MORE FROM MY EMAIL

Another email gone viral:

I guess I must be on the wrong page …

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline. A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons/year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons/year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. Five million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day's US consumption. And 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl.

So we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million.

How good a deal was that?

They'll probably do a better job with healthcare, though!

Cash for Clunkers is just another example of government failure to think through all the possible ramifications of a policy. My Three Laws of Systems Engineering apply, at least indirectly, in that the intended consequence was to demonstrate environmental sensitivity without regard to cost.

I will submit that the intended consequence of ObamaCare is substantially the same.