is paved with "clunkers"
More Cash for Clunkers III
I'm overwhelmed sometimes by the unintended consequences of most liberal policies. The intended consequences are usually bad enough, but then comes the collateral damage. Let's briefly examine a f'rinstance:
- Bob is unemployed
- Bob has no car
- Bob gets a job interview for a decent but not high-paying job
- Bob get a ride to the interview
- Bob aces the interview
- Bob is offered the job
- Bob cannot take the job, because he can't afford any of the cars that remain available for sale
- Bob remains unemployed
See, in this universe where we remove something like 1% of the cars on the road, for little noticeable effect on either environment or gas prices, we are removing 99% of the cars that the poor can afford. Meaning they remain poor.
Look, sue me, it's a straw man. But as most people recognize, there's a lot more to an economy than meets the eye. It's not a set of rules to be imposed from on high (see Stalin-era 5-year plans, etc.), but a series of very small localized transactions. You can't just decree this stuff, you have to let it happen naturally or it won't happen at all. And when it doesn't happen, strange ripples begin to occur.
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