On Tue, 2009-08-04 at 10:09 -0600, Jason Jones wrote: > > "Thus cash for clunkers creates winners and losers based on political > > considerations, not economic values. Whether or not government spending is a > > good way to stimulate the economy, the specific kind embodied in this > > program is misguided because it distorts the economy's allocation of > > resources across consumers and industries.
You're right, that would be a problem if the "distortion" weren't intended. The problem with this argument is that it assumes stimulating the economy was the only goal. It wasn't. Reducing the number of older, more polluting cars was also the goal. Two birds, one stone. It is inaccurate to claim Clunkers only benefits a minority. Even if I don't buy a car or work for the auto industry, in theory at least, we all benefit from a slower decline (and perhaps even an improvement) in air quality. I'm willing to support that. Don't let visceral dislike for a person or program blind you to the full argument for or against. -- "XML is like violence: if it doesn't solve your problem, you aren't using enough of it." - Chris Maden /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
