Cash for Clunkers is wealth destruction

To the editor:

While not the moment’s greatest threat to liberty — that would be carbon energy rationing or socialized medicine — the Cash for Clunkers program should cause reasonable people to pause at this stunning act of wealth destruction.

The cute name for this program has perhaps disarmed too many people. Let’s consider what the government is doing with an example. Politicians want more energy efficient houses. The government offers $50,000 to folks toward the purchase of a new house with a better energy rating than their current “old” house. You have to own the house, be a current occupier, and let’s say your mortgage is paid in full. If you qualify then you turn over your older house, buy the new one with your coupon, and the builder comes over and burns your old house to the ground.

If this sounds bizarre then so should Cash for Clunkers. It is wealth destruction squared. First, that $3,500 or $4,500 for your old car or truck has to come from a taxpaying individual. That is money they earned that they will not be able to consume or invest. Perhaps they will have to keep driving their old car so you can drive a new one. Taxing Peter to pay Paul is simply legalized theft. That is strike 1 against this idiotic program.

Second, the government, in the interest of marginally increasing American vehicle mpg, is literally taking these cars off the roads. That is because when you turn in your “clunker” — a real misnomer since the program aims at retiring perfectly good vehicles — it is taken and crushed into a cube of steel. Good engine? Permanently disabled. Good transmission? Yes, pretty much the whole vehicle, perfectly drivable, is junked at the wrecking yard. Now, it makes sense to recycle the steel and useable parts of real clunkers that are no longer worthy of the road. It makes no sense to ruin perfectly good cars and trucks. And that is what the Congress has done: They are robbing Peter to pay Paul to get a new car, then spending money to turn Peter’s good “old” car into a chunk of scrap metal.

But you say, “Look at the new cars our auto companies are producing to serve this new demand.”

I’m afraid the auto industry will only recover when more people are earning money so they can afford new cars. This gimmick can only provide temporary relief, not long-term growth. No industry really benefits from wealth confiscation or wealth destruction. What the American auto industry needs is de-nationalization, repeal of CAFÉ standards, and an end to the federal bailout-spending frenzy so working Americans can afford once again to buy great American products.

If the government were paying people to give up their perfectly good homes so that they could be burned to the ground, well, that would be insane. Yet, under Cash for Clunkers, the stock of useable automobiles in this country is being destroyed at our expense. Destroying produced wealth and redistributing earned wealth: that is destruction squared.

During the Depression FDR had millions to piglets slaughtered to allegedly help pig farmers. Then there was a shortage of pork (it was imported from Canada for a time) and Americans’ real wages were reduced. The sooner we vote out the spendthrift representatives who voted for this waste, the sooner we will have an economic recovery.

Ashley King

Wasilla