Cash for Clunkers: Cause for Retail Sales Increase!

Duh.  And...duh. 

Retail sales are being deemed as the best since 2006! Why? Here was an opportunity for many Americans, who've been deprived for a year or so now and hungry for a new car and wanting to feel good about it, to cash in on something stale for something fresher. What sort of car-lovin' American is gonna pass the rattle of that one up? And, what other choice for the dying car industry than to roll over and partner up with such a active course of action?

Four parties are getting a little booster here: 1) The consumer; 2) The car industry; 3) The economy, and 4) dare I say such an irrelevant thing? Yikes! THE ENVIRONMENT.

It amazes me the kind of news we get spoon-fed by the media. It gets presented to us in a way that treats all of us as though we are sitting in high-chairs and whimpering in our poopy diapers. Granted, "cash for clunkers" was a very good incentive for several reasons. The most important, in my opinion, is the environment. Exchanging one's older, less environmentally-friendly car for a more cost-effective, fuel-efficient one makes a lot of sense. However, with our greedy record, I find it difficult to believe that that's the main reason everyone was interested in this government-created program for the dying car sales market. The exchange for the "clunker" came with a check to be put toward a new/er car than the car one already owned.

The program is a thoughtful one, but once again, while thinking of the consumer end of it, I can't help but imagine the type of tantrum-throwing consumers who benefit the most from such a program as being those greedy Americans whose identities continue (despite these hard economic times) to be caught up in their cars as well as the homes and everything else they can't afford. And while the eyes of the car industry remain teary-eyed and pitiful, it too, benefited from the exchange.

Pardon my cynical tone. I simply can help but get out my wooden spoon when I see news reports with their pat-on-the-back idealism that tries to misconstrue a good thing as the beginning of the return to potty training. What does it say about us when after months of economic drudgery this program seemed to have really boosted the retail industry? I think it suggests that we need cars more than pants or shoes. No doubt we're still getting plenty to eat-- maybe that's why, tight-fisted, we continue to latch onto our cars-- the new wave of clothing that seems to fit better. Anyway, now what? The funds for this program have been sucked dry. I'm curious to see what the next cup of milk will do for our now thumb-sucking, insecurity complexes when it comes to spending a "little" money.

From my own perspective, one size does not fit all. What about those of us who don't need or even want a car? How about those of us who've decided that a car is simply an unnecessary luxury that we can do without in urban America? If Dave and I had been given an opportunity to cash in our old car and use the money toward debt, food, rent or something else practical-- it too would have had its own kind of retail/financial boost. Alas...such practicality does not exist for reasoning individuals who have long since handed their baby teeth over to the tooth fairy.

Regardless of the positive economic boost, I can't help but look at it as a feed the greed notion while doing a little something extra for the environment, for once. Though Obama may have unintentionally left some of us out (on a larger scale the thought of "I don't need a car types" probably never crossed his mind), it is quite obvious he is no dummy.