Let’s look even further, at the broader implications of this boondogle. Is society as a whole–our welfare–helped or hurt by this program?
The government took lower mileage used cars, poured poison down their throats, then crushed them. The impact on the nation’s gasoline usage and pollution emission I have read was miniscule.
Our national wealth of physical assets was thus diminished accordingly. Why couldn’t we have shipped all these cars to Mexico (or, pick a country), and sold them for, say, half their retail value here.
I read of one Mom who sought to help her daughter out, so gave her the family 12-year old 400LS Lexus that was “getting old”, so she could trade it in on a new little box from Japan. Almost made me cry.
