Cash For Clunkers (AKA C.A.R.S)

Did you guys see this?

source

I have very mixed feelings on the program, but wow, you would think the government would be much more prepared to back their program up and not leave dealerships hanging.

 

It's a bullshit program that we never needed. We also never needed bailouts. If a car company makes a shitty car, then f--k them.

 

Agreed on all points!

 

This program has been a huge success.

I wish more Americans would get over the religion of capitalism and start dealing in the reality of what works.

 

This so called religion is what works when it is allowed to.

 

One of the consequences of this program is that it appears that Ford and GM are increasing plans for building a greater number of new cars through the end of the year. That is a plus. It puts more people back to work for a period of time.

There have been lots of reported problems with the program. Dealers aren't getting their money fast enough. Maybe from a strategic perspective, some of the "wrong" cars are being sold.

To the extent that cars with poor mileage are being taken off the road and cars with better mileage are replacing them that is a plus.

 

And after they build them no one will buy them. Then we get to bail their shitty cars and companies out again.

 

Nonsense. You guys are so into your philosophy of the free market that you don't seem to register the actual real world results. In reality unregulated free markets tend to drive everyday people into the ground while a select few ("elites") reap the majority of the benefits. Socialism works, capitalism at any costs doesn't. It eats itself in the end, and everyone is worse off for it. Greed is NOT good.

 

What kind of stone age Keynesian school did you just emerge out of? Free market, when allowed to do what it should (Companies that make a fucking bad product go out of business) lets the best products succeed and drives innovation. This clusterfuck is just giving companies that should be dead free money to stay alive like some kind of half zombie that feeds on brains and money of the working class poor and middle America. Socialism might mean equality - but I don't want to be equal to the poorest sob on the street or the richest snob in the elite. I want to be able to make my own goddamn way, not have to pay anyone else because they're products are shit but their company "makes jobs".

If bad companies fail, good companies succeed. If all companies stay alive, good companies never rise. Monetary equality is mass mediocrity in the business world. Regulation is a tool to benefit the regulators, not the common man. You're pretty much saying 'hand the keys to everything to politicians' which means them, their business lobbying friends, and our pockets.

I refuse to ever believe that the sort of answer that gives the most corrupt in this country ultimate power to dictate who makes the cash is ever going to be anything but self destructive. The only competition there will be is how much a company can give a senator for a 'contribution'.

 

No it has not. Its been a huge mess, and a huge waste of money. In fact, many dealers have never even been paid. As a matter of fact, GM which Obama now thinks he owns, has had to bail out the government in order to cover the money that their dealers have had to front.

You thinks Socialism is better? Eek...

 

Yes, socialism, that wonderful system where everyone is mediocre.

 

If you actually lived in a socialist run country, you'd be thanking God for what you once had. Maybe you should move and find out how good you really had it.

 

I dunno if you noticed who just wrote that (me) but I certainly hope you aren't addressing me.

 

Jackuul:

That is all opinion and no substance.

I look at this program and see good and bad:

The bad:

1. govt spending -> more debt
2. very poor administration -> govt is late at getting rebate money to dealers -> that leads to serious cash flow problems to dealers (I'm a business guy--that is a serious problem for me).

The good.

1. Lots of new cars were sold. Domestic and foreign owned. I wish I saw hard facts on how many of them were built in the US. I hope it is the vast vast vast majority. I dunno. Anyone have facts on that?

2. The rapid movement of cars has spurred increased production of cars being built in the US.

Now that second one is good. It means jobs here in the US. People need jobs.

Hopefully the newer cars being built by Ford and GM compete well w/ foreign manufacturers. That is vital. Time will tell.

 

Why not just let ever tax paying American keep $4500.00 of their money this year, instead. ??? I think I know better how to spend my money than Obama.

 

Cash for Clunkers was the perfect bailout for all the complainers that bitch about the corporate America bailout.

How many of us complained that the government should bailout the little guy? That is EXACTLY what Cash for Clunkers did.

 

Yeah they bailed them out by giving them an incentive to trade in their paid off cars for one that came with a fat monthly payment lol

I hope they keep tracking these purchases and see how many are repossessed leaving the person with no car at all. Or how many of the people go bankrupt. Then again, the loan requirements/credit score was supposedly strict so they made sure these people could actually afford the payment before giving the loan.

The whole thing blows my mind. I guess it's cause I'm out of touch being one of the few weirdos that saves for a car before buying it and buys used.

 

Can you elaborate? I fail to see how this did anything other than:

1. Create more new debt for already debt laden American consumers.
2. Depleted an inventory of perfectly fine used automobiles.
3. Drove up the cost of low cost autos for college students, high schoolers, and lower income people.

The program in reality was probably one of the dumbest things our nation, let alone the current admin has ever done.

As a small business owner, let me explain just how cash for clunkers really worked.

I as a small business borrow money and then use it to buy my own inventory in order to drive up sales to keep my employees working and my bills paid.

How does this make any money??? How does it really help? In the end I'm left with more debt and no way to pay for it.

Why not give people a tax deduction on expensive "luxury tax" autos? Give people a real incentive to buy. The government giving people tax payers cash to buy something that tax payers pretty much now own is just dumb.

 

You used to be pretty reasonable about this socialism stuff but now you're just coming across as a typical extreme leftist. Fortunately for myself, and others who know a thing or two, I don't need to debate you. Your statements are most revealing when they're left to stand alone. And guess what? The majority of Americans are going to write you off as an extremist, they don't agree with what you believe.

Think I'm just fu##in with you? Check the polls, I predicted how this would end up. America does not accept ideologues.

Your best bet is to wise up. You're the underdog now, when you go extreme in any direction you better be prepared to come with good points that are new and be humble in your approach. Any other way.. you're just another ideological whackjob.

 

Greed is the very reason mankind survived until now.