picture. The bottom line is that we are likely using MORE carbon to recycle and dispose of the old car and replace it with new than we save in fossil fuels.

On the economic side, the sale of some 125,000 (maybe 250,000) new cars is just a drop in the bucket for new car sales. According to many industry analysts, SOME production lines may now stay open an extra ONE day over the year as the result of Cash for Clunkers. Big whoop!

Then there's the cost to the U.S. taxpayer for financing this giveaway to the automotive industry -- $1 billion, now $3 billion on top of federal ownership of Chrysler & GM -- all when many analysts think the industry was beginning to turn around on its own. Plus, and this should drive you crazy, OVER 50% of the money is going to purchase foreign cars. Not the cars that you or I as taxpayers now build, but something from Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Kia, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes, etc.

On a philosophical basis, should MY tax dollars be used to reward someone else's bad behavior? Our Sebring doesn't qualify for the program because it gets 1 mpg too much. So those of us who have already been doing the right thing will pay for those who don't.

More reading here to prove my points:

Analysis: Clunker cash won't drive true recovery

Cash for clunkers effect on pollution? A blip

08.06.2009. 12:34

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