[D]ealers are required to destroy the clunkers, which will reduce the supply and increase the price of spare parts for those low-income folks who can't afford to trade their clunkers in even with a $4,500 subsidy. So much for helping the poor.
This brings to mind a similarly well-intentioned 2000 Arizona law that paid $22,000 per vehicle to owners of cars operable with alternative fuels . Sport utility vehicle owners began installing small propane tanks and pocketing the money; the law didn't say they actually had to use the propane.
Even the New York Times has chimed in:
[T]he requirement to demolish old engines ... has bolstered criticism from the right that the program was intended for “limousine liberals.”
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” William Kristol, the conservative editor of The Weekly Standard, said the rebates were going to middle-class people who would have eventually bought a new car anyhow.
Instead of helping the legions of unemployed, the money is going to a “bunch of upper-middle-class people who have some cars sitting around from 12 years ago,” Mr. Kristol said. “Now they’re just accelerating their purchase to get 4,500 bucks.”
Via Don Surber. I wrote on it here.
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